Detail map of Seattle, Washington, United States Overview map of Seattle, Washington, United States

A: Seattle, Washington, United States

William Fetter First Uses a Computer to Create Three-Dimensional Images of the Human Body

1964
"Boeing Man" or "Human Figure," a wireframe drawing printed on a Gerber Plotter.  It was used as a standard figure of a pilot.

"Boeing Man" or "Human Figure," a wireframe drawing printed on a Gerber Plotter.  It was used as a standard figure of a pilot.

In 1964 William A. Fetter, an art director at The Boeing Company in Seattle, Washington, supervised development of a  computer program that allowed him to create the first three-dimensional images of the human body through computer graphics. Using this program Fetter and his team produced the first computer model of a human figure for use in the study of aircraft cockpit design. It was called the “First Man” or "Boeing Man." Though Fetter's wire frame drawings could be called commercial art, they were of a high aesthetic standard.

Herzogenrath & Nierhoff-Wielk, Ex-Machina–Frühe Computergrafik bis 1979. Die Sammlunge Franke. . . . Ex-Machina– Early Computer Graphics up to 1979 (2007) 239.

Timeline Themes