Larry describes signal experiences from his earlier career in machine vision that led to his work in innovation today.
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In this seven and a half minute segment (download iPod compatible, 40MB), Inovo co-founder Larry Schmitt talks about his career in machine vision and how it led to his current work in innovation. Larry chose to do a Ph.D. in machine vision because he thought it would give him a chance to learn how the human mind works by modeling some of its functions in a computer. He chose not to pursue a career in academia, a normal route for many people completing a Ph.D., because he wanted to see his ideas implemented.
The contrast between academic and applied problems was stark. In academia, Larry designed algorithms that would interpret a scene with three hours of computational effort. At Larry's first posting in General Electric, the time constraint was 30 milliseconds.
He came back to Southeast Michigan to work in a startup because, at the time, the auto industry was considered one of the prime application areas for machine vision. However, it soon became apparent to Larry's company that the real opportunity was in semiconductors where machine vision was critical due to the speed of manufacturing and the small form factors involved. So, the company reoriented from their previous focus on automobile manufacturing to semiconductor fabrication.
Intriguingly, this story bears a strong resemblance to the types of things Larry's current company, Inovo, tries to help his clients do today.
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