Local Inventor Points the Way

The virtual technician is the integration of a high resolution video camera with zoom, mounted atop a pan/tilt mech. with a seperatly controled laser pointer.

Local Inventor Points the Way

Laser Telepointer Fulfills Pressing Needs
Have you ever tried to figure out how to change a vacuum cleaner belt, operate your new computer or maybe perform emergency surgery in Antarctica? Chances are youve faced one or two of these challenges and found yourself wishing if I could only have a minute or two of an experts time to show me how I could save loads of time and effort."

Sometimes We All Need Help From Someone Far Away
Now, imagine a factory engineer or a surgeon looking over your shoulder, talking with you and pointing at specific locations on the device or anatomy as you perform the operation.    Feels better, doesnt it? Your chance of success just increased about ten fold. And it doesnt matter where on Earth the surgeon or factory tech is physically located as long as that location can access the Internet. And now, thanks to local inventor Wendell Quillen, all this and more is possible with the Laser Telepointer, a patented system combining the best of Internet video teleconferencing with a movable, remote controlled laser pointer.

Huge Market Awaits Virtual Experts
The system has nearly unlimited market potential in training, telemedicine, aerospace, manufacturing, military and consumer industries; anywhere and anytime a Virtual Expert is needed.

Testing Complete, It Works Great
The illustration on the left summarizes a test where Dan, an Assistive Technology Professional in Vermont (upper right), teaches Neal, a fellow quadriplegic in Florida (lower left), how to operate assistive equipment and supporting software. They talk via speakerphone, Dan sees Neal and his setup on his monitor and Neal sees what Dan is pointing at as if Dan were in the room with him.

Just Like Being There
Dan operates the pointer independent of the cameras pan/tilt controls so the pointer can be moved anywhere in the cameras field of view. His camera controls also allow zooming to 128X, focus and other adjustments. www.mirrorminds.com has a brief video of this training session.

Big Savings In Time and Money
In our example, Dan simply input Neals IP address, made the phone connection for audio, turned on the camera and the one-on-one training began. Normally Dan travels to his clients or has them travel to him. Hence, a one-hour training session takes up to six hours of someones time. Therefore, as a Virtual Assistive Technology Trainer, Dan can train six times as many people and save transportation expenses as well; a true win/win situation.

Other Applications Open Unlimited Markets
The basic system has applications in a host of other markets. Recently, Mirror Minds, the company marketing and manufacturing the Telepointer, conducted a brief test of the system as a Virtual Technician connecting local car dealership service departments with factory engineers and technicians.

With the camera and pointer at the dealership, a factory rep can direct a technician in troubleshooting, factory upgrades, new methods or products; virtually anything unknown to the dealership technician. Virtual Technician can be a time and money saver in a host of industries where occasional help from a remote expert can save the day.

From auto repair via a Virtual Technician to telesurgery via Virtual Surgeons, there is a serious need for this system especially in times of economic uncertainty where more-for-less is the rule for business survival.

Wendell Quillen, Self-Taught Inventor
Born in Huntington, West Virginia on February 14, 1956, Wendell Quillen was raised in the small, industrial town of South Point, Ohio. Throughout his childhood he was always creating and fixing mechanical things and by the time he was in high school he was repairing the neighbors household appliances and designing special lighting, effects and sound systems for community Halloween festivals and plays.

Early Inventions Tackle Big Issues
In 1972, he constructed a gas (Helium/Neon) laser for a science fair project garnering a first place award in Physics at Marshall University, a first for the small South Point High School. The following year he designed and built a model of a non-polluting environmental system that generated electrical power, provided safe drinking water, supported fast plant growth, recycled sewage and produced small amounts of landfill.

If At First You Dont Succeed...
Locally, the system drew rave reviews and extensive coverage but when Wendell entered the Marshall University Science Fair, he was not allowed to display in the main arena because the model was too large. However, they made arrangements to display the system in another building and many reviewers from industry, academia and government praised the creativity involved and the potential for positive environmental impact. Although the positive feedback was heartening, the project sputtered to a halt when all the supporting documentation, the only copy, was taken from the exhibition site.

Try Something Else
Totally disheartened and burned out as an inventor, he set off for Tampa and built up a successful appliance repair business but after four years it was time to come home. The next five years as a steel worker, appliance business owner, a bass player in a rock and roll band and husband to a local beauty named Diana, were formative and fun but once again, it was time to move on. Next stop; Brevard County.

Wendell and Diana started a commercial appliance repair business called Doctor Fix-It in July 1988 with Wendell doing the fixing and Diana running the office and scheduling service calls. Most of their customers are in the restaurant business from Titusville to Palm Bay and became Wendells customers solely from word-of-mouth praise and recommendation. He currently has well over 300 loyal customers counting on him to keep their restaurant equipment running and he still does all the work himself.

Invention Needed To Extend Skills
As a few years passed and the business prospered, it became apparent that the physical challenges of hauling heavy items up on roofs, lugging tool boxes around and staying on the road all day was taking the fun out of his work life yet he didnt know anyone who had equivalent knowledge and experience to take over. If only he could invent a way to transfer his knowledge, skills and physical abilities to a job site while he sat in the comfort of his home or office. Of course knowledge can be transferred any number of ways but as we know, the Devil is in the Details" and electromechanical systems are full of them; details, that is. If he was going to remotely direct an apprentice, he had to devise a way to show the on-site tech exactly which nut, wire, fuse or fitting to work on and point out problem or danger areas as well. The question was how.

Requirements Defined, System Developed
Wendell needed a system that would transmit a moving video image, sound and a method of pointing to remote locations. There was no such product on the market although the components and technology were there. The Internet with high-speed access could now carry high quality video transmissions plus other information and it is in every corner of the world. Laser pointers have been around for a while so the challenge was to combine a video camera, a laser pointer and separate controls for each in a system that could be operated over the Internet.

Another Reality Check
Wendell set off on a self-study program to bolster his electronics and software skills and finally developed a crude but workable device. But he had reached the limits of his newly learned skills and began showing his prototype to professionals hoping to find some high-class help. Chuck Heater, an aerospace veteran specializing in electronic/software integration, was the first big technical booster and with the help of a local company called Chamco, he was instrumental in designing and developing the first Laser Telepointer production prototype.

To Market To Market
Now the challenge centered on finding a market. The first local company to take an interest was Airwire.net, providers of wireless Internet connections and web hosting. They were marketing vehicles capable of streaming live video and pointing capabilities to law enforcement agencies and public service organizations and thought the laser pointer was a perfect fit. A custom Hummer is still cruising the streets of Melbourne with Wendells system perched in a clear bubble on the roof.

Creative Images, a company in Melbourne owned by Terry Harrison, took the system to California a couple of years back to help in demonstrating one of their video conferencing products called Answer-Me-Now. The exposure lead to greater recognition of the telepointers potential and gave rise to further improvements.

An associate of Terry Harrison, Dr. Paul Ouellette, an orthodontist, was interested in customizing the system to take digital photos of each patient, send them to the patients files and make them available to each patient through the dental office website. Wendell developed the software and proved the concept and the idea may come to fruition in the future.

Chris Pedrone, owner of the Merritt Island AAMCO, tested the system for several months convinced it would improve efficiency by having a Virtual Transmission Technician available for special assignments and troubleshooting. Although local and corporate people were impressed, franchising agreements did not allow company-wide directives and so the idea sputtered to a temporary halt.

In January 2001, a company called T-Mote negotiated an agreement to license the telepointer patent for use in developing and marketing a wearable video system containing the telepointer. Contracts were signed, a final design was underway and everything looked rosy until September 11th. Then, like many tech companies and dot coms, it simply ceased to exist.

Mirror Minds Is Born
Undaunted, Wendell, who by now had regained his old competitive and creative zeal, determined that no matter how good his ideas and inventions, he needed help in developing an organization and planned program if he was going to turn his inventive passions into a business. By networking through his current friends and associates, he came upon Jim Nordby, a semi-retired aerospace program planner and proposal writer looking for a project with potential. Their complementary talents, education, experience and personality traits worked and together they formed Mirror Minds to design, test, manufacture and market the telepointer and other original products. Wendells previous company, Visual Echo, still holds the telepointer patent.

Too Many Options
The more Jim and Wendell tried to focus on a market segment the more possibilities emerged. If the telepointer worked as a virtual trainer for the disabled then it would work with every company and agency on Earth that does training. If you could direct a transmission repair then you could direct major surgery. If you can remotely point at things with a laser then you can also control those things with the same beam. If you can remotely direct a laser beam then you can collect other information with it such as temperature. And if you can do that then... well, the possibilities were literally endless so contacting people, businesses and agencies via the Mirror Minds website, e mails and personal contact was the best way to find out who was really interested and concentrate on them.

Everything But Money
Dan Gilman, a quadriplegic Assistive Technology professional in Vermont, was among the first to appreciate the immense value of having a virtual presence, the ability to see, hear and visually touch" people and things far away. After a couple months of e mails and phone conversations, Wendell and Jim traveled to Rutland, Vermont, met Dan and his associates working in the states federally funded assistive technology program and successfully tested the system in a real-world environment. The illustration beginning this article shows Dan training a student in Florida. Both Dan and his student Neal were successfully operating the system in less than one hour.    After a day or two, both were experts.

Not Enough Time
Although by all accounts, the demonstration in Vermont was an unqualified success, a state agency operating with federal funds takes years to fund new equipment or projects. The trip was still a necessary and valuable experience but a more immediate monetary return was needed if Jim and Wendell were ever going to pursue their objectives full-time.

Short Term Markets Open Up
Since Wendell, working as Dr. Fix-It, services restaurant cooking and cooling systems, he saw first hand how much revenue was lost when they deviated too long from prescribed cooking and storage
temperatures. He designed a system that reads critical temperatures, inputs that data into the restaurant computer system, issues warnings, maintains records and in the process saves an individual restaurant thousands of dollars each month in spoilage, fines and unhappy customers who dont come back.

A test system is currently operating at a Perkins restaurant and the restaurant owner is developing the right format, standards and procedures in a collaborative effort to design a system marketable to every restaurant in the country. Since the system will probably pay for itself after a month or two and there will soon be data to prove it, this could be the design that gets Mirror Minds rolling down the highway to success.