Ian Wilson

Current

Editorial Review Board Member at International Journal of Synthetic Emotions (IJSE)
Patent SIG Board Member at HUMAINE
Founder & CEO at Emotion AI

see less...

Past

Working Group Member, Invited Expert at W3C
Chief AI at Zukool Inc.
Founder & CEO at Emotion AI

AI Standards Committe Coordinator at IGDA
AI & Management Consulting at iNAGO Inc.
Technology Manager at iNAGO Inc.
Founder at Emotion AI
AI R&D Scientist at Katrix Inc.
Founder at Emotion AI
CEO at Chadwick & Ryder Limited
Director, Consultant, Manager at Memon Management Services Limited

see less...

8 more...

Education

University of Westminster

Recommended

11 people have recommended Ian

Connections

500+ connections

Industry

Computer Software

Websites

Ian Wilson’s Summary

Equally comfortable leading an early stage technology startup or hands-on CTO / Business Development.

Strong technical background across a broad range of markets, gained in game, simulation, defence & web service industries.

Comfortable at Board-level in VC/Angel backed startups, strong customer development focus & excellent communication skills.

Key skills & Expertise:

• Bridging the gaps between Marketing, Engineering, Sales & the customer base;

• Developing the corporate mission, strategy & future product roadmap;

• Customer Development - Analyzing market opportunities and target segments;

• Identifying and managing partnerships with external technology providers;

• Business change/rescue/re-engineering and model development;

• Increasing corporate presence / evangelism through magazine articles and conference presentations;

• Business planning & revenue forecasting;

Skills and experience:

• Technical expertize in software development, web technologies, Artificial Intelligence and digital content;

• In-depth knowledge of game, animation, simulation & web personalization/recommendation technologies & markets;

• Business development, engineering management & technical experience with sales and marketing;

Personal Attributes:

• Driven, motivational, innovative, intuitive, creative thinker & problem solver;

• Global view, worked in 4 countries, fluent in Japanese;

• Strong technical credibility with the engineering & product development teams;

• Flexible, adaptable, fast learner, excellent communication skills

Invited speaker:
Ars Electronica 2005
CEDEC 2005

Books:
Affect and Emotion in Human Computer Interaction (scientific committee)
Affective Computing and Intelligent Interaction (chapter joint author)

Magazine Articles:
Gamasutra - Emotion in Games (author)
Japan Inc - AI (subject interview)

Papers:
W3C Report - EmotionML (joint author)

Ian Wilson’s Specialties:

Artificial Intelligence - Most areas, some Guru level, one World Class
Entrepreneurship - Bootstrapping, cash flow, guerrilla marketing, building high performance teams, strategy, vision
Management - Operational management, Technology strategy and implementation

Ian Wilson’s Experience

Editorial Review Board Member

International Journal of Synthetic Emotions (IJSE)

(Publishing industry)

January 2009 — Present (11 months)

The International Journal of Synthetic Emotions (IJSE) covers the main issues relevant to the generation, expression, and use of synthetic emotions in agents, robots, systems, and devices. Providing unique, interdisciplinary research from across the globe, this journal covers a wide range of topics such as emotion recognition, sociable robotics, and emotion-based control systems useful to field practitioners, researchers, and academicians.
Patent SIG Board Member

HUMAINE

(Research industry)

January 2009 — Present (11 months)

A special interest group under the umbrella of HUMAINE, the European center of excellence for research into emotion related technology.
Dedicated to collating and reviewing patents that touch on emotion related technology using the worlds leading experts in the field.
Founder & CEO

Emotion AI

(Computer Software industry)

March 2008 — Present (1 year 9 months)

Emotional behavior simulation for the Simulation / Game / Animation Industries (facial and body gestures and actions)

Bringing characters and applications to life with advanced behavioral simulation based on ten years of Computational Neuroscience research into emotional brain systems.

- Procedural Animation
- Real time facial gestures
- Personality simulation
- Age simulation
- Gender simulation
- Body gesture simulation
Working Group Member, Invited Expert

W3C

(Non-Profit; 51-200 employees; Internet industry)

August 2006 — November 2008 (2 years 4 months)

Emotion XG Incubator Working Group (specification for the transfer of emotion related data across the web)
http://www.w3.org/2005/Incubator/emotion/

Responsibilities:

- Tasked to investigate a language to represent the emotional states of users and the emotional states simulated by user interfaces.
- Contribute to monthly global development meetings

Key group achievements:

- Delivered of an analysis and feasibility document for the W3C
http://www.w3.org/2005/Incubator/emotion/XGR-emotion/
- Delivered a report of the groups activity in a conference paper
- Delivered final group report (draft EmotionML spec) see
http://www.w3.org/2005/Incubator/emotion/XGR-emotionml-20081120/

Details:

The group is sponsored by W3C Members DFKI, Deutsche Telekom T-Com, University of Edinburgh, Chinese Academy of Sciences, EPFL, USC ISI, Universidad Politecnica de Madrid, and Fraunhofer Gesellschaft.
Chief AI

Zukool Inc.

(Privately Held; 1-10 employees; Computer Software industry)

November 2005 — February 2008 (2 years 4 months)

Personalization and recommendation platform. High scale transaction brokering system, music recommendation. www.zukool.com

Responsibilities:

- Product development
- IP Strategy
- Business strategy
- Research and development
- Recruitment of development staff
- Business development

Key achievements:

- Defined and wrote 2 Patents, pending worldwide
- Live web service roll out
- Deep technology utilizing Artificial Intelligence, statistics, data mining, machine learning
- Created network of potential star hires, VC's and Angels
- Web 2.0, AJAX, Javascript, Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP, Solaris, XML, Threaded Java
Founder & CEO

Emotion AI

(Information Technology and Services industry)

February 2003 — October 2005 (2 years 9 months)

Create first demonstrations and prototypes using the Emotion AI Engine.

Consulting expertise in the areas of AI, Interactive Entertainment, Human Behavior, Emotion & Personality, Japanese Business, Consumers and Culture, technology business strategy

Responsibilities:

- Vision
- Product definition
- Business Development
- Research and development
- IP Strategy

Key achievements:

- Execution of plan
- Bootstrapped development
- Presentations at major events (Tokyo GDC, Ars Electronica)
- Prototype emotion simulation software developed
- Large industry network created
AI Standards Committe Coordinator

IGDA

(Non-Profit; 1001-5000 employees; Computer Software industry)

January 2002 — January 2005 (3 years 1 month)

Defining AI Interface Standards for the International Game Developers Association.

Responsibilities:

- Produce annual report of sub groups activities for the IGDA
- Manage discussions of sub group
- Assign responsibilities for sub group
- Monitor progress of group

Key achievements:

- Delivered annual reports for groups activities
- Focused group discussions
- Produced focused set of requirements for group

Details:

"... AI Interface Standards Committee to develop such interface standards, the initiative being a joint effort of game AI developers, middleware representatives, academics and other relevant experts. We want to ensure that our work is relevant, and we therefore also work in close cooperation with institutions like game studios, middleware companies, and publishers."
AI & Management Consulting

iNAGO Inc.

(Privately Held; Computer Software industry)

February 2003 — November 2004 (1 year 10 months)

Manage product requirements and verification, help define strategic direction.
Technology Manager

iNAGO Inc.

(Privately Held; Computer Software industry)

April 2000 — February 2003 (2 years 11 months)

Leader in natural language (artificial intelligence) based interface technology

Responsibilities:

- Manage Development Team and Network (report to CEO)
- Japanese Customer liaison (Analysis, requirements gathering)
- System Integration
- Custom Development
- Network Management
- Support Management
- Global team management
- Project management (budget, schedule, full development life cycle)
- Product management (Japanese market definition to localization to delivery)

Key achievements:

- Delivered major projects for IBM, NTT DoCoMo, NEC, Hori Productions
- Delivered first major system release (boxed product)
- Delivered mobile device version
- Localized product for Japanese market
- Developed Japanese Natural Language technology (C++, XML)
Founder

Emotion AI

(Information Technology and Services industry)

August 1999 — April 2000 (9 months)

Developed first version of Emotion AI Engine (also called Artificial Emotion Engine)

Presented this technology to the first conference on Game AI, at the AAAI symposium, March 2000 Stanford.

Gamasutra Article, Emotion in Games
AI R&D Scientist

Katrix Inc.

(Computer Software industry)

February 1997 — August 1999 (2 years 7 months)

Artificial Intelligence based software research and development company

Responsibilities:

- Department of Defence Contract Lead (government, military liaison)
- Research and development
- Contract management (government, military liaison)

Key achievements:
- Delivered Phase I technology to US Department of Defence (Security cleared)
- Advanced autonomous agent technology for training and battle-space simulations (HLA DiS),
- Represented company at trade events

Details:

- Autonomous agent based training simulation for "STRICOM", US Department of Defence
- VR Game for Disney Quest VR theme parks
- Dance game for Metacreations.
Founder

Emotion AI

(Information Technology and Services industry)

October 1995 — January 1997 (1 year 4 months)

Research and Design for Emotion AI Engine
Original design submitted to Autonomous Agents conference 1997 (not taken up but well received anyway).
CEO

Chadwick & Ryder Limited

(Privately Held; 1-10 employees; Warehousing industry)

September 1991 — April 1993 (1 year 8 months)

Storage and Warehousing Business

Responsibilities:

- Sales and Business Development
- Recruitment, line management
- Loan negotiations
- Logistics and Operations management

Key achievements:

- Bootstrapped business to $50k/month sales in 18 months
- Agreed terms for $1M secured loan
- Secured major local clients
- Built a close working team
Director, Consultant, Manager

Memon Management Services Limited

(Management Consulting industry)

July 1984 — August 1991 (7 years 2 months)

Corporate and business management consulting service company, group companies included:

Memon Properties Ltd, Bradford Weaving Ltd, Pudsey Weaving Ltd, Bradford Finishing Ltd, Huddersfield Finishing Ltd, Astralloy Ltd, A.M. Textiles (Commission) Ltd, A.M. Textiles Ltd

Responsibilities:

- Operations management
- Change management
- Accounting management (purchase, sales, accounts)
- HR Management (140 staff, 5 Companies)

Key achievements:

- Instrumental in growing group revenue from $500k to $3M
- Instrumental in reducing costs across group companies
- Instrumental in improving manufacturing and service efficiencies

Ian Wilson’s Education

University of Westminster

BSc , Artificial Intelligence , September 1993 — November 1996

Graduated with 1st class honors

Activities and Societies:

Captain/coach, University 2nd Soccer Team (1996 league champions)

Additional Information

Ian Wilson’s Websites:

Ian Wilson’s Interests:

Computational Neuroscience, AI, Artificial Intelligence, RFID, stream processing, event stream, Event Based Architectures, Event aggregation, Animation, simulation, Character Simulation, Game Technology, emotion simulation, attention, web2.0, XML, financial system modeling using emotion,