I was fascinated by this once I learned how it worked. At the time I was learning php and wrote a script that would draw graphics based on the requesting ip address and return as gif, then used that as my avatar on a few phpbbs. Learned a lot.
Do you mean Reason? This was the first virtual synth with patching UI that Propellerhead released a bit after ReBirth.
ReBirth was amazing though and would love if someone brings it back. They had an iPad version that worked pretty well but apparently Roland forced them to take it down.
Pretty sure it was Nicholas Jitkoff[1] and his team. He had done Quicksilver[2] a few years back which popularized this single input interface for osx desktop.