A new beginning.
I started Bending Time Technologies Inc. back in 2015 with the mission to build a better Google Earth. I loved GE from the first moment I laid eyes on it in 2005. I stretched the 3D globe to its limits building visualizations and simulations using network links, Collada models, procedurally generated geometry (e.g., special-use airspaces) and pretty much everything else the KML file enabled me to build. However, the Google product always left me wanting more; to fly around the planet and interact with the world like a video game.
This passion for developing a lifelike virtual world started when I was young. My family would vacation on our meager 24', Canadian-built, Zeta boat. Our family of four would tootle around the beautiful Desolation Sound area along the BC coast in our small craft for 3 weeks! My sister and I slept on the folded-down kitchen table while my folks would be up in the V-berth.
I started Bending Time Technologies Inc. back in 2015 with the mission to build a better Google Earth. I loved GE from the first moment I laid eyes on it in 2005. I stretched the 3D globe to its limits building visualizations and simulations using network links, Collada models, procedurally generated geometry (e.g., special-use airspaces) and pretty much everything else the KML file enabled me to build. However, the Google product always left me wanting more; to fly around the planet and interact with the world like a video game.
This passion for developing a lifelike virtual world started when I was young. My family would vacation on our meager 24', Canadian-built, Zeta boat. Our family of four would tootle around the beautiful Desolation Sound area along the BC coast in our small craft for 3 weeks! My sister and I slept on the folded-down kitchen table while my folks would be up in the V-berth.
Example of 24' Zeta
One of the things I loved about the ocean was exploring. I used to sit with my Dad reading the charts and helping plan our next destination. As I got older, I would go out on the Zodiac by myself with a handheld VHF radio (it was the late 70s/early 80s) exploring bays, beaches, looking for treasures, catching fish and loving life.
When we weren't out on the water, I was big into sports. I played soccer, basketball, street hockey and golf. That kept my body busy but my mind was always very curious about the world around me. Still is. When my father bought one of the first computers available in Canada in 1977, the Apple II, I was enchanted. It had a monochrome amber screen with a command prompt and a simple programming language called BASIC. My first program I ever wrote was the "ASCII rocket"; a few goto and print statements that had a character-based "rocket" lift off from the prompt. Mind. Blown.
Over the next few years into the early 80s, I would play on friends' Commodore 64 as well as our next computer, the Apple IIe. I fondly remember playing Castle Wolfenstein on the amber screen with the stormtroopers calling out to me over the computer's tinny-sounding speaker.
When we weren't out on the water, I was big into sports. I played soccer, basketball, street hockey and golf. That kept my body busy but my mind was always very curious about the world around me. Still is. When my father bought one of the first computers available in Canada in 1977, the Apple II, I was enchanted. It had a monochrome amber screen with a command prompt and a simple programming language called BASIC. My first program I ever wrote was the "ASCII rocket"; a few goto and print statements that had a character-based "rocket" lift off from the prompt. Mind. Blown.
Over the next few years into the early 80s, I would play on friends' Commodore 64 as well as our next computer, the Apple IIe. I fondly remember playing Castle Wolfenstein on the amber screen with the stormtroopers calling out to me over the computer's tinny-sounding speaker.
First computer, Apple II
I reckon the boat and the Apple II cemented my passion for the outdoors and computers. So much so I designed a video game called "Robin" where you would live the life of a robin, flying around and doing robin things. My Dad even had me write a business plan for it. I think I was ten years old.
Fast forward to high school where I excelled in math and physics. It seemed only natural (at least to my parents) for me to pursue a degree in Engineering after graduation. I was accepted to the University of British Columbia (UBC). My first year could be described as shock and awe. I never studied in high school and needless to say that wasn't going to cut it in university. I failed first year. After a year off to ponder what I would do with my life, I went back to UBC for two more lackluster years getting mediocre grades and generally being unsatisfied. I left university to go work at a golf course where I would end up meeting my wife a few years later.
After a year of working, and wanting to do more with my life, I enrolled in the Computer Systems diploma program at the British Columba Institute of Technology (BCIT). After an intense 2 years of hands-on, practical teachings from industry veterans turned instructors, I received a diploma. A company hired a handful of us to work on a GPS fleet tracking system. The work was very junior and I had my eye on a bigger prize; a local space company that I had previously applied to for a "summer job" when co-ops weren't really a thing yet. After applying and getting rejected, I applied again and after an interview gauntlet, got hired as a junior engineer on the Canadarm-2 program.
I spent the next 17 years of my life working on projects ranging from space robotics to airborne radar to UAVs and intelligence. Real-time control and simulation ended up being the common thread though my projects.
Fast forward to high school where I excelled in math and physics. It seemed only natural (at least to my parents) for me to pursue a degree in Engineering after graduation. I was accepted to the University of British Columbia (UBC). My first year could be described as shock and awe. I never studied in high school and needless to say that wasn't going to cut it in university. I failed first year. After a year off to ponder what I would do with my life, I went back to UBC for two more lackluster years getting mediocre grades and generally being unsatisfied. I left university to go work at a golf course where I would end up meeting my wife a few years later.
After a year of working, and wanting to do more with my life, I enrolled in the Computer Systems diploma program at the British Columba Institute of Technology (BCIT). After an intense 2 years of hands-on, practical teachings from industry veterans turned instructors, I received a diploma. A company hired a handful of us to work on a GPS fleet tracking system. The work was very junior and I had my eye on a bigger prize; a local space company that I had previously applied to for a "summer job" when co-ops weren't really a thing yet. After applying and getting rejected, I applied again and after an interview gauntlet, got hired as a junior engineer on the Canadarm-2 program.
I spent the next 17 years of my life working on projects ranging from space robotics to airborne radar to UAVs and intelligence. Real-time control and simulation ended up being the common thread though my projects.
CP 140 Aurora maritime patrol aircraft
Also weaved through my work along the way was a growing passion for maps and map systems. I was doing well at the company but my general non-rule-following attitude just wasn't working for me in the rigid corporate structure. I left the company to explore opportunities on my own. Bending Time was born a year later.
For the next 6 years, I developed my own open-data version of a 3D globe within the Unity game engine. I was like Dr. Frankenstein with electricity bolting off my computer. My dreams of bringing the outdoors to life inside a computer were coming true. However, starting a business is tough. I put all my savings into the company and convinced friends and family to put money in as well but, without an anchor customer, the company couldn't sustain itself.
Forced to bring in some money, I worked for a year helping a local company during COVID. It didn't pay well so I looked for other work. I found a job doing remote software development for a geospatial software company; right up my alley. And this brings us to here and now.
I am returning to continue development of Bending Time. This time however, I'm building out in the open. I hope you join me in this next chapter.
--Sean
For the next 6 years, I developed my own open-data version of a 3D globe within the Unity game engine. I was like Dr. Frankenstein with electricity bolting off my computer. My dreams of bringing the outdoors to life inside a computer were coming true. However, starting a business is tough. I put all my savings into the company and convinced friends and family to put money in as well but, without an anchor customer, the company couldn't sustain itself.
Forced to bring in some money, I worked for a year helping a local company during COVID. It didn't pay well so I looked for other work. I found a job doing remote software development for a geospatial software company; right up my alley. And this brings us to here and now.
I am returning to continue development of Bending Time. This time however, I'm building out in the open. I hope you join me in this next chapter.
--Sean
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