Whirlwind and SAGE Initiatives by US Military Funding Spark Computing Innovations

In 1954, Douglas Ross created the “Scope Input Program.” This program made for Whirlwind computers was the first example of hand-drawing with a computer. In 1951, the Whirlwind began operating at MIT as part of the first demonstration of a graphics display on a vectorscope screen. It was thus the first computer that operated in real time. SAGE operators selected targets with a light gun, a pointing device carried over from Whirlwind. This enabled a form of rudimentary hand drawing on a computer. IBM built a duplexed AN/FSQ-7 computer, descended from MIT’s experimental Whirlwind, for each SAGE direction centre. These two projects were significant to the development of computing and digital generative art as they demonstrated the viability of cathode-ray tube displays.