Elijah Malik using a Landis 12 Leather Stitching Machine

Elijah Malik, has been in the shoe repair business since 2003. Four years ago he opened his shop, Your Shoe Repair, a full service shoe repair shop in Chicago’s hip northwest-side neighborhood of Wicker Park. His services include fixing buckles and rips in leather, replacing soles and heels, waterproofing, conditioning, dying, and shoe shines.

Who are your main clientele?
EM: Initially, it was mostly business people. You could count on them to keep their shoes shined and their heels looking good. But now it’s become more across the board because of the economy. People who would have normally bought some Payless Shoes and then chucked them are deciding to fix their shoes. And, I’d say 85 percent of my clientele are women. Even though I might get a higher portion of men’s shoes, the women are bringing them in.

What’s the most typical repair you do, and what is your biggest challenge?
The most common repairs are heels and shines, shines are considered a repair. Our toughest challenge is customers who have unrealistic time expectations. Some people don’t have a good understanding of what’s really taking place for the repair.

What’s one of the most interesting repair jobs you’ve had?
I had some boots come in that a dog had eaten up horribly. The customer came in with tears in her eyes but when she left she was all smiles. She couldn’t believe the shoe could be restored like that. To me that was special, to be able to touch a customer who really valued the service.

Read full article here

Monday: The tour has been awesome so far!! Food is incredible and others in group are great. We are in 5 star hotels and being treated like royalty. Toured Western Digital yesterday and an investment fair. Today off to Pattaya to a spa hotel and day of tours and meetings. Haven’t spotted any screw machines so far but will keep looking.

Tuesday: Thailand Board of Investment CEO Forum today. Guest speaker: Tony Blair. Thailand is putting on a huge push for foreign investment, including an eight year tax holiday, free leases on land for a time, no taxes on imports of equipment, and free work visas for foreign tech workers and business leaders.

Tony Blair speaking at the CEO Forum held by the Board of Investment in Bangkok, Thailand

I couldn’t believe how immaculate the facility was. The operation was well organized and highly automated. One topic that was discussed as we toured the different companies on the trip was Indiana’s strong political movement toward a “Right to Work Policy,” which would allow employees to work at any business without having to be in a union. A GM plant with employees not in the UAW just sounds unfathomable. But stranger things have happened right? After all, they took out the lard and then the trans fats from Oreos and they’re still delicious (and kosher!). In any case, Glinski’s intelligence and openness, along with the positive vibes I got touring the factory gives me optimism that GM is finally taking the steps to compete in today’s lean economy.

Best to check out the video below to get a better sense of the place.

*******

Wearing both my reporter and machinery dealer hats on the tour in Indiana I asked some of my presenters about what types of equipment they were buying lately. At one shop specializing in medical implants, the president  told me he was shying away from buying Mori Seiki lathes because after the U.S. partnership with DMG he had lost trust in the organization and customer support of the company. Most agree that DMG’s equipment is some of the best available worldwide, but they’ve always been notorious for weak customer support in the U.S. Merging with Mori Seiki was supposed to raise the company’s game in that respect, not pull down Mori Seiki’s.

But the next day we went to C & A Tool, a diversified, successful job shop (many times referenced in Today’s Machining World). The people at C & A told me the company had recently purchased several DMG machine tools, which they love. Their rationale for buying the DMG machines–C & A engineers had gained confidence in DMG after it had combined forces with Mori Seiki. So the merger of the two machine tool companies is working sometimes.

*******

Kim Jong-il’s son Kim Jong-un is about to replace his deceased despot father. One of the few things people know about Kim Jong-un is that he’s a huge NBA fan, a Chicago Bulls and Michael Jordan fan in particular. Supposedly the Jongs had a huge full court in the backyard of their palace, and when Kim Jong-un was allegedly studying in Switzerland many people remarked that basketball was one of his main uses of spare time. If Obama and Kim Jong-un ever end up meeting, the two leaders at least have one common passion on which to relate to each other. Maybe they can just settle their differences over a game of one on one.

*******

Happy to say that the Today’s Machining World blogs are getting plenty of traffic and comments lately. We often are surprised by the reactions of our readers and we get to learn a lot from their perspectives. For instance, when Lloyd wrote the blog about Newt Gingrich, we received a high number of comments by people saying they couldn’t support him because of his gun control politics. When we published the blog, Newt’s politics on gun control hadn’t even crossed our minds as an issue people would comment on, let alone that it would be a deal breaker for votes. The opinions were so strong it reminded me of an abortion rights debate.

Question: Was the Iraq War worth it?

Videos of General Motors plant in Roanoke, IN

Today’s Machining World Archives January/February 2011 Volume 7 Issue 1

Steve Weiss and Jens Bogehegn, co-founders and owners of Zacuto USA

Ten minutes into my interview with Jens Bogehegn and Steve Weiss, the co-founders and owners of Zacuto USA, a filmmaking accessories manufacturer in downtown Chicago, they break off on a tangent, excitedly brainstorming and debating production decisions for the upcoming season of their Emmy Award winning Web video series, The Great Camera Shootout. On the show, Jens and Steve, veterans of the film and video production industry, scientifically review every current HDDSLR camera, pitting the quality of the video footage from those cameras against the images of traditional film cameras. Both individuals are intense, driven businessmen, who take great pride in the filmmaking accessory products they build. They like being in the manufacturing business, but they will be the first to tell you that their first love is filmmaking. “If you had talked to us seven years ago and said, ‘one day you guys will be manufacturers,’ we would have laughed at you,” Steve says.

Before the Machining Business
Jens met Steve in the mid-’80s while looking for a place to do video editing. Soon after, Jens worked as a freelance cameraman almost exclusively with Steve through two former businesses. In 2000, they started a production house together called Zacuto Films and in 2001 formed Zacuto Rentals, a camera rental division of the company. In 2005, they created Zacuto USA, the manufacturing branch of their company.

Z-cage kit with DSLR camera

The High-def Revolution
Around 2001, High-Definition video cameras struck the professional video production world when Panasonic introduced the VariCam line. The VariCam revolutionized the filmmaking world because it could shoot in 24p (“p” stands for “frames per second”), the same frame rate as film cameras, rather than being limited to 30p, the speed which video has traditionally been shot on in the U.S. The VariCam’s images, when shot on the 24p setting, produced an image similar to that of film. This was a dream come true for filmmakers everywhere because the camera still had the ease of use and economic advantages of video cameras. Shooting film has always been extremely expensive, time consuming and labor intensive. The light sensitivity of film allows less leeway for shooting in natural light compared to some of the latest HD video cameras, so shooting it requires more extensive lighting equipment and often a crew. Also, a bargain on 35 mm film stock could be $30 for a minute of footage, while videotapes cost a tiny fraction of that. After shooting, the film has to be sent to a lab for processing, which creates more time and expense. Then, converting film footage to a digital format to edit it on a computer is a much more involved process than transferring digital footage into a computer.

If you can’t picture the difference between film and video footage, think about images from a Hollywood movie or TV show shot on film and compare them to the images from a newscast or sporting event shot on video. It’s not that 30p video looks bad, but the look of film is what many people consciously or unconsciously believe a beautiful, professional image should look like.

High-def for the Masses
Soon after the VariCams came out, Jens and Steve bought two or three of them for their rental business for about $100,000 each. The cameras were always checked out, because according to them, at the time there were only about 100 VariCams in existence worldwide. But in 2004, the video production world again was turned on its head when Panasonic came out with its prosumer High-definition camera, the HVX 200. Suddenly almost anyone could buy a video camera that shot 24p HD video for $5000, and its images looked pretty good. Although the quality of the images was not quite as good as that of the $100,000 cameras, it was good enough that footage shot on both cameras could be seamlessly intercut.

Steve and Jens were blindsided by this game-changing technology. They knew that the video camera rental business would never be the same. Until then, normal people didn’t buy professional video cameras, they rented them because quality cameras were far too expensive. Now, most professional and avid amateur video/filmmakers were going to buy their own relatively high quality video cameras.

Jens Bogehegn testing a 35 mm film camera for The Great Camera Shootout

A New Opportunity
“We were quite upset, but that was the greatest thing that could have happened to us as a company,” Steve says. Steve and Jens knew that the only way they could stay in business was to find a way to serve the needs of video makers who would be using these new prosumer cameras. After trying out the new technology for themselves they realized that although the video from these cameras looked pretty good, the physical design of the cameras was poor for shooting in a professional manner. The cameras were small, and often not ergonomic, so they were awkward to hold steadily while a cameraman walked with them. The expensive old school cameras were much larger and heavier, but they had been well designed in many respects—they balanced naturally on the shoulder of the camera person and had an electronic viewfinder designed to fit conveniently against the camera person’s eye.

On walls throughout Zacuto’s headquarters, large ancient video cameras are mounted like animal trophies. During my visit, Steve pointed to one of the trophy cameras and with both conviction and sentimentality exclaimed, “That was a great design, ENG—Electronic News Gathering style.”

Inventing the Rigs
As much as Jens and Steve loved the old cameras, they knew what they had to do for their business to survive. They had to make the new prosumer cameras practical for shooting video in a professional manner. So they dove into the manufacturing business, building kits of parts primarily made from aluminum and plastic, which connect with one another to form camera rigs. Steve refers to this concept as the “tinker toy” system. The majority of parts are secured to one another with rods that fit into holes. They are held in place with clamp mechanisms, as opposed to threaded screws. This system gives the pieces flexibility to slide and turn at different angles, so the camera person can customize the rig to their preference.

How It Works
The foundation of Zacuto’s rig system is the Universal Baseplate. They call it universal because it is designed so that any camera can be secured to it. When the camera is secured to the baseplate it has the ability to slide vertically, horizontally and be raised in height. The Universal Baseplate is used to secure the camera to a shoulder mount, tripod or other Zacuto designed devices to hold up the camera. The baseplate is mounted on 15 mm aluminum rods. The rods are made to connect to other components which clamp on as arms. The arms hold features such as handles, microphones, mat boxes, monitors and mechanisms that enable a camera person to smoothly focus or zoom.

Panasonic HPX 170 Zacuto Handheld DOF Filmmaker Kit

The DSLR Revolution
Today, Zacuto’s rigs are more valuable to filmmakers than ever because of the proliferation of DSLRs (digital single lense reflex cameras) which can shoot extremely high quality 24p 1080i High-definition video. Since HD video capability was introduced to DSLRs in 2008, millions of filmmakers worldwide have fallen in love with them for they same reason they loved the VariCam and its prosumer offspring, these cameras have the ability to deliver high quality images resembling those of film for a relatively cheap price. For readers unfamiliar with the terminology, DSLR cameras are the modern digital version of the large still photography cameras traditionally used by professional photographers (SLR cameras are the original analogue version). Photographers and filmmakers like these cameras because they have interchangeable lenses and large image sensors which allow similar depths of field and picture angles to film formats.

Prices of today’s DSLRs without lenses can range from as low as $500 up to $3000, which can sound wonderful to an indy filmmaker on a tight budget. However, despite the potential of these cameras to produce beautiful images, the reality is that they have not been engineered for shooting professional video.

DSLRs are awkward to hold steady for long periods of time, their viewfinders do not work when shooting video, their built-in microphones are lousy, and it is difficult to adjust the cameras’ focus or zoom smoothly on the fly while shooting. Zacuto makes products to solve these problems, costing as low as under $100 for small accessories to several thousand dollars for rig-building kits.

The Production Process

Components for the Z-Finder

Steve and Jens decided from the start that they wanted to manufacture the parts for their Zacuto kits locally as opposed to overseas. One reason for this decision was their concern for quality control, but mainly they needed to have easy and fast communication with their engineers and contract manufacturers because almost every week they are coming up with new ideas for products. With their current workflow routine they can think up a new product and have it on the market in six weeks.

When Steve and Jens come up with a new product idea they first talk to their engineer Bob Zajeski of ZETA Engineering Company, Homer Glen, Ill. He creates an e-drawing and on the same day they analyze it, tweak it and send it back to him. A prototype is then made which gets sent back and fourth for further adjustments. When they come up with a prototype they are satisfied with they test it by using it to shoot a video. Zajeski, who has designed 280 products for Zacuto over the last five years, explained that with the introduction of the lightweight DSLRs, they have had to adapt the kits. Recently they have reduced the weight of the parts by using carbon fiber and thinning out the walls.

A huge advantage for Steve and Jens in developing new products is that they have over 50 years of filmmaking experience between them and they are constantly producing new videos. They use the video equipment they need to build accessories for, while their competitors just observe the technology from the sidelines. For example, one recent trend in video production that Zacuto has addressed is the growing popularity of shooting video with the iPhone. Jens and Steve have designed rigs specifically for the different models of iPhones, consisting of a handgrip attached to a cradle which the phone locks into. They also sell a viewfinder, their patented Z-Finder, that attaches to the iPhone’s screen to give the shooter more stability and a better view of the image.

Manufacturing the Kits
The bulk of Zacuto’s parts are machined at BEM CNC, Schaumburg, Ill., a job shop that makes parts for an array of different industries.

Peacemaker DSLR tripod kit

The parts are machined primarily on milling centers. Fast changeover is a priority rather than fast cycle times because new products are constantly introduced. Volumes range anywhere from 10 to 500 parts. BEM CNC uses several Mori Seiki horizontal machining centers and Brother pallet machines because the pallets enable quick changeover.

Bogdan Falat, one of BEM CNC’s owners, said that the tolerances for Zacuto’s parts range in tightness. The parts aren’t going into airplanes, but Falat said that some of them are relatively intricate. He also said that Zacuto puts a high priority on the aesthetics of the parts. BEM CNC constantly watches over the parts to make sure their red color is consistent when they come back after being anodized.

Zacuto’s Next Challenge
Steve and Jens have recently embarked on their first foray into electronics by engineering the very first electronic viewfinder (EVF) specifically designed for DSLR cameras (see photo below). In essence, it is a 3.2” monitor that one will put in front of the viewfinder Zacuto currently makes.

Part of the DSLR Z-Cage kit

One of the current drawbacks of shooting video with DSLRs is that although the cameras have viewfinders for taking still photos, a camera person can only see their video images on an LCD screen on the back of the camera. This is the trend for most consumer and prosumer video cameras today—to see an image the camera person has to look at a flip-out LCD screen. LCD screens can be difficult to see when you’re around a lot of sunlight, they are not as accurate for focusing on an image, and they take away an important method for holding a camera steady—pushing it firmly against the eye.
Presently, Zacuto manufactures its Z-Finder, which is a viewfinder that attaches directly onto the LCD panel on the back of the DSLR camera. It helps to steady the camera, block out light, and focus, but a camera person must have their face pushed right up against the camera at all times, which limits the ways it can be rigged and positioned.

The new electronic viewfinder will enable a camera person to look through a viewfinder that isn’t pressed up against the back of the body of the camera. The camera body connects to the viewfinder with a standard HDMI cable, the same cable one would use to connect a computer or HD camcorder to an HD TV. All the parts for the monitor will be assembled and manufactured in the United States apart from the panel for the screen. Jens and Steve say there is no other company they know of today that manufactures an electronic monitor of that type in the United States.

Their First Love
When Steve and Jens went into the manufacturing business in 2004, they made a vow to themselves that the only way they were going to do it was if they could fulfill their personal passions to make films too. Jens and Steve produce three ongoing Web series, Critics, Film Fellas, and The Great Camera Shootout.

On Critics Steve and co-host Philip Bloom review films created specifically for the Web. On The Great Camera Shootout Steve and Jens Compare the latest DSLRs with traditional film cameras. On Film Fellas they record veterans of the film industry discussing the world of filmmaking over dinner. In addition to those series, Steve and Jens are constantly making videos demonstrating and educating current and potential customers about their products. All of the videos have a great energy, and Steve and Jens glow as they have fun with their products and discuss filmmaking. The videos speak to the heart and soul of the two manufacturing filmmakers, who approach their lives’ work with a refreshing zeal.

Looking through Zacuto’s electronic viewfinder prototype.

“If you were to ask me … first and foremost, I’m a filmmaker. And that’s what I want to do. I’m a manufacturer and I love doing it, but I started as a filmmaker and I’m going to end as a filmmaker,” says Steve.

Jens follows, “It’s still weird to think that we’re manufacturing. It’s another creative outlet, just … I’d rather make films than make the products. But at the core, it all comes from probably the same part of your brain—the creative part. You’ve got to be creative with anything you do.”

For more information or to watch the videos mentioned
in the article visit Zacuto at www.zacuto.com.

Doug Glanville

After attending the University of Pennsylvania for engineering, Doug Glanville played centerfield for the Chicago Cubs and Philadelphia Phillies from 1996 to 2004, accumulating 1100 hits and a 293-game errorless streak. He is currently a baseball commentator for ESPN, has an op-ed column in the New York Times and just released his new book, The Game from Where I Stand, a personal account of day-to-day life in the Big-Leagues.

What was it like to be traded to the Phillies from the Cubs after being in Chicago for just a year?
DG: It was two days before Christmas. I was in my basement and had recently heard that my grandfather had passed away. The phone rang and they said, “Hey, we’ve got news for you. We’ve just traded you to Philadelphia. Good luck.” That was about it. Ed Lynch, the Cubs GM, called me. I was disappointed. I had come up through the minors in the Cubs system, so I felt that after all I had to go through to get there, I’d stay awhile. I knew it was a better opportunity for me to play every day in Philly, so I was fine with that, but it was hard.

Are players constantly paranoid that they could go into a slump and lose their starting job?
DG: Yeah, I think there’s paranoia. It’s not only about [slumps], it’s the general cultural issues players face, like being replaced or sent down or traded. You’re always looking over your shoulder on some level. You try to play and look forward but when you’re struggling, it’s a lot harder to do that. You’re always worried about losing an edge, a step, a job, getting old. And change happens very quickly in Major League Baseball for sure.

Did your teammates look at you strangely, coming from an Ivy League university?
DG: The thing about baseball that I find fascinating and I enjoy is that it’s a little bit of Bull Durham. When you’re in the Minor Leagues, there are a lot of restrictions and you may be labeled or categorized. But in the Big Leagues, if you’re a productive Major League player, the things that are different about you are kind of celebrated. Like, “oh, you’re unique. You’re Jimmy Rollins and you’re the small guy who does well.” Or, “you’re the guy whose parents were running from Castro in Cuba.” And a lot of guys know a lot about different things. Maybe they didn’t study astrophysics like I did in college, but Billy Wagoner knows how to have an alpaca farm.

Read full article here >>

Rick Harrison

Rick Harrison started the Gold and Silver Pawn Shop on the outskirts of Las Vegas with his father, Richard, in 1988. The shop is one of the most successful pawn shops in the country, dealing in items as diverse and valuable as Super Bowl rings, Picasso paintings, gold bars, even Bridgeport mills. Today, he stars with his father, “Old Man,” and son, Corey, on the History Channel’s hit reality show Pawn Stars.

How did your pawn shop begin?
RH: First [my dad] had a little coin shop. We graduated from the coin shop to an old secondhand shop and then to the pawn shop. It’s impossible basically to get a new pawn license in Las Vegas. It took us years to figure out a way to get one. In 1955, the good old boys got together and they decided that they wanted to have a little monopoly on the pawn shops. So they had the city council pass a law saying that when the city population got to 250,000, they would issue one more pawn license. The city population at the time was right around 25,000, so they obviously assumed it was never going to happen. In ‘87, I went down to the city and checked out the law. I started calling the city statistician once a week. In April of ‘88, lo and behold, the city population reached 250,000. Five minutes later I was down at the business license place saying, “Give me my license.”

Why did you want to have a pawn shop? What about it in particular appealed to you?
RH: They made a lot more money than secondhand shops because no one wants to sell their stuff. A lot of people want to get loans on it, and it’s just a lot easier with a pawn license than it is a secondhand license. A lot of people don’t realize this, but 20 percent of the adult population in this country does not have a bank account and cannot get one. A credit card is never going to happen for them, so they come to pawn shops. They borrow money from me and they shop here. It’s sort of like a subculture a lot of people don’t know about.

But on the show everybody sells their stuff.
RH: That’s because people borrowing money don’t want the world to know they’re broke. It’s not necessarily that they’re desperate; sometimes they’re just a little embarrassed that they’ve run short on money for rent that month. A lot of times I get extremely well-off, successful people who have lost too much money gambling.

Read full article here

Since then, playing doubles has never been the same. I never say “sorry” any more, and the moment my partner says he’s sorry I say, “Don’t worry, just stay aggressive.”  Of course after that it’s a given that I don’t have to say sorry anymore either.

I have the same rule when dancing, as I’ve been addicted to salsa dancing for the last four years. The moment my partner says sorry, I smile and say, “Baby, you never have to say you’re sorry to me, at least for screwing up.” Just like in tennis we both relax more, we dance better and usually have a good time.

The “no sorry” rule should definitely be in effect in a business setting as well. When a team gets together to come up with new ideas or strategies, its members need to know they are safe to ask questions or bring up ideas which may turn out to be lousy. If employees fear they will be punished through ridicule, embarrassment or firing they probably will be afraid to bring up anything interesting or creative. Sometimes when I have writer’s block or I’m stumped by a problem, I ask myself, “What’s the most ridiculous idea you can think of?” Believe it or not, often those ideas turn out to be the best ones. Or a “stupid” idea can lead a discussion to a whole new approach that wouldn’t have been explored had it not been brought up.

At Today’s Machining World and Graff-Pinkert, I’m blessed to work in an environment where bringing up strange ideas is encouraged, even if they turn out to be complete garbage. Discussions are most beautiful when no sorries are allowed. Do you have the no sorry rule in your business?

Question: Does the “no sorry” rule work in marriage?

If you want contact Noah Graff directly you can
email him at noah@todaysmachiningworld.com

Interview: William Pizer, Economist and expert on environmental and climate change

William Pizer is a highly regarded economist. At the time of this interview he was Senior Fellow at Resources for the Future, a think-tank in Washington D.C., which does research on environmental, energy and natural resource issues. From 2001-2002, he served as Senior Economist on President Bush’s Council of Economic Advisers where he worked on environmental and climate change issues.

What is a think-tank?
A think-tank is a place where people come up with ideas and then try to explain them to people.

How do think-tanks differ from one another?
Different think-tanks can have different ideology associated with them – like free markets, or protecting land, or education. They also differ to the extent to which they are in the research and educate mode. Some think-tanks come with a real agenda and they try to fi t research into their agenda. And some think-tanks do research and use the research to create an agenda. I think of Resources for the Future as being more of the latter.

When you worked for the Bush Administration did you agree with its environmental policy?
I wasn’t doing broad based policy work for the administration. I was very narrowly focused on energy and the environment. I got to be involved with a lot of the decisions they were making. The ideas that I came into the room with may not have been the ideas that won the day. They made the decisions that I think were consistent with their view of what was best for the country.

What did you think of the Kyoto Protocol?
The Kyoto Protocol was, is, on the one hand, a miraculous first step towards dealing with climate change. It’s amazing that as many countries were able to agree to it and that it’s been ratified by as many as it has been. It was also in a lot of ways a very poorly designed agreement – particularly from the U.S. perspective. The requirements on the U.S. were more onerous than they were on any other country because the U.S. simply grows a lot more than other countries.

What is the difference between global warming and climate change?
Global warming suggests that the whole earth is going to heat up. Climate change suggests that there are going to be general changes in the climatic patterns, some of which may be a global warming phenomena. Some of it may be regional warming. Some of it may be changes in precipitation or storms – weather patterns or things like that.

Is climate change irreversible? Is it permanent?
It’s not necessarily permanent, but it’s pretty damn hard to change because the gasses that we’re talking about – once you emit them, they stay in the atmosphere for 100 years or more.

What are you most optimistic about for the future of the environment?
I’m generally optimistic about the environment as a whole just because as we get richer as a country and as the world gets richer as a place, we’re able to afford a lot more environmental amenities. And people generally want a cleaner environment as they deal with the basic necessities of food and clothing and shelter.

What are you most afraid of happening to the environment in the future?
It clearly is battling against other forces, mainly our continued thirst for natural resources. So there’s kind of a question about whether both the global population expansion and poor people’s pursuit of the basic necessities will erode the environment faster than the wealth accumulation allows people to purchase environmental things.

What is one thing you really love about your job?
I really like helping people understand stuff – whether it’s an environmental problem, an energy problem, a political problem, whatever. You’re helping them think creatively about something and hopefully in the process making better public policies.

If you could be a machine, what would you be?
Probably an airplane or a spaceship. The idea of traveling long distances and being a fairly sophisticated piece of machinery – that’s kind of nifty.

This article was originally published in the Sept. 2006 issue of Today’s Machining World

Thomas Clouse is a 31-year-old freelance journalist living and working in China since 2002. He has written for Global Finance, Accounting and Business Magazine, and Automotive News China. We asked him to give us an insider’s perspective on an American living in China.

What made you go to China to be a freelance reporter?
I majored in philosophy and economics, and both attracted me to China. I went there in 1997 and traveled, then went back in 2002 to teach English for a year. Shortly after that, I applied to a Chinese magazine in Beijing that was searching for an English editor.

Are you fluent in Chinese?
Spoken Mandarin, yes. I’m still working on the written Chinese.

What strikes you as the major difference between Chinese and American people?
I think Americans are very individual-oriented. They’re conscious of themselves, of expressing themselves and being different. In China, there is a group mentality. I think the strongest example is their emphasis on family.

What’s the make-up of the friends you’ve made in China?
About half my friends are Chinese and half are foreign. The ex-patriot community in Beijing is also a very interesting group of people. There are diplomats and investment bankers and filmmakers and artists – it’s a really diverse collection of people.

Read full article here

Dr. Hong and the Blind Driver Challenge Team at Virginia Tech. Photo courtesy of Virginia Tech

Dr. Dennis Hong is an associate professor of Mechanical Engineering at Virginia Tech and the director of the Robotics & Mechanisms Laboratory (RoMeLa). He is also faculty advisor for the Blind Driver Challenge, a project to develop a vehicle that can be driven by the blind.

What brought about this project?
DH: In 2004 the National Federation of the Blind (NFB) had announced a challenge to the research community to develop a car that can be driven by the blind. [Virginia Tech] already had a fantastic research program in fully autonomous vehicles, finishing third at the DARPA Urban Challenge. We thought that this was a very challenging project, and so far we’re the only team that has accepted the challenge.

What is the goal of the project?
DH: The immediate goal is to develop a car that can be driven by the blind, but there’s a more important aspect to it. We want to show society that blind people have the capability of handling complex tasks. We also want to give hope to the blind about what kind of freedom technology might eventually provide them. We’re also interested and excited about the potential spin-off technologies from this project, such as early warning detection systems for the safety of sighted drivers, and technology that can be used by blind people in nondriving applications, like the use of everyday home appliances.

How does the system work?
DH: There are three parts to it. Part one is perception. Because the person cannot see, the car needs to gather information about its surroundings. The main sensor of this Version Number 1 uses a laser range finder. A small laser shoots out from the front—it’s like a laser pointer that you use in a presentation. If there is an obstacle in front of it, it bounces off and measures the time of flight of the laser beam. You know the speed of light, you know the time, thus you can calculate the distance to the obstacle. The laser range finder scans in front of the vehicle and builds a map around the vehicle. Part two is computation. The computer takes the map of information and calculates the safest way to drive—which direction and what speed. Part three is probably the most difficult—non-visual user interfaces. How do you convey this high bandwidth of real information to a driver who cannot see? First of all, the car has a seatbelt that looks like a vest or harness. The vest vibrates in different patterns, and those patterns give speed information to the driver. For directional information we have a steering wheel. We call it the “Click Wheel” because when you move it, it makes “click, click, click” sounds. An audio system with headphones then gives commands like “three clicks to the left,” or “five clicks to the right.”

So the results have been good?
DH: We did some testing that was successful, but that’s not the end of the story. It turns out we had what we call the “backseat driver problem.” People can drive it, but it’s not that fun. People don’t feel the freedom because the decisions are made by the computer telling them when to stop, when to go, turn left, turn right.

What can you do about that?
DH: We’re changing the direction right now. We’re working on the second version and we have a prototype that we use on the first version of the vehicle. We call this device AirPix. Think of it as a computer monitor for the blind. It looks like a tablet. There are a lot of small holes on the tablet and compressed air shoots out of them in certain patterns to display the map around the area (used from information from the laser range finder). When the person puts his or her hand over the device they can “see” the environment and then make an active decision how to drive.

Are you gong to be testing the car on regular roads?
DH: In July 2011, the second generation Blind Driver Challenge vehicle will be driven by a blind person from Baltimore, Maryland, to Orlando, Florida, which is about 900 miles. It’s going to be a combination of highway and regular road driving. The details are not set yet.