From Computer Graphics To Virtual Reality  

In 1963 Sutherland found himself drafted into the army and assigned to the National Security Agency – because he knew about computers. He realized that the government’s involvement in computers was huge. The NSA measured its computer power in “acres”. In 1964 he was transferred to the Advanced Research Projects Agency, ARPA, who were responsible for many of the computing projects, including the Internet. At the age of 26 First Lieutenant Ivan E. Sutherland was given control of $15 million dollars a year, an office, a secretary and told to “go sponsor computer research”.

Over the following two years he commissioned and managed a range of computer projects that included AI and timesharing. He also met Dave Evans, then at the University of California at Berkely working on timesharing. It turned out that Evan’s understanding of real time computing held the key to implementing practical computer graphics.

Virtual Reality

In 1966 Sutherland, while an Associate Professor at Harvard, took another huge step towards the future of computing – one that we are still working today.

He and his graduate student Bob Sproull started work on a “Remote Reality” vision system for Bell Helicopter and turned it into a “Virtual Reality” system. They replaced the TV camera that fed the primitive “head-mounted display” with a computer connection. worn by the user was so heavy it had to be suspended from the ceiling, and the graphics comprising the virtual environment were simple wireframe model rooms.

From "A head-mounted three dimensional display" by Ivan E. Sutherland presented at Fall Joint Computer Conference, 1968. 

The formidable appearance of the device inspired its name, The Sword of Damocles. Sutherland may not have invented the term “Virtual Reality” but he was certainly one of the first to implement it.

The early virtual reality work had made Sutherland think about the problems of 3D representations and he invented both the viewport clipping algorithm and the practical perspective projection algorithm. He also started the subject of hidden surface removal. When you draw a 3D scene you have to decide which surfaces of the wire frame object are hidden by surfaces closer to the viewpoint. Hidden surface removal was the last work that Sutherland did in graphics. When he wrote the paper “A characterization of ten hidden surface algorithms” with Bob Sproull and Bob Schumacker he realized that all hidden surface algorithms were variations on sorting and gave up graphics.

Evans And Sutherland

In 1968 Sutherland moved to Salt Lake City as a part time professor of computing. Dave Evans had been the founding head of the Computer Science Department at the University of Utah and in the following years Evans and Sutherland made it a world-leading centre for computer graphics.

At about the same time they also set up Evans and Sutherland Computer Corporation (E&S) to commercialize their work in computer graphics, aiming to build real-time graphics-based simulators and other visual computing products.

E&S quickly became the world leader in providing high-end visual systems for professional training and simulation for decades. Their pioneering efforts introduced the first digital visual systems for flight simulators, replacing older, less realistic analog methods. The company developed revolutionary products like the Picture System graphics workstations and the ESIG (Evans & Sutherland Image Generator) series. These systems were critical for creating the realistic, moving "out-the-window" views required for training. As you might guess, much of their work was for the military, including highly complex training for in-flight refueling, carrier landings, and systems like AWACS and the B52. This cutting-edge, mission-critical work was and remains largely classified or not on public display.

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, as graphics technology became democratized, E&S began to strategically shift its focus In 2006, it sold its core flight simulation division to Rockwell Collins (now part of Collins Aerospace), marking the end of its direct dominance in the flight training market.

The company pivoted to its rapidly growing Digital Theater and Planetarium division, centered on its Digistar system. E&S acquired its main rival, Spitz Inc., and established itself as the world's largest provider of digital planetarium systems, leveraging its 3D real-time rendering expertise to create immersive educational and entertainment experiences.

Having been acquired by the holding company Cosm in 2020,and today the company operates as Evans & Sutherland,with the primary business of designing, manufacturing, and installing cutting-edge digital planetariums and immersive dome displays globally.