Alex Kipman | |
---|---|
Born | 1979 (age 44–45)[1] |
Other names | Technical Fellow |
Education | Rochester Institute of Technology |
Alex Kipman (born 1979) is a Brazilian engineer. He was the lead developer of the Microsoft HoloLens smartglasses and helped develop the Xbox Kinect.[2][3]
Biography
Kipman was born in Curitiba in 1979.[1][3] The son of a Brazilian diplomat, Kipman grew up around the world.[4] When he was seven or eight, he learned how to program the Atari 2600.[5] Later on he would go to RIT, graduating in 2001 with a degree in software engineering and joined Microsoft that same year,[6][7] starting development on Microsoft's integrated development environment (IDE) Visual Studio. Starting 2005, he helped in the development of Microsoft Windows, until joining the Xbox department in 2008,[8] where he oversaw the acquisition of the technology for the Xbox Kinect from an Israeli company,[9] PrimeSense.[10] The product was finished two years later.[5]
In 2011, Time magazine named him to its list of its 100 Most Influential People in the World, a list consisting of leaders, artists, innovators, icons and heroes. In a subsequent interview with Fast Company, he said "Software is the only art form in existence that is not bound by the confines of physics."[11][8][12] In 2012 he was named Inventor of the Year by the Intellectual Property Owners Association.[13][14]
In 2013, Kipman gave the commencement speech at his alma mater, the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT).[15][16]
In 2016, he gave a Ted Talk on mixed reality, called "A futuristic vision of the age of Holograms".[3][17][18] In a 2017 interview with Alice Bonasio, he emphasized his passion for mixed reality, stating how it gives him a sense of "displacement superpowers".[19] During the Hololens 2 reveal at the Mobile World Congress in 2019, Alex Kipman talked about how the Hololens 2 would be the "next era" of mixed reality, making it more culturally relevant.[20]
In 2019 while he was developing metaverse technologies, the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C named Kipman the winner of an American Ingenuity Award, calling him a pioneer of holographic and augmented reality technology.[21] Later that year he gave a speech in Shanghai announcing that Microsoft's second-generation HoloLens would ship later that year.[22]
In 2021, he received the Longuet-Higgins Prize by the Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence (PAMI) Technical Committee at the Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR) for fundamental contributions in computer vision.[23]
Leaving Microsoft
In May 2022, it was announced Kipman would leave Microsoft later in the year. A report from Business Insider (now rebranded as Insider) accused Alex Kipman and other Microsoft execs of harassment,[24][25] later reporting that Kipman would resign his position at Microsoft after a two-month transitional period.[26]
Accolades
- Popular Mechanics Breakthrough Award (2009)[27]
- Producers Guild of America Digital 25: Visionaries, Innovators and Producers list (2010)[28][29]
- Time's Top 25 Nerds of the Year (2010)[30][3]
- Time's 2011 100 People of the Year[6]
- Fast Company 100 Most Creative People in Business (2011)[31]
- National Inventor of the Year, Intellectual Property Foundation (2012)[6]
- Rochester Institute of Technology Innovators Hall of Fame (2013)[32]
- Smithsonian American Ingenuity Awards (2019)[33]
- Longuet-Higgins prize by IEEE for fundamental contributions in computer vision (2021)[23]
References
- 1 2 Ridolfi, Edoardo (May 5, 2015). "Alex Kipman, il papà di Kinect e HoloLens". Cultora. Retrieved June 18, 2020.
- ↑ "Alex Kipman". awexr.com. AWE 2020. Retrieved May 29, 2020.
- 1 2 3 4 Heyn, Beth (October 3, 2017). "Alex Kipman, Microsoft HoloLens Inventor: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know". Heavy.com. Retrieved June 17, 2020.
- ↑ "A Career of Thriving on 'Impossible Projects' – Including Kinect for Xbox 360". Stories. June 12, 2012. Retrieved October 26, 2022.
- 1 2 Honorato, Renata. "'Kinect é só o primeiro passo', diz o brasileiro que está revolucionando o mundo dos games". veja.abril.com.br. Archived from the original on November 21, 2010.
- 1 2 3 "RIT Innovation Hall of Fame". www.rit.edu. Retrieved July 4, 2020.
- ↑ "Alex Kipman (Brazil)". www.epo.org. Retrieved July 5, 2020.
- 1 2 Eadicicco, Lisa. "Meet The Man Behind Microsoft's Ambitious Vision For The Future Of Computing". Business Insider. Retrieved July 5, 2020.
- ↑ Hester, Blake (January 14, 2020). "All the money in the world couldn't make Kinect happen". Polygon. Retrieved May 27, 2022.
- ↑ Review, MIT Technology. "PrimeSense". MIT Technology Review. Retrieved May 27, 2022.
- ↑ "19. Alex Kipman". Fastcompany.com. Fast Company.
- ↑ "The 2011 TIME 100 Poll". Time. April 4, 2011. Retrieved July 27, 2022.
- ↑ "Inventor of the Year". Intellectual Property Owners Association. August 6, 2012. Retrieved July 27, 2022.
- ↑ Moser, Mindy (December 13, 2012). "Alex Kipman '01 named Inventor of the Year". Rochester Institute of Technology. Retrieved July 27, 2022.
- ↑ "2013 Commencement". www.rit.edu. Retrieved October 26, 2022.
- ↑ 2013 RIT Convocation Alex Kipman Keynote Address, retrieved October 26, 2022
- ↑ Hussein, Al. "Top 5 AR TED Talks You Must Watch". augmania. Augmania. Retrieved July 11, 2020.
- ↑ Kipman, Alex (March 25, 2016). "A futuristic vision of the age of holograms". Retrieved August 29, 2020.
- ↑ Bonasio, Alice. "Is Mixed Reality The Future Of Computing?". fastcompany.com. Fast Company.
- ↑ Warren, Tom (February 25, 2019). "Microsoft's new open model for Windows and HoloLens 2 impresses Epic's Tim Sweeney". theverge.com. Vox Media, LLC.
- ↑ "Smithsonian American Ingenuity Awards 2019: Alex Kipman". Smithsonian Magazine. December 11, 2019. Retrieved July 27, 2022.
- ↑ "Microsoft says new augmented reality headset to go on sale in September". Reuters. August 28, 2019. Retrieved July 27, 2022.
- 1 2 "PAMITC AWARDS | CVPR 2021". cvpr2021.thecvf.com. Retrieved October 26, 2022.
- ↑ Daniel Rubino (May 25, 2022). "A new report calls out Alex Kipman and other Microsoft execs for 'verbal abuse and sexual harassment'". Windows Central. Retrieved May 27, 2022.
- ↑ "Microsoft staff accuse execs of misconduct, abuse". GamesIndustry.biz. May 26, 2022. Retrieved May 27, 2022.
- ↑ "HoloLens co-creator Alex Kipman is resigning from Microsoft following Insider's report about misconduct allegations". Insider. Archived from the original on June 8, 2022. Retrieved June 8, 2022.
- ↑ Terdiman, Daniel. "Popular Mechanics awards highlight innovators". CNET. Retrieved October 26, 2022.
- ↑ McNary, Dave (September 23, 2010). "PGA announces Digital 25". Variety. Retrieved October 26, 2022.
- ↑ "Cameron, Jobs, Katzenberg Make PGA's 2010 Digital 25 List". Animation World Network. Retrieved October 26, 2022.
- ↑ Kedmey, Dan. "Meet the Inventor Behind Tech's Weirdest New Product". Time. Retrieved June 17, 2020.
- ↑ "MEET THE 100 MOST CREATIVE PEOPLE IN BUSINESS 2011". Fast Company.
- ↑ "Innovation Hall of Fame | Simone Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship | RIT". www.rit.edu. Retrieved October 26, 2022.
- ↑ "Smithsonian American Ingenuity Awards 2019: Alex Kipman". Smithsonian. Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved July 11, 2020.