Wade Olsen
Real-time Graphics Software Engineer / ConsultantPatents
System for Enhancing the Television Presentation of an Object at a Sporting Event
US 5912700 issued Nov 28, 2000
A system for enhancing the television presentation of an object at a sporting event includes one or more sensors which are used to determine the location of the object. Based on the location of the object and the field of view of a broadcast camera, a processor determines the position of the object in a video frame of the broadcast camera. Once knowing where the object is positioned within the video frame, the television signal can be edited or augmented to enhance the presentation of the object.
Link to Patent
Method and Apparatus for Providing Real Time Enhancements and Animations Over a Video Image
US 6057833 issued May 2, 2000
A system and method for providing enhancements to a video image is disclosed. The method includes displaying a sequence of video images on a video display. A set of glyphs is provided in connection with the display. The glyphs include predefined graphical images suitable for enhancing the video display. A glyph is selected that is to be combined with the sequence of video images and an insertion point for the glyph on the video display is defined. A video output is generated that contains graphical output information determined by the selected glyph. The relative screen location of the graphical output information is determined by the insertion point of the glyph so that the video output is generated according to the glyphs which are inserted in connection with the sequence of video images.
Link to Patent
Profile
I specialize in architecting and writing real-time graphics software. I have extensive experience combining graphics and video. My work has been seen frequently on national television in news, sports and master control applications. I'm fluent in OpenGL, WebGL, C++ and Ruby. I'm productive in Python and Javascript.
Volunteer
Prevent Child Abuse Oregon
Handle the system administration of the preventchildabuseoregon.org domain and website. Lots of work on the web site, including site navigation, implementation of online donations, and the site calendar and events system.
SchauRaüme
Created a WebGL application of a VR walkthrough of a SchauRaüme event. The application had three functions: 1) to further the organization's work in drawing more attention to feminist issues; 2) to assist the organization’s efforts to raise money; and 3) to create an interactive record of the event.
EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE
Experience
Real-time Graphics Software Engineer / Consultant
Side People, LLC. ( Lake Oswego, Oregon ) 2006 - Present
Consulting work involving advice and coding in the areas of real-time 2D and 3D graphics, compositing with video, OpenGL, WebGL, shaders, and broadcast television.
Work in Broadcast Television include:
- Play analysis graphics for NFL and NBA games.
- Virtual Ads for MLB and NHL games.
- Tracking dancers to generate live backgrounds for a BodyVox performance.
- WebGL application to do a VR walkthrough of an art exhibit.
- WebGL application to visualize real-time safety monitoring equipment of a hotel.
Consulting Engineer
Avid Technology / Pinnacle Systems ( Mountain View, California ) 1999 - 2006
Lead developer of DekoCast, market leader in automated master control graphics generation for television. Used by networks, cable channels, and distribution facilities. Provides a real-time animation system to automate news crawls, stock crawls, video squeezes with text and graphics templates, emergency alerts, promos, “what’s coming up next” graphics. Animation of video inputs, audio inputs, clips, animated logos, and text. See www.avid.com for details.
Leader of the Inflexion project, the real-time media processing engine used at the heart of Avid’s live to air applications: Deko (character generator market leader), DekoCast (automated graphics market leader), Thunder (a leading production video server).
Drove requirements and priorities of Pinnacle’s high definition video processing board used for live to air graphics and video applications.
Principal Scientist
Shoreline Studios ( Mountain View, California ) 1995 - 1998
Custom video and graphics applications for television broadcast:
- FoxTrax – The hockey puck tracking system on Fox Sports aided viewers new to hockey to find the puck, showed a pop-up graphic with instant slap shot speeds, showed an X-ray effect when the puck was hidden behind the near boards, comet trail effect for slap shots and fast passes. Generated significant revenue boost due to increased ratings.
- VRX – Photo-realistic aerial flyovers for ESPN’s summer and winter X-games.
- Mr. Map – Used by Dan Rather on CBS News for 3D display of real-time elections results (For this project, I built the rendering engine).
- Rocket – Real-time 3D animation system used for television broadcast of sports score displays. Used by Fox Sports for the FoxBox – scoreboards for baseball, football, and hockey, and by CBC for hockey and curling.
- Rocket Pad – 3D “Telestrator” –like graphics generator with smart shapes (X’s and O’s, animated lines with arrow heads) driven with a touch-screen. Used by ESPN, CBC, and CBS.
Member of Technical Staff
Silicon Graphics (SGI) ( Mountain View, California ) 1988 - 1995
3D evangelist to external software developers. Wrote demo applications to show off features of new 3D hardware. Wrote market specific demos to attract developers in the Film and Video, Scientific Visualization, Oil and Gas, GIS and Virtual Reality markets. I was solely responsible for the technical marketing aspects of launching SGI's move into the Oil and Gas market.
Education
BS - Computer Science
University of Utah ( Salt Lake City, Utah ) 1983 - 1988
Special emphasis on computer graphics.
GPA of 3.4.