FullName

Ben Discoe


Organization

Virtual Terrain Project


Role
Partner

Description

Ben, with a background in Engineering and Applied Science / Computer Science from California Institute of Technology, is a consultant for clients in Europe and the USA, implementing 3D visualization functionality and adapting the VTP and other open-source libraries to client needs. He worked in 2002-4 on the Open Planning Project for New York City, adding a level of 3D WFS client functionality to support their efforts in advancing a free, distributed, and open geographic information infrastructure. He worked in 2002 with Itron/Linesoft Inc., Spokane, WA to provide consulting on geospatial data issues and C++ development support for the interactive 3D component of their new product, TL-Pro, an engineering tool for power transmission lines.

Working with Virtual Technologies Inc. (Immersion Corp.), Palo Alto, CA, 2001-2, Ben did development, testing and documentation for a legacy 3D IDE SimStudio, transforming it into a sellable commercial tool, VirtualHand Studio. Worked with the CyberGlove VR device. Re-wrote their primary application (Device Calibration) from Java to C++ with open, platform-independent APIs.

During three years, 1997-2000, with Intel Corporation, Ben developed tools and applications for advanced parallel architectures, supporting distributed simulation and rendering. He created massive interactive 3D environments with high image quality based on real geospatial data to catalyze the demand for future, higher-performance hardware platforms. Prior to that, from1992-1997 he worked with Sense8 Corporation, Mill Valley, CA doing development, testing, and support for WorldToolKit, at the time the world's most mature 3D/VR API, and World Up, a powerful development environment for rapid prototyping of 3D/VR applications. He also did world creation for service contracts. He handled all aspects of product development, including documentation, demo and sample creation, customer training, interface design, technical support, version control, trade show presentation, debugging and feature implementation, quality assurance and user tutorials.