Richard F. Lyon

Last updated

Richard F. Lyon
Dick Lyon.jpg
Lyon in 2007
Born
Richard Francis Lyon

1952 (age 71–72)
United States
Alma mater California Institute of Technology
Stanford University
Known for
Awards IEEE Fellow (2003)
Progress Medal of the Royal Photographic Society (2005)
ACM Fellow (2010)
Scientific career
Fields Electrical engineering
Institutions Xerox PARC
Schlumberger
Apple
Foveon
Google
Website dicklyon.com OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg

Richard "Dick" Francis Lyon (born 1952) is an American inventor, scientist, and engineer. He is one of the two people who independently invented the first optical mouse devices in 1980. [1] [2] [3] He has worked in signal processing and was a co-founder of Foveon, Inc., a digital camera and image sensor company.

Contents

Early life and education

Lyon grew up in El Paso, Texas, as the third of nine children. [4] His father, an engineer for the El Paso Electric Company, brought home an early Fortran programming manual to encourage his family's members to explore their interests in electronics. [5]

Lyon attended Caltech to earn a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering, graduating in 1974. While at Caltech, Lyon worked with Carver Mead and John Pierce. He took a summer internship at Bell Labs, where he developed digital signal processing hardware for audio applications. [6] He then enrolled in the graduate program at Stanford University intending to earn a PhD, but left with a master's degree in 1975 to work in Silicon Valley. [5]

Career

After Stanford, Lyon worked at Stanford Telecommunications, a small start up company developing signal sets for navigation satellites and Space Shuttle communication systems. During a return visit to Caltech around two and a half years after graduating, he ran into Carver Mead, who was hosting Ivan Sutherland and Bert Sutherland to develop some collaborations between Caltech and Xerox PARC and to develop a computer science department. Lyon joined Xerox PARC in 1977 after interviewing on invitation by Bert Sutherland. [5]

Lyon started working at Xerox PARC with George White under Lynn Conway to build custom microchips for speech processing and digital filtering. Within the year, White left to manage the west coast laboratory of the ITT Defense Communications Division in San Diego, leaving Lyon in charge of the speech recognition project. During this period, he took a course at Stanford on biological information processing and wrote his term paper outlining an approach for speech recognition using a signal processing model of hearing. [7] The paper became the basis for his career in hearing research. [5]

In December 1980, Lyon was one of two people working independently who invented the first optical mouse devices. [2] Lyon's design involved defining screen location using an adaptation of optical lateral inhibition to achieve a wide dynamic range. [8]

Although several people at PARC had filed invention proposals for an optical mouse, none of them had built one or filed a patent for one. [5] A substantially different design was invented at approximately the same time as Lyon's by Steve Kirsch at MIT.

In 1981, Lyon was one of the "Marty randoms" recruited by Jay Martin Tenenbaum to join Schlumberger Palo Alto Research. There, he led the speech recognition project. [5]

In 1988, Lyon moved to the Apple Advanced Technology Group and led the Perception Systems group, where he worked mainly on auditory and sound processing. During this period he published a paper with Carver Mead describing an analog cochlea which modeled the propagation of sound in the inner ear and the conversion of acoustic energy into neural representations. [9] [10] The paper received the Best Paper Award from the IEEE Signal Processing Society in 1990 and formed a foundation for later work applying such models to hearing aids, cochlear implants, and other speech recognition hardware devices. [11] [12] With Malcolm Slaney, he developed the "cochleagram" representation for visualizing and processing sound for computational auditory scene analysis. [13] With Larry Yaeger, Brandyn Webb, and others, he also developed the handwriting recognition system Inkwell for the Apple Newton. [14] [15]

During Apple's period of decline in the late 1990s, over half of the Advanced Technology Group was laid off as part of organizational restructuring, including Lyon and his team. [5] He began working with Carver Mead and Richard B. Merrill to develop digital color photography and co-founded Foveon as a spin-off company from National Semiconductor and Synaptics. [6] At Foveon, Lyon became its chief scientist and vice president of research, [16] and helped develop a three-CCD camera and later the Foveon X3 sensor, which placed three stacked photodiodes onto a single chip – an innovative alternative to the more typical approaches of using either beam splitting with three sensor arrays or a spatial mosaic scheme such as Bayer filter mosaic. [17] [18] In 2005, Mead, Lyon, and Merrill received the Progress Medal of the Royal Photographic Society for the Foveon X3 sensor. [19]

In 2006, Lyon returned to corporate research, moving to Google after briefly considering Yahoo. His research at Google has involved managing the camera development for Google Street View and sound recognition for various Google products. Most recently, he taught a course in 2010 at Stanford University and wrote a book, Human and Machine Hearing: Extracting Meaning from Sound, published in 2017. [5] [20]

Inventions and research

Awards and recognition

Personal life

Lyon is married to Margaret Asprey; they have two children. [4] He is a Wikipedia editor. [37]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Computer mouse</span> Pointing device used to control a computer

A computer mouse is a hand-held pointing device that detects two-dimensional motion relative to a surface. This motion is typically translated into the motion of the pointer on a display, which allows a smooth control of the graphical user interface of a computer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">PARC (company)</span> American company

PARC is a research and development company in Palo Alto, California. It was founded in 1969 by Jacob E. "Jack" Goldman, chief scientist of Xerox Corporation, as a division of Xerox, tasked with creating computer technology-related products and hardware systems.

Digital image processing is the use of a digital computer to process digital images through an algorithm. As a subcategory or field of digital signal processing, digital image processing has many advantages over analog image processing. It allows a much wider range of algorithms to be applied to the input data and can avoid problems such as the build-up of noise and distortion during processing. Since images are defined over two dimensions digital image processing may be modeled in the form of multidimensional systems. The generation and development of digital image processing are mainly affected by three factors: first, the development of computers; second, the development of mathematics ; third, the demand for a wide range of applications in environment, agriculture, military, industry and medical science has increased.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Optical mouse</span> Type of computer mouse

An optical mouse is a computer mouse which uses a miniature camera and digital image processing to detect movement relative to a surface. Variations of the optical mouse have largely replaced the older mechanical mouse and its need for frequent cleaning.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sensor</span> Converter that measures a physical quantity and converts it into a signal

A sensor is a device that produces an output signal for the purpose of sensing a physical phenomenon.

The Foveon X3 sensor is a digital camera image sensor designed by Foveon, Inc., and manufactured by Dongbu Electronics. It uses an array of photosites that consist of three vertically stacked photodiodes. Each of the three stacked photodiodes has a different spectral sensitivity, allowing it to respond differently to different wavelengths. The signals from the three photodiodes are then processed as additive color data that are transformed to a standard RGB color space.

MOSIS is multi-project wafer service that provides metal–oxide–semiconductor (MOS) chip design tools and related services that enable universities, government agencies, research institutes and businesses to prototype chips efficiently and cost-effectively.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carver Mead</span> American scientist and engineer

Carver Andress Mead is an American scientist and engineer. He currently holds the position of Gordon and Betty Moore Professor Emeritus of Engineering and Applied Science at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), having taught there for over 40 years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sigma Corporation</span> Japanese camera and camera lens manufacturer

Sigma Corporation is a Japanese company, manufacturing cameras, lenses, flashes and other photographic accessories. All Sigma products are produced in the company's own Aizu factory in Bandai, Fukushima, Japan. Although Sigma produces several camera models, the company is best known for producing high-quality lenses and other accessories that are compatible with the cameras produced by other companies.

Stuart K. Card is an American researcher and retired senior research fellow at Xerox PARC. He is considered to be one of the pioneers of applying human factors in human–computer interaction. With Jock D. Mackinlay, George G. Robertson and others he invented a number of Information Visualization techniques. He holds numerous patents in user interfaces and visual analysis.

Inkwell, or simply Ink, is the name of the handwriting recognition technology developed by Apple Inc. and built into the Mac OS X operating system. Introduced in an update to Mac OS X v10.2 "Jaguar", Inkwell can translate English, French, and German writing. The technology made its debut as "Rosetta", an integral feature of Apple Newton OS, the operating system of the short-lived Apple Newton personal digital assistant. Inkwell's inclusion in Mac OS X led many to believe Apple would be using this technology in a new PDA or other portable tablet computer. None of the touchscreen iOS devices – iPhone/iPod/iPad – has offered Inkwell handwriting recognition. However in iPadOS 14 handwriting recognition has been introduced, as a feature called Scribble.

Foveon, Inc., is an American company that manufactures and distributes image sensor technology. It makes the Foveon X3 sensor, which captures images in some digital cameras.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Image sensor</span> Device that converts images into electronic signals

An image sensor or imager is a sensor that detects and conveys information used to form an image. It does so by converting the variable attenuation of light waves into signals, small bursts of current that convey the information. The waves can be light or other electromagnetic radiation. Image sensors are used in electronic imaging devices of both analog and digital types, which include digital cameras, camera modules, camera phones, optical mouse devices, medical imaging equipment, night vision equipment such as thermal imaging devices, radar, sonar, and others. As technology changes, electronic and digital imaging tends to replace chemical and analog imaging.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Active-pixel sensor</span> Image sensor, consisting of an integrated circuit

An active-pixel sensor (APS) is an image sensor, which was invented by Peter J.W. Noble in 1968, where each pixel sensor unit cell has a photodetector and one or more active transistors. In a metal–oxide–semiconductor (MOS) active-pixel sensor, MOS field-effect transistors (MOSFETs) are used as amplifiers. There are different types of APS, including the early NMOS APS and the now much more common complementary MOS (CMOS) APS, also known as the CMOS sensor. CMOS sensors are used in digital camera technologies such as cell phone cameras, web cameras, most modern digital pocket cameras, most digital single-lens reflex cameras (DSLRs), mirrorless interchangeable-lens cameras (MILCs), and lensless imaging for cells.

Richard Lyon may refer to:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Color filter array</span>

In digital imaging, a color filter array (CFA), or color filter mosaic (CFM), is a mosaic of tiny color filters placed over the pixel sensors of an image sensor to capture color information.

Machine perception is the capability of a computer system to interpret data in a manner that is similar to the way humans use their senses to relate to the world around them. The basic method that the computers take in and respond to their environment is through the attached hardware. Until recently input was limited to a keyboard, or a mouse, but advances in technology, both in hardware and software, have allowed computers to take in sensory input in a way similar to humans.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard B. Merrill</span>

Richard Billings Merrill (1949–2008), a.k.a. Dick Merrill, was an American inventor, engineer, and photographer.

A vision chip is an integrated circuit having both image sensing circuitry and image processing circuitry on the same die. The image sensing circuitry may be implemented using charge-coupled devices, active pixel sensor circuits, or any other light sensing mechanism. The image processing circuitry may be implemented using analog, digital, or mixed signal circuitry. One area of research is the use of neuromorphic engineering techniques to implement processing circuits inspired by biological neural systems. The output of a vision chip is generally a partially processed image or a high-level information signal revealing something about the observed scene. Although there is no standard definition of a vision chip, the processing performed may comprise anything from processing individual pixel values to performing complex image processing functions and outputting a single value or yes/no signal based on the scene.

References

  1. ↑ Markoff, John (21 February 1983). "In Focus: The Mouse That Rolled". InfoWorld . Vol. 5, no. 8. InfoWorld Media Group.
  2. 1 2 Sherr, Sol (2 December 2012). Input Devices. Elsevier Science. p. 221. ISBN   978-0-323-15643-1.
  3. ↑ DeCarlo, Matthew (20 December 2011). "Xerox PARC: A Brief Nod to the Minds Behind Laser Printing, Ethernet, the GUI and More". TechSpot. Retrieved 22 April 2015.
  4. 1 2 Asprey, Margaret Williams (2014). A True Nuclear Family. Trafford Publishing. ISBN   9781490726656 . Retrieved 4 February 2018.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Steinbach, Günter (10 October 2016). "Oral History of Richard Lyon" (PDF). Computer History Museum.
  6. 1 2 Gilder, George (2006). The Silicon Eye: Microchip Swashbucklers and the Future of High-Tech Innovation (1st ed.). New York: W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN   978-0-393-32841-7.
  7. ↑ Lyon, Richard F. (11 July 1978). "A Signal-Processing Model of Hearing" (PDF). Xerox Palo Alto Research Center.
  8. ↑ Kisačanin, Branislav; Gelautz, Margrit (2014). Advances in Embedded Computer Vision. Springer. ISBN   9783319093871.
  9. ↑ Lyon, R. F.; Mead, C. (1988). "An analog electronic cochlea" (PDF). IEEE Transactions on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing. 36 (7): 1119–1134. doi:10.1109/29.1639.
  10. ↑ Slaney, Malcolm (1988). "Lyon's Cochlear Model" (PDF). Apple Computer, Inc.
  11. ↑ "Carver Mead Honors and Awards". California Institute of Technology . Retrieved 22 October 2017.
  12. ↑ Hamilton, Tara Julia (6 February 2009). "The silicon cochlea: 20 years on" (PDF). The Neuromorphic Engineer. doi:10.2417/1200902.1416.
  13. ↑ Slaney, Malcolm; Lyon, Richard F. (1993). "On the Importance of Time – A Temporal Representation of Sound" (PDF). In Crawford, M. (ed.). Visual Representations of Speech Signals. New York: John Wiley.
  14. ↑ Markoff, John (13 November 1995). "Apple Gives Messagepad a Tuneup". The New York Times .
  15. 1 2 Yaeger, Larry S.; Webb, Brandyn J.; Lyon, Richard F. (15 March 1998). "Combining Neural Networks and Context-Driven Search for Online, Printed Handwriting Recognition in the Newton". AI Magazine. 19 (1): 73. doi:10.1609/aimag.v19i1.1355. ISSN   0738-4602.
  16. ↑ Lyon, Richard F. (16 April 2004). "DSP 4 You". ACM Queue . Retrieved 2 June 2018.
  17. ↑ Lyon, Richard F.; Hubel, Paul M. (21 August 2023). "Eyeing the Camera: into the Next Century" (PDF). Foveon.
  18. ↑ Lyon, Richard F. (March 2000). "Prism-Based Color Separation for Professional Digital Photography" (PDF). Proceedings of the Image Processing, Image Quality, Image Capture, Systems Conference: 50–54.
  19. ↑ "Progress Medal". Royal Photographic Society. Retrieved 31 October 2017.
  20. ↑ Lyon, Richard F. (2 May 2017). Human and Machine Hearing: Extracting Meaning from Sound. Cambridge University Press. ISBN   978-1107007536.
  21. ↑ Lyon, Richard F. (October 1981). "The Optical Mouse, and an Architectural Methodology for Smart Digital Sensors", Invited Paper, CMU Conference on VLSI Systems and Computations , Pittsburgh (Kung, Sproull, and Steele, editors), Computer Science Press.
  22. ↑ U.S. patent 4,521,772 : Lyon, "Cursor Control Device", 4 June 1985.
  23. ↑ U.S. patent 4,521,773 : Lyon, "Imaging Array", 4 June 1985.
  24. ↑ Richard F. Lyon and James J. Spilker, Jr., "Multisatellite Signal Simulators for the Global Positioning System", National Telecommunications conference, Dallas, Texas, December 1976.
  25. ↑ U.S. patent 4,494,021 : Bell, Lyon, and Borriello, "Self-calibrated Clock and Timing Signal Generator for MOS/VLSI Circuitry", 15 January 1985.
  26. ↑ U.S. patent 4,513,427 : Borriello, Lyon, and Bell, "Data and Clock Recovery System for Data Communication Controller", 23 April 1985.
  27. ↑ U.S. patent 4,796,227 : Lyon and Schediwy, "Computer Memory System", 3 January 1989.
  28. ↑ Ivan Sutherland, Bob Sproull, and David Harris (1999). Logical Effort: Designing Fast CMOS Circuits. Morgan Kaufmann. ISBN   978-1-55860-557-2.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  29. ↑ Lyon, Richard F. (May 1982). "A computational model of filtering, detection, and compression in the cochlea". ICASSP '82. IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing. Vol. 7. pp. 1282–1285. doi:10.1109/ICASSP.1982.1171644.
  30. ↑ U.S. patent 6,078,429 : Lyon, "Color Separating Prism Having Violet Light Component in Red Channel", 20 June 2000.
  31. ↑ Other Lyon patents assigned to Foveon
  32. ↑ "IEEE Fellows for 2003". Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). Archived from the original on 3 August 2012.
  33. ↑ Peters, Mark (6 November 2005). "Royal Photographic Society Award for Foveon sensor".
  34. ↑ Gilder, George F. (1 January 2005). The Silicon Eye . W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN   9780393057638.
  35. ↑ "ACM Names 41 Fellows from World's Leading Institutions – Association for Computing Machinery". ACM. 10 December 2010. Archived from the original on 10 December 2010.
  36. ↑ "SPS Fellows and Award Winners Recognized [Society News]". IEEE Signal Processing Magazine. 35 (2): 7–10. March 2018. doi:10.1109/MSP.2018.2789538. S2CID   241847826.
  37. ↑ "Richard Lyon: Fifteen Eighty Four". Cambridge University Press. Retrieved 8 February 2024.
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