Tag Archives: obit

Dr. Amar Bose, audio visionary, dies at 83

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Amar Bose, audio visionary, dies at 83

Opinions about Bose's consumer audio products aside, there's no discrediting the extensive contributions its founder added to the world of amplified sound. On that note, we're saddened to report that its Founder, Chairman and Technical Director, Dr. Amar Gopal Bose, has died -- this, just two years after donating a majority of Bose Corporation shares to MIT. According to MIT News, after earning degrees in Electric Engineering at the college, he taught there from 1956 until 2001. While teaching, he studied physical and psycho-acoustics, which resulted in his patents in "acoustics, electronics, nonlinear systems and communication theory." In 1964 he founded the company, Bose Corporation, that would bring us the well-known noise-cancelling headphones and audio systems that many have come cherish. An official statement from Bose Corp. and more info about the man himself can be found at the source links.

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Source: MIT News, Bose

Co-inventor of the barcode, Norman Joseph Woodland, dies at 91

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Coinventor of the barcode, Norman Joseph Woodland, dies at 91

Last year saw the death of the man largely responsible for bringing the barcode into the mainstream, Alan Haberman, and this week has unfortunately brought the sad news that one of the men responsible for creating it has also died. As The New York Times reports, Norman Joseph Woodland, who co-invented the optical scanning method with Bernard Silver, passed away on Sunday at the age of 91. While it would take a few decades to catch on, the duo invented the technology sixty years ago, winning the patent for it on October 7th, 1952 -- in that incarnation, though, the barcode was a circular design, and required a massive scanner equipped with a 500 watt lightbulb. Woodland had quite a career beyond that invention, though, including time spent on the Manhattan Project during World War II, and a lengthy tenure at IBM, where he worked from 1957 to 1981. He was also awarded the National Medal of Technology in 1992, and in 2011 was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.

[Image credit: IBM / The New York Times]

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Source: The New York Times

‘Father of digital imaging’ Bryce Bayer dies aged 83

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'Father of digital imaging' Bryce Bayer dies aged 83

Bryce Bayer, former Eastman Kodak scientist, and inventor of the Bayer Filter -- found with most modern digital image sensors -- has sadly recently passed. Bayer's work with Kodak left an indelible mark on almost every digital image you see today, both figuratively, and literally. His eponymous color filter, developed in 1976, used a mosaic layout of red green and blue filters that enables light sensors to create full color images. The design imitates the way the human eye perceives color, with twice as much green as red or blue, and the resulting output is then interpreted with "demosaicing" algorithms to produce an accurate, RGB image. Bayer's work also included significant contributions to other areas of digital photography, including storage, enhancement and printing. Bayer died on November 13th in Bath, Maine aged 83. So, next time you're enjoying your digital memories, spare a thought for the man who helped make them all possible

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Source: Image Resource

William Moggridge, portable computer and human interaction trailblazer, dies at 69

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William Moggridge, portable computer and human interaction trailblazer, dies at 69

The next time you hinge open that notebook PC and smile at a feature that makes it easier to use, give a thought to Bill Moggridge, who passed away Saturday from cancer at the age of 69. The pioneering designer invented the modern clamshell design seen in all modern laptops, and is also viewed as the father of human interaction software design.

The Compass Computer he designed for Grid Systems with the screen folded over the keyboard appeared in 1981, flew on the space shuttle, and inspired virtually every notebook design since. Perhaps more importantly, when he tried to use the machine himself, Moggridge was exasperated with the difficulty and decided to take the human factor into account for software design. To that end, he engaged experts from fields like graphics design and psychology, and tried to "build empathy for the consumer into the product," according to former partner, Professor David Kelly. The pair merged their design firms to form Ideo in 1991, and worked with clients like Apple, Microsoft and Procter & Gamble, designing products like the first Macintosh mouse and Palm V handheld along the way.

In 2010, Moggridge became the director of the Smithsonian's Cooper-Hewitt Museum in New York, and was a recipient of that institution's lifetime achievement award. He also won the Prince Philip Designer's Prize, the longest running award of its type in the UK, given for "a design career which has upheld the highest standards and broken new ground." See why that's true by going to Cooper-Hewitt's tribute video, right after break.

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William Moggridge, portable computer and human interaction trailblazer, dies at 69 originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 10 Sep 2012 10:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google Wave reaches zero amplitude

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Google Wave reaches zero amplitude

We knew it was coming, but alas, the loss of Google Wave hits us anew now that the execution date has finally come. To say we fully grokked this platform would be untrue, but as we dug through its history to gather our thoughts, we realized what a misunderstood creature Wave really was. Released in 2009 with great fanfare and no shortage of Firefly references, the program meant well with its collaboration-friendly interface, emphasis on multimedia sharing and raft of third-party extensions such as real-time Swedish Chef translation. But while its heart was in the right place, the service sacrificed accessibility for intrigue, a distinct online identity for an early adopter sensibility. Thus, after the invite-only mystique wore off and talk of a Wave app store began to sound downright foolish, the program's future looked anything but rosy. But even a product this short-lived can have a legacy: in Wave's case, it could be making Google Plus seem downright approachable by comparison. And though this may be little consolation to those hardcore wavers -- few and far between as they may be -- the project's spirit will live on in the equally perplexing Apache Wave. RIP, Google Wave, we really hardly knew you.

Google Wave reaches zero amplitude originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 30 Apr 2012 13:51:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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