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Matt Aldrich b 02.27.82 AZ
 
interests | background
   
My interests: sensors and instrumentation for multimedia design; gestural control; portable, networked, musical systems; haptic interfaces; visual representations of data\information; machine musicianship; computer music/synthesis; vision; colorimetry and of course, embedded design (hw+firms).
 
We often refer to color as being descriptive of human emotion.  Perhaps color could describe more than  an emotion.  Utilizing our visible spectrum, color can be a transmission medium, like radio frequencies, for data.  Colors, or mixtures thereof, can be carriers of low data rate information.  Perhaps a future device provides human feedback with color, but also "visually" transmits information to other nearby devices.  Imagine a smart "light bright" where users can paint using a colored LED onto an LED based blackboard.  By linking multiple blackboards, users can send this drawing to other users. 
 
What happens when we use sensor networks to capture data from many users?  How can we quickly make sense of this data?  I want to answer how these networks can make decisions based on patterns of data and apply my findings to a new platform for multi user collaboration.
 
 
I earned my B.S. in electrical engineering at Yale (2004). My senior thesis involved low power CMOS circuitry, analog signal processing, and some probability. Along the way, I dabbled in beat detection, tempo estimation, sensor acquisition and instrumentation, computer arithmetic, musical synthesis, and several multimedia projects that explored the relationships between vision, color, and sound.
 
Drums, bottles, the human body, and circuits are some of the instruments I play. My musical tastes and influences are quite eclectic. I write most pieces in Reason, Max/MSP, and Ableton Live. A majority of my work reflects my interests in synthesis and audio processing.
 
Professionally, I have done both government and commercial work. I currently work for Renaissance Lighting, a small start up in Northern VA, designing, researching, and inventing solid state lighting products.  With Renaissance Lighting, I have applied for several patents, and I am the co developer of Renaissance Lighting's patented color control and closed loop system.  Product design, prototyping, coding, color science, and debugging make for engaging work. My knowledge of color reproduction, methods of calibration/uniformity, color rendering, and the user controls that make the lights work are extensive and unique; this truly is a burgeoning field and I am helping to shape it.  I have also designed numerous state machines (74ls!), and worked on guidance systems for the government.
 
More work and descriptions can be found here.