University College London is a public research university in London, England. It is a member institution of the federal University of London, and is the second-largest university in the United Kingdom by total enrolment and the largest by postgraduate enrolment.
Virtual Studio Technology (VST) is an audio plug-in software interface that integrates software synthesizers and effects units into digital audio workstations. VST and similar technologies use digital signal processing to simulate traditional recording studio hardware in software. Thousands of plugins exist, both commercial and freeware, and many audio applications support VST under license from its creator, Steinberg.
Robert Frederick Ford is an American video game programmer. He is the son of mathematician L. R. Ford Jr. A co-founder of the video game studio Toys for Bob, he led the company from its inception until late 2020 with his co-founder Paul Reiche III. Ford is the co-creator, with Reiche III, of the Star Control universe. Ford did the programming, while Reiche was responsible for the game design and fiction. Ford was also the lead programmer on The Horde and Pandemonium.
Paul Reiche III is an American game designer. His career started in the pen and paper RPG industry, where he collaborated with artist Erol Otus on games such as Dungeons & Dragons and Gamma World. He then transitioned into video games, working with Jon Freeman to establish Free Fall Associates and developed titles like Mail Order Monsters, World Tour Golf, and Archon. Later, he left Free Fall to establish Toys for Bob with Fred Ford. Their first collaboration resulted in Star Control. After a successful sequel, they declined to make a third installment, instead focusing on other projects including the successful Skylanders franchise.
Audio Stream Input/Output (ASIO) is a computer audio interface driver protocol for digital audio specified by Steinberg, providing high data throughput, synchronization, and low latency between a software application and a computer's audio interface or sound card.
TDK Corporation is a Japanese multinational electronics corporation that manufactures electronic components and recording and data-storage media. Its motto is "Contribute to culture and industry through creativity".
Toys for Bob, Inc. is an American video game developer based in Novato, California. It was founded in 1989 by Paul Reiche III and Fred Ford and is best known for creating Star Control and the Skylanders franchise, as well as for working on the Crash Bandicoot and Spyro franchises.
Sonos, Inc. is an American audio equipment manufacturer headquartered in Santa Barbara, California. The company was founded in 2002 by John MacFarlane, Craig Shelburne, Tom Cullen, and Trung Mai.
Broadcom Inc. is an American multinational designer, developer, manufacturer, and global supplier of a wide range of semiconductor and infrastructure software products. Broadcom's product offerings serve the data center, networking, software, broadband, wireless, storage, and industrial markets. As of 2024, some 58 percent of Broadcom's revenue came from its semiconductor-based products and 42 percent from its infrastructure software products and services.
Funko Inc. is an American company that manufactures licensed and limited pop culture collectibles, known for its licensed vinyl figurines and bobbleheads. In addition, the company produces licensed plush, action figures, apparel, accessories and games. Founded in 1998 by Mike Becker and Claudia Becker, Funko was originally conceived as a small project to create various low-tech, nostalgia-themed toys. The company's first manufactured bobblehead was of the Big Boy restaurant mascot.
Microsoft Azure, or just Azure, is the cloud computing platform developed by Microsoft. It has management, access and development of applications and services to individuals, companies, and governments through its global infrastructure. It also provides capabilities that are usually not included within other cloud platforms, including software as a service (SaaS), platform as a service (PaaS), and infrastructure as a service (IaaS). Microsoft Azure supports many programming languages, tools, and frameworks, including Microsoft-specific and third-party software and systems.
Spyro is a fictional character and the titular protagonist of the same name video game series, including The Legend of Spyro, and a guest character in the Skylanders series, first appearing in Spyro the Dragon in 1998.
Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure is a 3D action-adventure platform game and the first video game in the Skylanders series. It is played using with toy figures that interact with it through a "Portal of Power" that reads their tag through NFC.
Bsquare was an Internet of Things (IoT) systems software provider, technology distributor, and system integrator headquartered in Seattle, Washington that supported OEMs, ODMs, and enterprises with OS licenses, device management, and professional development services.
Skylanders is a toys-to-life action-adventure video game franchise published by Activision. Skylanders games are played by placing a character's figure on the "Portal of Power", a device that reads its tag using NFC and "imports" them into the game as a playable character, leveling them up and saving its progress on the figure to potentially be used on a different game or video game console with all its saved stats. Skylander figures are sold separately from the game itself unless you buy the starter pack. Typically, the starter pack for each game contains two or more Skylanders, a Portal of Power, the game disc and sometimes something else to show off the game's newest feature.
Amiibo is a toys-to-life platform by Nintendo, which was launched in November 2014. It consists of a wireless communications and storage protocol for connecting figurines to the Wii U, Nintendo 3DS, and Nintendo Switch video game consoles. These figurines are similar in form and functionality to that of the Skylanders, Disney Infinity and Lego Dimensions series of toys-to-life platforms. The Amiibo platform was preannounced to potentially accommodate any form of toy, specifically including general plans for future card games. Amiibo use near field communication (NFC) to interact with supported video game software, potentially allowing data to be transferred in and out of games and across multiple platforms.
Toys-to-life is a video game feature using physical figurines or action figures to interact within the game. These toys use a near field communication (NFC), radio frequency identification (RFID), or image recognition data protocol to determine the individual figurine's proximity, and save a player's progress data to a storage medium located within that piece. It was one of the most lucrative branches of the video game industry especially during the late 1990s and 2010s, with the Skylanders franchise alone selling more than $3 billion worth over the course of four years.
Skylanders Academy is an animated television series produced by TeamTO and Activision Blizzard Studios based on the Skylanders series. The first season debuted on Netflix on October 28, 2016. A trailer for the series debuted on October 12, 2016. The second season was released on October 6, 2017 and the third and final season was released on September 28, 2018.
LoRa is a physical proprietary radio communication technique. It is based on spread spectrum modulation techniques derived from chirp spread spectrum (CSS) technology. It was developed by Cycleo, a company of Grenoble, France, and patented in 2014. In March 2012, Cycleo was acquired by the US company Semtech.
41 Entertainment LLC (41E) is a privately held American animation company that develops, produces, and distributes popular television shows. Allen Bohbot is the founder and managing director of 41E.
