This timeline records key stages in Rick Baker's work on personalized audio-visual instructional systems, from the original concept through patent filings, technical development, later sensing technologies, and the continuing relevance of the idea in the age of artificial intelligence.
The original concept was conceived in 1990 while Rick Baker was considering how computers could automatically generate personalized audio-visual instructional presentations tailored to an individual user.
The original inspiration came from professional golf instruction and the idea that a person could receive expert guidance without the expert needing to be physically present.
The central idea was that a computer could receive information relating to an individual, compare that information with stored expert knowledge, and automatically generate a personalized instructional presentation for that individual.
Rick Baker filed for provisional patent protection in Australia for the original personalized audio-visual instructional system.
The invention involved capturing movement or other information relating to a person, transmitting that information to a computer system, comparing it with stored preferred or expert information, and returning a personalized visual and audio instructional presentation.
The filing represented the first formal patent step following the original concept conceived in 1990.
During this period, Rick Baker continued developing, presenting, and explaining the invention as a system for computer-generated personalized instruction.
Demonstration material, correspondence, video records, and technical explanations from this period form an important part of the historical archive.
The first Australian patent was granted, marking an important step in protecting the original invention.
Related patent protection was later pursued and obtained in other countries including New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States.
During the early Internet and dot-com period, Rick Baker continued trying to commercialize the invention and attract development partners.
The surrounding technologies were improving, but motion tracking, computing power, graphics, and communications were still not yet mature enough for the full vision to be easily developed.
This period became part of the larger story of an invention arriving before many of the supporting technologies had fully matured.
Rick Baker later developed a second invention using MEMS motion sensors including accelerometers, gyroscopes, and related sensing devices.
This work was intended to improve the capture of movement information and further support computer-generated personalized audio-visual instruction.
The invention later received patent protection in multiple countries including Australia, the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States.
US Patent No. 11,210,963 titled "Method and apparatus for providing personalized audio-visual instruction" was later issued in the United States in 2021.
As artificial intelligence, sensors, graphics, communications, and real-time computing continue to advance, the original 1990 vision of computer-generated personalized instruction has become increasingly relevant.
Final Step - AI documents this historical journey and the continuing importance of computers becoming more capable of generating personalized visual, verbal, adaptive, and individual-specific guidance.