Bil Herd

Key facts and history

He was working as an engineer by age 20.^[2] Herd first acted as principal engineer on the Plus/4, C16/116, C264, and C364 machines.^[1] He then designed the significantly more successful Commodore 128.^[1] After leaving Commodore, Herd continued designing computers with emphasis on machine vision.^[3]

He is a co-author on a patent involving n-dimensional pattern matching.^[3] Herd also worked at Pennsylvania Scale and learned about heavy duty analog and FCC requirements.^[4] He was licensed to fix TVs and CBs and held a Master Antenna cert in Indiana.^[4] Herd went through the Indiana school system but never completed high school.^[2]

The initial architecture for the unreleased Commodore LCD computer was created by Herd before he worked on the C128.^[1] While employed at Indian Valley Mfg. in 1986, Herd created an ultrasonic backup sensor design for vehicles.^[3]

What the cited sources add

He noted that unlike open ocean ultrasonics, returns from a closed pool are a continuous stream of echoes.^[4] The idea was pitched to an insurance company for semitrailers as a blind spot detector.^[4] Herd mentioned that his boss Ziembicki was in a 30-year patent fight with Ford over the sensor.^[4] According to a Hack Chat transcript, Herd expressed the view that Commodore's failure occurred after Jack Tramiel departed because the organization was "rudderless without our leader".^[4]

Using a sensor set from Poloroid, Herd constructed a dry swimming pool model with air ultrasonic sensors.^[4]