Hello HVACctrl & IRstuff,
Yes, that link is a good one. I was quite pleased to find it. I spent roughly twelve hours finding a site that had all the details of laser ranging and imaging. Not an easy topic to find this sort of detail! Do not worry about others seemingly doing more work. It is the will to help, that gets people moving in the right direction. Always happy to help, as I have been in your situation, and still am really. I also have an interest in lasers and their applications.
As far as my personal info, here it is: I was adopted at 18 months old. By age ten, my parents thought I was so unusual, that they took me to Yale University to have my head examined and just about everything else you could imagine. My IQ turned out to be only 168, so I don't know what their problem was. Anyway, my engineering interest started when I was very young. I was awarded a scholorship to MIT when I was in the ninth grade, but my parents refused to allow it. Grrr.. I left them when I was 15.
Anyway, I went to school on my own budget, which greatly reduced my professional quality education. I studied mechanical and electronic drafting, mechanical engineering and in more recent years CAD. I did most of my studies on my own, on other subjects. I am the kind of person who goes to the store, then takes the product home, takes it apart, and modifies it so that it is better. I have always done this, even to my christmas toys as a kid. My friends hate that by the way. They always ask me "do you ever buy anything, and not take it apart the moment you walk in the door"? My answer is always "no". Engineers are not created in schools, they are simply born, then learn to be better.
My work history is varied. Over the years, I have worked my way into the engineering departments of every company I have worked for. It usually took about two weeks to accomplish the transfer from assembly, to engineering. I prefered this method of employment, as it offered me a true vision of what the company was all about, by starting in assembly. After this method of employment became burdensome, I just applied as an engineer, with my education to back me up.
I have always wanted to have my own prototyping company. It has been my goal to assemble people of different fields, to create a company that can develope products in a variety of fields. I met a man in Germany, who is an electronics and programming genius. I flew to Germany at his request, to become his company's mechanical engineer. His brother, the owner, was a drunk, drove the company in the ground, and now I am back in the states. I still have my friend out there though, and he is my first partner. The electronics and programming, to work with my mechanical. I have a female friend in NewYork, who is a business professional. She tracked me down and is now my business end person. Now, we are developing a project for ourselves. It is an audio chamber, requested by the medical community for research and treatment of patients from biological to mental problems. I am on my fourth prototype now. Really though, email is better for further discussion on that.
In order to develope the kinds of products that I am interested in, I do have to do a lot of research to find the answers/solutions that I need to complete the projects. I not only have to develope the chamber itself, but everything that goes into it. This covers quite a large selection of fields. Just one chamber has an earning potential of 200,000 dollars a year. So, we plan to make chambers, and set up salons for public use, as well as sell and lease them to doctors. Private persons can purchase them as well, but only if they can afford the 50,000 dollar price tag. It does everything from mental/biological health studies/therapy, to high end virtual networked gaming. Quite complex. Depends on the application really.
You and I are quite similar in our desires to explore the unknown and to develope a variety of products. I most recently lost the help of my electronics engineer in Germany, due to his need to get his brothers company back up and running. The company I last worked for, layed me off three times over the last few years. This is when I decided to devote full attention to my own company. It may be quite practical for us to further communication through email and chat, as indicated in an ealier note. Here is my email address again:
thorn21@cableone.net Yahoo Messenger: alysixueh
The company name is Thorn Design & Development. I am presently staying away from client based products, as my resources are greatly focused on the chamber project, and other smaller projects. My skills in PCB design originate from my drafting education. I am somewhat skilled in electronics, on a hobby level, but can design and fabricate PCB's using EagleCAD. I have the full version, courtesy of my friend in Germany. So, if people help me with more complex circuit design, I can make my own PCB's. All it takes is obtaining the schematic.