Welcome to Charles Spencer’s personal Blog: Learn about the founder of ThinkLive!
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TLive Inc. technology at MakersCon 2014
ThinkLive! Inc.'s STEAM Focus
ThinkLive! Inc. was invited by Richard “DJ QBert” Quitevis and Thud Rumble to bring our technology to Intel’s “Edison Microprocessor” group and to participate in Makers Faire and Makers Con 2014. As a result, we were able to push forward our broader company STEAM mission (i.e., STEM knowledge reinforced through the “arts”). Derived from the fact that connections with the arts frequently reinforce, incentivize and support the learning of fields generally under-explored and in which youth under-perform. Our goal is to have students of all ages acquire the needed competencies, via our youth outreach programs, to create unique programs from the data derived from the SensorTable system.
DJ QBert captivating the youth via turntable artistry at the Intel sponsered Makers Faire booth 2014.
Richard “DJ QBert” Quitevis , Richard "HardRich" Johnson, Scott Lopker (Intel), Ritchie "YogaFrog" Desuasido and CAS. Intel/ThudRumble Booth Makers Faire 2014
CES 2020 Eureka Park
On January 8th 2020, ThinkLive! Inc. hosted a booth at the United States Government Start Up Showcase “Eureka Park” at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES).
ThinkLive! Inc. introduced to attendees the multiple features and capabilities of its newly designed STEM Turntable Workstation.:
Pictured: ThinkLive! CEO Charles Spencer with Secretary of Commerce Wilbur L. Ross, United States Chief Technology Officer Michael Kratsios and Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property / Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office Andrei Iancu. Copyright ThinkLive! Inc.
Government Agencies supporting small businesses:
Representatives from the United States Patent and Trademark Office, National Science Foundation, Small Business Administration and SelectUSA showed up at Eureka park. Copyright ThinkLive! Inc.
Learn coding via turntablism. Copyright ThinkLive! Inc.
Copyright ThinkLive! Inc.
Saul Ramos, Deputy District Director SBA; Nevada District Office Copyright ThinkLive! Inc.
Copyright ThinkLive! Inc.
1st and goal
The USPTO Eureka park pavilion highlighted inventors from the National Inventors Hall of Fame including the inventor of the yellow down maker line! Copyright ThinkLive! Inc.
Las Vegas, NV January, 8, 2020 -- Secretary of Commerce Wilbur L. Ross, United States Chief Technology Officer Michael Kratsios and USPTO Director Andrei Iancu. Additionally, pictured, Richard Johnson and Dr. Tirzah R. Spencer - Photo Credit(1-3): Jeff Isaacs/USPTO Provider Jeff Isaacs USPTO - Copyright USPTO; Copyright ThinkLive! Inc.
STEM Turntable Workstation:
ThinkLive! Inc.'s hardware and software illustrated for attendees the data attributes of turntable manipulation. Captured data provided by ThinkLive! Inc. hardware and software directly facilitates the integration of curriculum content currently underway at the University of Chicago by Dr. Margaret Beale Spencer, Marshall Field IV Professor of Urban Education and Life Course Development. In partnership with her national team of curriculum experts, state standards are linked to STEM lesson development. Mr. Spencer demonstrated his educational technology innovation to top officials and other distinguished government leadership including Secretary of Commerce, Wilbur L. Ross, United States Chief Technology Officer Michael Kratsios and United States Patent Technology Office Director Andrei Iancu. Along with physics, engineering and math concepts, the hardware and software demonstration established the innovation’s capability for teaching computer programming and coding via turntable manipulation. In one computer science exercise, the team demonstrated the capacity of students to change the color of the turntable platter through computer language JavaScript. Attendees witnessed 3 Computer Science lessons developed for middle school students that involve loops, conditionals and other basic computer science lessons.
TLive! STEM Turntable Workstation (TM). ThinkLive! Inc. and Secretary of Commerce Wilbur L. Ross. Photo Credit: Jeff Isaacs/USPTO Provider Jeff Isaacs USPTO Copyright USPTO
“(ThinkLive!) “created and patented a turntable that houses three sensors to track vinyl, platter and tone-arm movement. It removes the need for vinyl records with timecode to interact with digital audio. The turntable will actually work with any piece of vinyl and track, as well as vinyl with timecode tracks. But it’s what it does with that tracking data that’s impressive.””
Milestones:
• Received global patents to insure a strong competitive advantage.
• Completed a prototype of the hardware component of our unit.
• Received support from world renowned and widely connected DJ and turntablist DJ QBert. QBert’s Thud Rumble team is:
1. Closely associated with turntable manufacturers
2. Globally linked with top DJs
3. Influential with corporations including Intel, Apple and major software providers.
• Presented our technology with Intel’s Edison chip team for the 10th annual Bay Area Maker Faire (May 16 - 17th).
• 2018 National Science Foundation - Small Business Innovation Research - Grant Phase I awardee (January 1, 2018)
• 2019 National Science Foundation - Small Business Innovation Research - Grant Phase II awardee (August 1, 2019)
Reinventing the Turntable
TLive! Inc. Technology featured: (1:03) ThudRumble Intel Makers advertisement Published on Aug 17, 2015
“This is the future of DJing” - Richard “DJ QBert” Quitevis
Photography from engadget article: "The DJs of Silicon Valley who are changing music"
Patent: US 6,881,949
Platter Sensor
The Technology
Our product will allow a DJ musician to creatively manipulate any digital media format (Digital Video, Video game FML, Digital Music, etc.) utilizing the traditional turntable, the Pro DJs instrument of choice. Specifically, our innovation utilizes coordinate location data to track acoustic changes to correspond with desired digital audio/video representations.
Captured Data
The Data
The SensorTable allows the DJ to save and upload their “Mixing Data.” This data is a unique “fingerprint,” which musically portrays how a DJ mixes and scratches from song to song. The “Mix-Data” then can be uploaded for use in multiple applications.
Removable Platter
Patent Technology
"While we commonly think of IP in the entertainment business as copyrights in songs or trademarks on labels, (ThinkLive!) is using a patenting strategy to help Thinklive! prosper."
- Under Secretary David Kappos 8.26.2010
Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO)
Polsky - Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation @ The University of Chicago:
The DJ technology startup ThinkLive! is developing turntable labs to engage students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) – working closely with the University of Chicago to create a new curriculum around the platform.
The ThinkLive!Turntable Lab combines DJ equipment and an educational curriculum to expose kids to science, coding, and math concepts – with the goal of closing the STEM skills gap between under-resourced and affluent students, a divide which could cost the economy more than $2 trillion dollars in the next decade.