Projects

I have been privileged to have worked on many projects of my design that have given me years of satisfaction and have added tremendously to my knowledge base.

Below is a brief description of three of those projects each from a different decade.

Electric/Hybrid Vehicle

In 1982 I designed an electric/hybrid vehicle that plugged in for nightly charging and also ran as a hybrid. I used a 34 horsepower 3 cylinder diesel engine and a 28 horsepower aircraft starter/generator as my drive-train, controlled by commodore64 portable computer. A unique door-entry system that was composed of fabricating the two doors, windshield and roof as one unit, that slides forward along the fenders enabled the driver to easily enter and exit the sports-car design.

Here are some of the specifications:

  • Range: 160 kilometers
  • Speed: 110 kilometers/hour
  • Charging Time: 10-12 hours
  • Estimated Cost To Build (at the time): $10,000
Audio Delivery System

In 1997 I designed an audio delivery system to deliver secure streaming audio-on-demand to individual subscribers. This service was unique and the first of its kind to solve issues that has plagued the music industry for decades. I created a company called HEADWAVE and received over half a million dollars in financing to assemble a team and develop prototypes and audio-data distributed servers. I secured 4 patents in over 50 countries for the audio delivery system, encryption algorithm and a Personal Digital Radio (PDR). This hardware acted as a receiver and stereo playback device and I designed two models, a stereo unit and a portable LCD display unit similar to the iPod touch of today.

Home Automation

Currently, I am building an automated house in mission that I designed in autocad in the early nineties. This automation utilizes voice command to control all aspects of the house. This includes the following:

  • Environmental control (Heating and cooling). I have installed a geothermal system that draws the thermal energy from the earth to heat the house in the winter and cools it in the summer. In addition to that I am installing gas fireplaces in every room that are also controlled by voice command. Individual commands can address profiles so that you can walk into a room and the temperature will adjust automatically based on presets in your profile.
  • Security. The house will be setup with automated doors and internet cameras. The security of the doors can be controlled locally and remotely with global options. For example a global cammand for night security can be administered by one voice command "secure house" which will execute a batch of preset commands such as lock all doors, turn on security monitor, turn on outside cameras, turn off interior lights and turn on outside lights
  • Lighting. Similar to the security and environmental control, the lightning of the house can be voice controlled locally and remotely and various profiles and global commands can be programmed. Also unique lighting features can be programmed by combing security hardware with lighting. An example would be to create a path of light for you at night when you go to the bathroom or kitchen. The motion sensors detect your position and extrapolate your direction and turn on lights ahead of you and turn off lights behind you as you walk through the house.
  • Entertainment. In this category many options are now available to control audio and video and port it to each room. I am working on a linux based server system with a programmable LCD tablet for a remote control. This server with appropriate software can stream audio, video and house control status to any room and to the tablet. A feature that I am planning to program into the server will allow the audio or video stream you are connected with to be forwarded to other device locations. For example, if you are watching a show in the living room and it is getting late and you would like to continue watching it in the bedroom then by taking the tablet with you and pressing a programmable key on it will execute a program that will transport the signal automatically. As you approach the bedroom the tablet will automatically broadcast the needed signals in sequence to turn on the TV and change the channel to the correct one or change it to link up to the server's video or audio stream.

These are but a few of the conveniences that can be programmed into the automated house to make it flexible to serve our needs.