Architecture

Architecture of

Kipp Software—led by Neill Kipp—designs and develops useful and usable products, sites, and training.

Architecture abstracts and simplifies so that stakeholders make informed decisions and developers stay efficient.

Major contributions include applications of artificial intelligence, digital video delivery, user experience design, and technology evangelism.

Self-driving Car

In this self-driving concept car, I connected the voltage pins from a Raspberry Pi to the steering and drive train control of a remote-control race car.

Then I used machine learning and taught a Viola-Jones Haar cascade such that video from the car’s camera can recognize a distinctive street sign.

Lamborghini model car outfitted with Raspberry Pi and camera

Fully trained and automated, the car recognizes the sign and steers toward it until the perceived size exceeds a threshold. Then the car backs up, turns, and drives to find another sign.

The project teaches the fundamentals of artificial intelligence and how the technology industry is applying it to change lives.

Digital Video

Video Packager

Architecture showing video packager

This horizontally scalable adaptive bitrate packager reads and encrypts media from a backing MPEG source and packages the content as HLS or DASH. In production since 2013, this system serves more than 30 million subscribers.

C, C++, Python, Go.

Ultra-low Latency Linear Video

This ultra-low latency system demonstrates adaptive bitrate (ABR) linear video delivery, boasting 700 milliseconds from encoder to browser playback. Real-time diagnostic visualizations demonstrate quality metrics. The system includes forward error correction (FEC) to avoid retry and probabilistic ABR.

Architecture showing ULL video delivery path

Go, TypeScript, WebRTC.

Linear Ad Splicing at Scale

Architecture showing ad splicing using 35 and 224

Receives HLS linear manifest requests. Acts on advertising signals (SCTE 35). Requests content decision (SCTE 224). Splices ad manifests. Now a single-site deployment can scale to 350,000 subscribers.

C++, JavaScript, Redis.

User Experience Design

AtomicML

Leveraging the intuitive and readable syntax of source file indentation, Atomic Markup Language documents are 20-50% smaller than XML and parsers fit in one page of code.

In fact, the pages on this web site were authored, styled, and generated using AtomicML.

Self-service Cloud Portal

Public cloud. Private cloud. Hybrid cloud.

Managing one cloud project is tough enough. Managing hundreds warrants some software product development.

In this single-page hybrid cloud console, thousands of project stakeholders manage their own users, roles, and permissions. They can set up their own governed private networks, and view daily history of cloud costs called “showback.”

Angular, TypeScript, PostgreSQL.

AWS, Azure.

Technology Evangelist

Honorarium Instructor

For the University of Colorado Denver, I prepared and taught these graduate-level courses over seven years to 300 students.

  • Algorithms
  • Groupware Design
  • Information Architecture
  • Object Design
  • Ubiquitous Computing
  • User Experience Design
  • Web Systems Architectures
Ubiquitous Computing

Selected Talks

  • Agile Best Practices
  • The Cloud is Not Just Somebody Else’s Computer
  • Component Design by Contract
  • Developing in Production (CI/CD)
  • Language of Go
  • Machine Learning for Engineers in progress
  • Passionate Product Management and Development
  • The Presentation Presentation
  • Thriving in a Mentoring Relationship

Patents

Granted fourteen patents with additional patents pending, specifically for innovations in digital video, media storage, recording, advertising, and cloud networking.

Drawing of multiple patent awards

At multiple companies, I interfaced teams with intellectual property lawyers, and assisted in innovation description, illustration, and presentation.

Contact

I am “open for work,” currently seeking engagements in the Colorado market. Please find me on LinkedIn.

Respect the User

© 2023 Kipp Software Corporation