As a Technologist and IoT advocate, I am adept at developing concepts that are original, flexible and forward looking. I pay close attention to the User Experience, especially to IoT solutions that integrate the user with the space around them. My passion with IoT extends to the Smart Homes, places of business and Smart Cities.
My interest in IoT has developed through my work at Texas Instruments, Nokia and Samsung. I have a large network of partner companies that I can bring in for problem solving and creating new products.
My experience includes a decade of speaking about technology at conferences and generating visual presentations and simulatoins, including all content and artwork on this site.
Innovation
The articles on this website and the portfolio demonstrate an innovative approach. My passion is to advance the state of the art to the boundaries of what is possible. However, I also understand that it needs to be broken down into implementable steps, with the ROI each step will bring. As such, my solutions are generally modular. My background in software architecture forms the basis for this modular innovation.
I look across the industry to find partners, sometimes several, that can work together to create a better, more innovative solution. I work with industry bodies to champion these and present them in public forums.
Examples above of innovative approaches are the Smart Home of the Future, the Connected Gym and Universal Club Application, and ShutterPro and VideoPro.
Technical Background
Prior to partnerships, I developed analog and digital boards at TI, developed software at TI and early days at Nokia. I understand sensors, radio protocols, software architecture, and systems at a level that informs concepts and solutions that I develop. I keep current on technology and look down the road to imagine how these technologies will develop.
At Nokia, I managed multiple projects consisting of cellular protocol teams, and later the Audio software group within the Symbian OS team.
Business Experience
Following the technical period of my career, I began working in Business Development. My BusDev work, however, was always underpinned by my technical background. I’ve engaged with companies of every size, from a few people to some of the biggest.
I have also developed a broad network with each endeavor, from a web of partners to industry bodies, such as IHRSA, who represents the fitness industry. This provides an avenue for socializing ideas and developing them further.
RT Creative Technologies,
Santa Cruz, CA
Principal
Mar 2020 – Present
2020
Founded RunningThoughts website in Dec 2019 to form the basis for RT Consulting. RT Consulting was activated upon leaving Samsung in March 2020. Work includes development of multiple simulators, and technical advising and consulting to both enterprise companies and in the wearable space.
Samsung, Mt View, CA
Senior Manager Business Development
Apr 2013 – Mar 2020
2015-2020
Fitness, Health, Wearables, IoT,
Partner Ecosystem
Mainly focused on Wearable category. Worked across various types of applications, but quickly began to focus on what Smart Watches could do well. Just as smart phones were not mini-laptops, smart watches were not mini-phones. Apps needed to be appropriately scoped to make sense on a small form factor. Fitness and Health is a natural fit, and the killer use case for wearables.
I started at IHRSA, the Fitness Industry trade show in 2015 and did a deep dive in that industry. During 2015, I looked at mobile fitness apps that could have a wearable component, and began exploring some uses in health care, particularly senior health and patient discharge.
In 2016, ideas began to coalesce around a more immersive approach, interacting with the environment to add context. That effort resulted in the The Connected Gym, for which there is a collection of articles on this website. This was a holistic concept designed to capture all aspects of working out, but with the goal of starting small, and expanding later. Later that year, these were presented as keynotes at Motionsoft Technology Conference and Club Industry’s CEO Summit.
IN 2017 I began working with FitnessSF on a long term plan to implement portions of this system. I matched them up with Pear Sports, who was best placed to begin the project. In late 2017, I was invited to present the concept at IHRSA’s European Conference in London, in the CEO Track.
2018 and 2019 involved a combination of more traditional application partners and continuing work on the Connected Gym effort. Traditional partners involved were Strava, Swim.com, C25K, FITIV, and Lifesum as well as non-fitness apps that worked well on wearables, such as App In The Air.
I continued to present at IHRSA in both years to talk about Connected Gym and Wearables. The Connected Gym partially rolled out at FitnessSF, minus the indoor location (for now). The application, developed by Pear Sports, which fully supported Samsung and Apple watches, was connected to the Personal Trainers. In addition to virtual training, the Trainer themselves could direct workouts through the watch and phone between sessions and see the results.
2020 saw major changes in the organization and the resulting pivot was greatly reducing my involvement in wearables. However, I was to present at IHRSA 2020 prior to cancellation due to COVID-19.
The presentations from these public talks can be found in my Portfolio.
During this time period, I also worked with companies involved in healthcare. Explored with partners how wearables could improve the lot of patients discharged from the hospital and reduce the probability of readmission. Also worked closely with a senior healthcare partner focused on quality of life improvement for aging in place and seniors in various living arrangements.
2014
IoT, Smart Home, Partner Ecosystem
In the summer of 2014, I began to take interest in IoT and Smart Homes. My group started the Samsung Developer Conference in 2013, and was set to host their 2nd conference in 2014. I was able to create my own panel discussion, called Smart Home of the Future, to tackle what I felt were poor and fragmented experiences in the Smart Home products at that time.
Early in the development, Samsung acquired Smart Things. I purchased a system, which helped immerse my head in the Smart Home space. I decided to look 10 years into the future to imagine what a fully evolved, easy-to-use Smart Home would look like. I drew up a scenario of a house that understood its occupants habits, schedule and moods. This was broadly described, but needed a deep dive to demonstrate how such as system should work.
I chose the kitchen for the deep dive. Besides the already-conceived of Smart Fridge, I developed the idea of a Connected Pantry, since food is split between the fridge and pantry. As I began to assemble my panel, I reached out internally to Dr Luc Julia, who was one of several people behind Siri, and was developing a voice-interface system, to be on the panel. I also reached out to McCormick Spices, to have someone from outside. I felt it important to have an external perspective on this. The logic was that spices are the highest margin product in your kitchen, and would be early adopters of RFID, a key element in the Smart Pantry. Jerry Wolf, CIO at that time, agreed to be on the panel. Indeed, McCormick had already explored a similar scenario.
Finally, a VP from Smart Things and at Big Data expert from Korea rounded out the panel. For more details, there is a video of that panel discussion on YouTube.
2013
Partner Ecosystem
During my first year at Samsung, our group focused on a wide variety of partners to find key uses for Samsung’s differentiating features, such as S-Pen and services. There was no focus on any particular vertical.
Nokia, Irving, TX
Senior Manager Business Development
2005 – 2013
Imaging, Symbian, Windows Phone, Enterprise
During 2008-2013, I worked on Mobile Symbian partnerships with key app developers. Initially, this was broadly focused with a specialty in Enterprise Applications. There was a lot of “chasing Apple” by 2009, and in summer 2010, I came up with a new concept for several camera applications.
iPhone camera apps at that time were fragmented. Each type of photo had a special app from a different maker- HDR, 3D, Lomo effect, etc… I developed two apps- ShutterPro and VideoPro. This was pitched and $250k of funding was provided. BLStream developed ShutterPro first, and we decided to launch both at the Cinequest Film Festival’s Innovator Forum, in San Jose, in 2011. I convinced Nokia to sponsor the event, and the result was “Nokia Day”, in which we had a 90-minute session in the main theater. As my first public presentation, I chose a panel discussion, which followed a short mobile-produced short movie and presentation.
The panel discussion included speakers from related industries to represent the workflow of a filmmaker. BLStream, on capture technology, Kari Nevil, an independent filmmaker, the CEO of Ultimatte (green screen technology inventors) representing special effects, William Mutual from Live Cast, PortNexus for workflow, and a mobile marketing company for marketing and distribution. Additionally, Pocketbooth was there to represent still image taking.
Ultimately, Symbian as a platform was retired, but ShutterPro survived and was ported to Windows Phone.
Enterprise, Symbian
From 2005-2008, my focus was strictly on enterprise applications on the Symbian platform. This ran the gamut from email (SEVEN) to a large cross section of enterprise applications, including Security, CRM and VOIP.
Nokia, Irving, TX
Group Manager
1997 – 2004
Group Manager, Symbian
From 2002-2004, I managed team of 50 people in the Symbian Audio group, that consisted of many, smaller teams.
Group Manager,
Team Manager
Data Protocols,
Line Management
Managed multiple teams developing data stacks for TDMA, EDGE, and TCP/IP in early mobile data deployments.
During that time period, I established myself globally as an influencer of the Series 40 platform, that eventually evolved into Asha.
During this time period, I was also line manager of a larger group that included the data development team as well as others.
Texas Instruments, Dallas, TX
Hardware and Software Engineer
Before 1997
Software Engineer
Developed software ranging from microcode to Ada, some desktop and some embedded.
Hardware Engineer
Developed both analog and digital boards for image processing and gimbal control. Built the Launch Control Station for the early phase of the Javelin anti-tank missile. Launched the first Javelin ever (called AAWS-M at the time).
I’m happy to announce that, after some time developing, I’m launching the Interactive Universal Club Application Simulator. I wrote a 5-part series on this concept
After several months of development, I’m pleased to announce the launch of RT Interactive and the Connected Gym Simulator, as the first interactive component of
It’s been a while since the last article was published. I’ve been hard at work developing a new feature called RT Interactive, and it is
In the previous article, we talked about a number of sensors, but all of them were discussed using sensors a la carte- for a single
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