https://www.robinhayes.net/home daily 1.0 2025-07-28 https://www.robinhayes.net/contact daily 0.75 2021-07-16 https://www.robinhayes.net/about daily 0.75 2025-07-28 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6052743eb9e9802a7615b2e8/1618340649929-3NYLSWJUXI1OB5NKB0KL/SmilingInHat.png About Me https://www.robinhayes.net/innovation daily 0.75 2021-08-03 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6052743eb9e9802a7615b2e8/1626374411814-51AEYLQZM1H6ETIVKG3Z/TiVo_iPad_App.png Innovation - Innovation-Focused One of my strengths is seeing the big picture and using that perspective to push products into new areas of growth. One example of this was the TiVo iPad app. I had written an internal white-paper at TiVo, advocating for a touch-screen remote which would have searching and browsing capabilities. When the iPad 1 released, I immediately saw the potential of this device as a “second screen experience,” allowing people to interact with the TiVo, browse what to watch next while still viewing their current program on the TV, and control the playback of live TV through Wi-Fi instead of an infra-red remote control. Nothing like this existed in the world of interactive TV at the time. Despite design management being highly skeptical, and wanting just a remote control ported to the iPad, I was given the go-ahead—with no staff and a tiny budget. I outsourced engineering of the iPad app to a small contract firm I found, and worked closely with them and the back-end system engineers at TiVo to allow for Wi-Fi control of the set-top box itself. Meanwhile I created the overall architecture, all the screen layouts and visual design elements (including gesture-based controls) for the project. I drove the project from inception to final release including Apple store approvals (which were quite strict at the time on their flagship iPad product), as well as working with the IP team to patent many aspects of this feature for TiVo’s patent portfolio. After it was finished and it proved to be a powerful new way to use our product we were able to grow the team to 3 to port it to other platforms such as iPhone and Android. After release, this first-of-it’s-kind free feature showed wide adoption and inspired several press articles and similar apps from our competitors. Another example of this innovative thinking is the Samsung sound field speaker project, where my initial hardware proof-of-concept in microphone-array sound-field technology allowed our group to push a simple home speaker into a new category of personal assistant (pre-Alexa). I was able to provide the necessary technical and intellectual property diligence to allow the project to move forward by creating a working prototype that featured an Arduino-based voice detection system which proved the concept was valid. We used the prototype to convince skeptical executives at HQ in Korea, where it was ultimately well received by the CEO of Samsung Electronics and influenced the development of other products in the Smart Speaker lineup. https://www.robinhayes.net/technology daily 0.75 2021-08-03 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6052743eb9e9802a7615b2e8/1626120733816-BMGFMEW88ZHOCQWX10J0/image-asset.png Technology - Technical Chops I started my career as a software engineer and architect, giving me professional-level knowledge of software design patterns and database design. I have worked in large and small code-bases in many languages from C++ to SQL, and recently I have been studying machine learning in Python. This has given me the ability to quickly come up to speed on the deeply technical aspects of a project and integrate them into my design thinking, avoiding expensive time wasted pursuing un-implementable design ideas. One example of this is the Voice Control TV project at Samsung. The existing corporate structure positioned product management as message carriers between the design and engineering organizations. This often resulted in frustrating games of “telephone” where nuanced engineering feedback about which parts of the design were difficult or time-consuming got simplified into “they can’t do it.” When I joined the project I quickly got up to speed on the voice recognition technology stacks that were available at the time. This helped me understand the potential technical issues and communicate more effectively with the engineering team about their concerns. At Samsung HQ in Korea my technical skills allowed me to build rapport with their normally-resistant engineering team. Because of this we were able to find compromises to avoid exceeding the performance budgets of the limited hardware without sacrificing features critical to an excellent user experience. Understanding the technology stack from top to bottom not only allowed me to make a design that was implementable, but allowed me to differentiate between engineering’s hard “no” (that’s not possible) and soft “no,” (that sounds tricky) both of which are often phrased as “yes". https://www.robinhayes.net/vr-journey daily 0.75 2025-02-19 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6052743eb9e9802a7615b2e8/1627332522819-XH3AKHA1QDKU851AXFHL/VR_portrait.jpg My Journey - Boss Man - 2015 Interactive Job Interview Unity - Oculus Go https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6052743eb9e9802a7615b2e8/1626128024914-3JRDCUQ1J0H0HW98JVB4/Three_books_VR.png My Journey - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6052743eb9e9802a7615b2e8/1627077499540-KH7B920Z1YEDSET45IR3/GuruCharacter.png My Journey - iWithin Guru - 2016 Unpublished interactive character in collaboration with Geppetto Avatars and Media Tuners. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6052743eb9e9802a7615b2e8/1626132020452-INMZ0PKR04M4HGPXBDGN/VRML_collage.png My Journey - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://www.robinhayes.net/design daily 0.75 2021-08-11 https://www.robinhayes.net/expression daily 0.75 2021-08-11 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6052743eb9e9802a7615b2e8/1627525371863-R3ND4D7VI642OPR6EQHH/CardsConcept.png Expression - Cards Metaphor - 2014 A motion design study for a TV browsing interface. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6052743eb9e9802a7615b2e8/1627075736457-6L2XUEE48SKNL4RR4E3B/GuruJack.gif Expression - Jack - 2016 An interactive character for a voice-chat based meditation app. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6052743eb9e9802a7615b2e8/1627073721896-V93RWDB27EH5WE66568B/hayesavers_set.png Expression - HayeSavers - 1994 A set of screen-savers for SGI workstations. https://www.robinhayes.net/resume daily 0.75 2024-10-15 https://www.robinhayes.net/price-sheet daily 0.75 2025-02-19 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6052743eb9e9802a7615b2e8/fd23268f-7eb8-4491-83bd-43a1bff76dba/spiralroom.jpg https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6052743eb9e9802a7615b2e8/b638bcbe-ad55-46d7-8aa6-68e8e34cc5cd/Landscape_LakeLacunarity_9.png https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6052743eb9e9802a7615b2e8/dd438f94-ecad-4354-93fc-571e6c9cc422/Landscape_NodesCanyon_9.png https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6052743eb9e9802a7615b2e8/ee4ff03d-8f70-4f71-8596-125c795d1114/Landscape_mesas_1.png