I saw the Utah Teapot at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View when I visited in late 2004. I didn't know it was there. I immediately started calling friends, while standing there in the "Visible Storage" exhibit gawking at it, telling each of them, breathlessly: "I'm looking at _the_ Utah teapot."
I was told later by a docent that my reaction was not uncommon. >smile<
apitman 11 hours ago [-]
I work at the University of Utah. They had an incredible graphics symposium a few years ago[0]. I got a render of the teapot signed by several of the speakers, which is a prized possession. There was another guy there with an actual replica teapot which he got signed. I was pretty jealous.
Sadly Alan Kay was unable to attend so I didn't get to meet him.
I did the high school summer computing institute at the U in the early 2000s. The first part of it was working with C shape edit and doing graphics with alpha_1 and a bunch of other fun things, the second part was building a rover in Lisp.
Alpha_1 has a direct lineage from the development of the teapot and was the basis of Featurecam
OhMeadhbh 8 hours ago [-]
I was at the same event. I got to hold it. It was a bit of a thrill.
I know it well from BeOS, and the Toy Story tea party scene.
Oh, and the 3D pipes screensaver.
xattt 10 hours ago [-]
Tangential & graphics-related: there is a story where Jim Foley requested a pirated Eastern European copy of his text (… which heavily features the Utah teapot) as a souvenir.
He found it hilarious that every single equation in the pirated book were reverse images.
jolt42 13 hours ago [-]
The pelican on the bike seems like the new teapot.
car 12 hours ago [-]
The original pot is from Melitta [0]. The 3D model seems a bit squished down though.
I was just discussing with my coworker how the demo program for the 3D Spacemouse is rotating the Teapot. Takes a bit of practice, but makes CAD more fun.
lwhi 3 hours ago [-]
Does the Utah Teapot, pour tea well?
pmg 6 hours ago [-]
I’ve had both an original Friesland/Melitta Utah Teapot and the ~2017 reissue.
The interiors differ between the original and the reissue. The latter has an integrated ceramic strainer near the spout root not present on these models updated interior geometry.
The Utah Teapot predates the Stanford Dragon by 20 years, and was already famous in graphics (at Siggraph, for example) and had a cameo in Toy Story before the dragon was made.
dcrazy 7 hours ago [-]
Some notable names in computer graphics associated with the University of Utah:
- Ed Catmull
- Raphael Rom
- Henri Gouraud
- Jim Blinn
- Bui Ton Phong
I think they “made their mark” when they essentially invented 3D graphics.
ginko 13 hours ago [-]
>I guess they want to make their mark like Stanford dragon
I'd say the Utah teapot is much better known in CG circles than the Stanford dragon.
sien 11 hours ago [-]
The Stanford bunny seemed to also be better known that the Stanford dragon.
pimlottc 13 hours ago [-]
It also predates it by over 20 years
dcrazy 6 hours ago [-]
Maybe not for the younger generations. The teapot isn’t conducive to showing off many contemporary graphics techniques.
Rendered at 11:03:56 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time) with Vercel.
I was told later by a docent that my reaction was not uncommon. >smile<
Sadly Alan Kay was unable to attend so I didn't get to meet him.
[0]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ui3R1Dlmsk0
Incidentally, I've been following the incredible Interactive Graphics course on YouTube by Cem Yuksel (mentioned in TFA for his improved teapot): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVCuWQV_-Es&list=PLplnkTzzqs...
Alpha_1 has a direct lineage from the development of the teapot and was the basis of Featurecam
The original Utah teapot(1.4L) is in stock - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31178947 - April 2022 (7 comments)
Why a Computer History Museum Owns a Legendary Teapot - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29259548 - Nov 2021 (1 comment)
Show HN: Teapong – A two-player game for fans of Pong and the Utah teapot - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22137758 - Jan 2020 (12 comments)
Bézier Curves and Surfaces: The Utah Teapot - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19690575 - April 2019 (7 comments)
The Utah Teapot: Most Important Object in Computer Graphics History - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11209690 - March 2016 (52 comments)
Utah Teapot - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7280289 - Feb 2014 (17 comments)
https://www.opengl.org/resources/libraries/glut/spec3/node89...
Surprised to see the teapot got another update this year.
1. https://youtu.be/3NQuHpUyZbI?is=sjkQcadU6_IHjgr0
Oh, and the 3D pipes screensaver.
He found it hilarious that every single equation in the pirated book were reverse images.
[0] https://spectrum.ieee.org/behold-the-worlds-most-famous-teap...
The interiors differ between the original and the reissue. The latter has an integrated ceramic strainer near the spout root not present on these models updated interior geometry.
This listing appears to show a “vintage” teapot with the strainer on photo 8 - so I guess the plot steepens: https://www.ricardo.ch/de/a/melitta-friesland-minden-teekann...
[1] https://www.meskanen.com/history.html
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Realsoft_3D
I guess they want to make their mark like Stanford dragon[0].
0: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_dragon
- Ed Catmull
- Raphael Rom
- Henri Gouraud
- Jim Blinn
- Bui Ton Phong
I think they “made their mark” when they essentially invented 3D graphics.
I'd say the Utah teapot is much better known in CG circles than the Stanford dragon.