Ivan Sutherland created the first interactive drawing program, Sketchpad in 1963, as part of his graduate work at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He later produced the first head mounted display system in 1966. In 1968, David Evans, of the Computer Science Department at the University of Utah, talked Sutherland into leaving his post at Harvard and joining him in founding E & S. They first produced a hardware device known as a frame buffer which, as research and commercial use of graphics grew, began selling well in the early 1970s.

		With an E&S computer graphics system you build and dynamically display a complex three-dimensional model or scene. In effect, THE PICTURE SYSTEM is a window into your computer world - a wrndow for viewing the model you have built in the computer. In virtually all situations a model can be developed in this exciting computer graphics system in less time and for less money than it takes to make a physical model. And the computer model can be studied and changed in ways never possible before. With only a change in parameters THE PICTURE SYSTEM can display perspective, orthographic or isometrlc pictures from a single object definition. It can show you cross sections, overlays or stereoscopic pairs. These are not options in the system, but they are integral real-time functions of the standard PICTURE SYSTEM.
The interactive dynamic 3-D line-drawing system.

With THE E&S PICTURE SYSTEM you can zoom into a complex model to view small sections minute detail. Or, you can store and display massive complicated models in their entirety. The E&S "clipplng" feature and the "re-fresh buffer" permit the viewer to deal wlth much more complex pictures since the computational hardware is deailng with new frames only and not with refreshing the picture or with computing parts of the picture which are not being displayed currently. This allows more lines and characters in your picture and eases the time and data storage burden on the computer which controls THE PICTURE SYSTEM. Complicated three-dimensional models can be developed and then exploded so that parts can be studied individually as well as in their relationships with one another. Structural models in the system can be assigned physical, electrical or magnetrc characterlstlcs as though they were real life models, and then tested for structural stability, circuit in-tegrity, etc.
		Dynamic capacities of The Picture System enable smooth movement in real time of the building complex.

With THE E&S PICTURE SYSTEM you are freed to work in your choice of coordinate systems, thus doing away with the time, work and inconvenience of adapting your own thinking or planning to any restrictions of the system. Since the computer in the system is the DEC PDP-11, there is good standard software available. Plus, we provide graphics support software that allows you to write display programs in languages you know - FORTRAN or assembly language.

		A tablet, standard with the system, can provide almost all interactive input required, including the "pointing" function normally associated with light pens. Other input devces can also be included with the system. In short, the Evans & Sutherland computer graphics systems perform for you rather than forcing you to learn to perform tor the system. E&S systems have always been digital which avoids the inaccuracy, range restrictions and calibration and main-tenance problems of analog computational hardware The use of a separate refresh buffer permits the production of flicker-free images even while the system is in the process of developing extremely complicated new frames. The E&S Picture Generator draws lines at a constant rate thus maintaining constant line intensity and brightness independent of line length. Specifications for linearity, end-point match, and so forth are unexcelled.
Table and other devices can provide input to The Picture System.

lntensity and contrast controls are completely independent of each other, giving the operator complete freedom to select optimum picture presentatlon. The 256 intensity levels offer a wide choice of intensities when depth-cuelng is not used, and they give the appearance of continuous gradation from the brightest to the dimmest line presentation when depth-cueing is used.

The table serves as the standard, general-purpose graphic input device in The Picture System. Associated with the table is a pen whose coordinates are read by the Oicture Controller. Normally a "cursor" is drawn on the Picture Display to indicare the position of the pen on the table. The Table can be used for positioning or pointing to picture elements and can perform the interactive functions usually reserved for such graphic input devices as light pens, joysticks, and function switches. Later system include the Picture System II and the PS/390 Picture System/390. 1974 Evans Sutherland 3D Picture System (marketing brochure)
		Later version of the Picture System.