Projects I am Proud Of
Interactive Space
In college I combined my Portland State Univerisity senior capstone project with my work at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI) to create a spotlight-tracking system. I created software using Optical Flow and Intel OpenCV to track visitors and aim a spotlight at them. Kids loved it! Here is a presentation I made (circa 2005) on how it works.
UE Boom Bluetooth Speaker
There is nothing more gratifying than working on a project, then seeing it sold at Apple stores. I was reminded that I was the firmware lead for one of the most important Logitech projects at the time. It was during a time of transition at Logitech to focus design and user experience. “No pressure!” The UE Boom would go on to become an iconic, award winning Bluetooth speaker.
VXi
I was given full firmware responsibility for JL Audio’s first line of DSP Amplifiers. I worked harder than I ever have to crank out microcontroller code that would manage a triple core DSP, housekeep a class D amplifier, connect to an app with an extensive protocol over USB and Bluetooth, plus allow networking of amplifiers over CAN bus. Of course I couldn’t do it all by myself—I had help from incredibly talented developers from across the globe. VXi ended up being the project of my career, and after a successful launch some awards were won. VXi even contributed to Justin Bieber’s tears of joy.
How to Make a Computer Game
When I was 9 years old, my mom took me to the library and I found a book called “How to Make a Computer Game.” I excitedly went home and tried to copy the BASIC code line by line, hoping to have it immediately playable. It did not work—the version of BASIC it was meant for pre-dated my copy of GWBASIC. I didn’t give up though. After some hacking I got parts of it working, and using what I learned, made some of my own computer games. These were my first software projects.
Around the same time, I took apart everything that my parents let me: a coffee grinder, a wireless telephone, an alarm clock, etc. I attended some electronic summer classes, and enjoyed Radio Shack trips when possible to make various inventions for fun and school projects. I recall in third grade making a multiple-choice question game out of a shoebox containing batteries, LEDs, buttons and a buzzer. Later on, I got a proper bread board along with the classic Forest Mimms Radio Shack book; “Getting Started in Electronics.” These were my first hardware projects.
The rest is history. Throughout college I volunteered, then was hired at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI). There I worked with artists, educators and electricians to make computer games for interactive exhibits. I was lucky enough to have mentors to guide me, provide me with resources, and give me tough problems to solve. I received my Computer Engineering degree in 2004 from Portland State University (PSU) and have been working in software, firmware, electronics, and systems engineering ever since.