Michael J. Freeman (inventor)
| Michael J. Freeman | |
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| Born | 1947 |
| Alma mater | City University of New York, Baruch Collge, City College of New York |
| Occupation | Inventor, business and government consultant, educator, entrepreneur |
| Known for | Robotics, electronic educational toys, telephony, interactive television, behavioral science |
Michael J. Freeman (born 1947) works in trend analysis, advanced behavioral systems, programming of smart toys, Cable television, robotics, telephony, among others. He was a professor at three American universities and a consultant to business and governments. Freeman has a Ph.D., MBA, and BA degrees.
In 1969, he received his bachelor's degree in Economics and Management from the City College of New York, an MBA in 1970 in Business Management and Economics from Bernard Baruch College, and received his doctorate in 1977 from the City University of New York, majoring in Behavior Sciences and specializing in mental adaptation techniques.
Freeman was a professor at Baruch College of the City University of New York, at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, and at Hofstra University in the Village of Hempstead, New York. Freeman was the keynote speaker at Harvard University on November 14, 2001, at the conference, Innovation, Entrepreneurship and the Future. Listed in Who's Who in America 1975-2007.
He commercialized approximately forty US patents, and contributed to the work of approximately twenty-five others in educational devices, programming, telephony, laser/special effects, Cable TV, and others. Core patent claims include telephone push button tones as input to the home via branching." Patent claims also covering cable TV, addressability of cable converter boxes, digitization, interactivity, and smart-toys. He programmed and did the voice talent for interactive educational programs. He founded a U.S. Nasdq corporation to further developer patent claims for movies special effects, laser special effects, Hyper TV, and distance learning systems.
In 1960, at the age of 13, Freeman was awarded first prize in the Westinghouse Science Fair, now known as the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair for his demonstration of rudimentary computer memory. This was one of the first pioneering embodiments of how computer memory could control a physical mechanism. In the 1970s Freeman turned his attention to the future field of verbal output computers.
In 1974, he created Leachim, a 6-ft, 200 pound robot assistant teacher who Freeman programmed with the class curricular, as well as certain biographical information on the 40 students whom Leachim was programmed to teach. Leachim demonstrated that voice branching could be done quickly enough to replicated understandable speech (i.e. verbal output). This method combined phonemes, words, and sentences to form verbal responsive messages. Leachim was also programmed with biographical information on students, and to simulate 'infinite patience.' Leachim was tested in a fourth grade classroom in the Bronx New York. In 1975, Leachim was reported stolen from the truck transporting Leachim back to New York from a 1-hour appearance on the Phil Donahue Show, located in Chicago. Lloyd's of London offered a $7,500 reward based on the insured value of $75,000. Corporate espionage was suspected.
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