Stanford Research Institute (SRI) -- 1967

While attending San Jose State College, I was referred to a job at SRI as a test subject.  That seemed a little spooky, but it paid very well. The job involved my eyes.  Several doctors were working on sophisticated methods of tracking the movement and focusing of a the human eyeball by computer supported optical equipment.  All I had to do was follow little red lights hanging all about the ceilings and walls without moving my head, just my eyes, in these darkened rooms.  Digital Equipment PDP minicomputers drove the tracking hardware.  In the group was a programmer who, in my down time, taught me COBOL I think it was.  We had to compile our programs ove a 300 baud acoustical modem to TYMSHARE Corporation mainframes connected to teletype machines, history was on punched paper tape strips.      A few years later, I learned that all my eye movements had been bundled up into the "heads-up" display for the later vintage Viet Nam era fighter jets.  The doctors at SRI always said our work was pure research, as they knew I was an adament Viet Nam War resistor.

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