DAVE BLACKBURN

DaveB@VirtVent.com

Dave Blackburn has been a pioneering entrepeneur in the field of Virtual Reality, and Real-time 3D character animation, for the last decade. His company, Virtual Ventures, focuses on project development for studios that are involved in the creation of 3D digital entertainment.

Previous projects that Dave has been engaged in professionally, range in the digital media spectrum of Film and TV Animation and Effects, Electronic Games Development, and 3D Content delivery via the Web. The key element that all of Virtual Ventures projects have in common, is the studio's requirements to digitize in 3D, the motion and form, of real Human performers.

Originally from the Chicago Suburbs, Dave was a 1982 Graduate of the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign, with a Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial Engineering. A Southern California resident for the last two decades, Dave enjoys spending time anywhere near eyeball view of the Pacific Ocean.

In the 3 years as a collaborator with Jose Escamilla as a member of Team Rods, Dave Blackburn has championed a scientific notion that attempts to explain what Rods are. Specifically that Rods are the phylogenetic descendants of the long thought-to-be-extinct Protopterygote, whose name is derived from the Latin word for "First Flying Organism". This was the theoretical intermediate species that possibly evolved survival mechanisms through natural selection, that brought about the first biological capabilities of gliding, soaring, and eventually flying.

This early aerodynamic fuctionality became perfected in the tens of millions of years before the emergence of todays modern species of familiar winged insects.

On another front, Blackburn assists Team Rods with emerging technological solutions to aid in determining physical size and speed parameters of Rods from footage taken at Sotano De Las Golondrinas in Mexico. Technologies such as LIDAR, real-time pattern recognition, High Speed Video Systems, Stereoscopy, live camera triggering, and "Time Slicing" techniques are all being considered, as components of future Rods Research. Dave Blackburn strongly feels that the time is right for a new way of thinking about designing an advanced technological system, optimized to detect, and identify Rods.

Another area of ongoing Rods analysis by Dave Blackburn is the unusual images that clearly appear to be Rods in Episode 1 of the Carl Sagan Television (Video & DVD) series "Cosmos". Blackburn was recently featured in the LA UPN News13 Feature News story called "Rods III" showing and commenting on the Cosmos Rods images.

An avid player on the Southern California fastpitch softball circuit, Dave has pitched over 1,300 games, including 53 no-hitters over the last 25 years. On seven separate occasions, Dave has played on national fastpitch teams that have traveled abroad, represented the United States, and participated in international softball tournaments.

As his playing carreer winds down, Dave also served as California Area Commissioner for the International Softball Congress (ISC) during the 2000 and 2001 Fastpitch Seasons. At the 2001 ISC World Fastpitch Softball Championships, Blackburn served both as Producer, and Color Commentator, for 25 games that were audio webcast live, to softball fans around the world. For the 2002 season and beyond, Dave will be serving in the newly created position as ISC Commissioner for Streaming and Broadcasting.