We were sitting in a small, single person office the team had worked to convert into a comfortable demo room. It had a couch and a few chairs crammed in around the center piece - a glowing box. Our demo machine was the size of a small coffee table and the demo required people to be on all sides of the 'table'. I was showing off how you could use your fingers and objects to interact with the surface of the table - a completely new experience that was simple and engaging, but underneath the hood was driven by very powerful imaging and input software. My guest was watching like a scientist observing a chemical reaction unfolding in a beaker. My guest was a very special person, Don Norman. I had read his book, Design for Everyday Things and was thrilled to be entertaining an idol. 

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​My favorite work was on the original Microsoft Surface table (below) which uniquely recognized multiple fingers and objects that touched the table surface. Prior to this product, most personal computing was done through an intermediary - the mouse and keyboard. Surface allowed a person to directly touch their content or use a physical object to interact with digital content (like a physical air hockey paddle and a digital puck).

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Technology can be made more exciting by being super easy to use, almost magical, even if it is extremely complicated underneath. This is my unique skill set. For example, most recently having led Audio Magic Eraser on Pixel phones. 'AME' as we like to call it, allows you to magically erase (or enhance), specific sounds in a video that you've taken - like a dog barking or excessive wind noise. It uses AI to separate out the sounds and identify them with the click of a button.