Biography

In case you care to know, here is what I did with my life to date...

1922
Born in south-western Germany.

1938
Left Germany for US with parents and sister via Holland.

1940
Graduated National Radio Institute (NRI) as radio service technician

1940-43
Ran three radio service stores in NY City, serviced all types of home and auto radios, early (42-48 MHz) FM radios and TV Sets (RCA TRS-9 and 12) and built PA systems.

1943-46
Served in US Army, 1 year stateside, 2 years overseas in Europe during WWII. Assigned to Military Intelligence (MI),attached to Eisenhower's HQ in London, but stationed in France.

Became recognized expert on military small arms; returned to US in 1946 with 18 tons of foreign small arms; set up or complemented three official US Army exhibits of small arms in Aberdeen, MD; at the Springfield, MA Armory and in Ft. Riley, KA.

1946-49
Attended American Television Institute of Technology (ATIT) in Chicago. Graduated with BS in Television Engineering - first time TV Engineering degree was conferred anywhere. Built television studio equipment while at ATIT.

1949-50
Chief (and only) Engineer at Wappler, Inc, a small electromedical equipment firm in NYC. Designed and built surgical cutting machines (RF-CW), epilators, muscle-toning low-frequency pulse generating equipment (See pictures of products)

1951-52
Sr.Engineer, Loral Electronics, Bronx, NY. Designed Powerline Carrier Signaling equipment for synchronizing IBM Time Punch Clocks; developed analog computer for military airborne radar system for tracking submarines; developed complete B&W Television Receiver

1952
Married Dena Whinston in NY. Son James Whinston Baer born in NYC. Son Mark Whinston Baer and daughter Nancy Doris Baer both born in Manchester, NH.

1952-56
Chief Engineer, later VP Engineering, Transitron, Inc. in NYC. Moved with firm to Manchester NH in 1955. Put into large-scale production many types of radar test equipment covering 10 MHz through Ku-band including CW and Sweep Signal Generators and Spectrum Analyzers; also airborne IFF Decoders and airborne chaff dispensers; designed and built "ham gear" including Linear Power Amps, 2-meter transceivers; amateur 2-30 MHz transmitter; mobile HF transceivers for commercial use and for the Indian government; developed Hi-Fi accessories; electrostatic loudspeakers (See pictures of products)

1956-57
Joined Sanders Associates, Inc in Nashua, NH as Staff Engineer to the Manager of the Equipment Design Division. Built airborne radar components. Built M.I. snooping equipment for use in Berlin to monitor Soviet transmissions.

 
Brandy

1957-58
Became manager of Electronic Design Department in the Equipment Design Division at Sanders.

1958-70
Moved up to Division Manger and Chief Engineer for Equipment Design at Sanders. Ran eight departments with up to 500 technical and support personnel-initiated and supervised much Internal R&D work - pioneered high speed picture tube deflection components; alpha-numeric projection displays; high-density multi-layer printed circuit board methods, etc. Pioneered Home Video Game(1966-1972) leading to Magnavox Odyssey video-game produced in 1972; supported production engineers at Magnavox in the design of the Odyssey unit. Developed early VCR-based interactive education and training systems. Started Thick and Thin Film Departments and E/M Interference Department. Directly involved in development of various projects including Acoustic Ranging Map Table ('58),

etched core memory, electroluminescent displays, high-speed deflection yokes for projection TV; Saturn V Launch Control Equipment.

1970-71
Became Manger of Sanders Flexprint Division where I ran a plant in Manchester, NH developing and manufacturing complex multi-layer hard and flexible p.c. boards.

Intramax Multilayer Board

1971-73
Chief Engineer of Sanders Electro-Optics Division where we developed laser systems and grew (YLF) materials for high-powered lasers.

1974-87
Became first Engineering Fellow at Sanders; ran small R&D groups in pursuit of advanced display technology; pioneered interactive Video-based training and simulations systems using VCR's, Video-Discs, CD-ROM and digital computers.

CEV Trainer


IVTS Law Simulator

Developed advanced video game technology for licensing to video-game industry; supported Magnavox (outside) lawyers during multiple law suits vs. video-game patents infringers over more than 10-year period which returned close to $100 million to Sanders and Magnavox (now North American Phillips). Developed a line of video-games (1975-76) for Coleco at Sanders. Worked on Interactive Video Games for Cable TV with Warner Communications. Licensed Coleco to produce Audio-tape assisted preschooler video game unit (KID-VID)

licensed Coleco under patents for interactive video system using video-disc. "Retired" from Sanders in 1987...became full-time, then part time consultant to Sanders to 1990.

1975-82
While at Sanders, started R.H.Baer Consultants "after hours"; became the "outside" electronics capability for Marvin Glass & Associates in Chicago, the pre-eminent US toy & game design group of the period. Developed programmable, R/C Record-Changers; invented and developed single-chip, micro-processor-controlled handheld games including SIMON, MANIAC, Computer Perfection and others.

1982-87
Partnered with Smith Engineering (Jay Smith III); invented interactive, branching VCR game system (licensed to TI); Smarty-Bear Video system licensed to Galoob (a plush bear who "talks" to his cartoon friends on-screen delivered by a VCR with nested data; invented and licensed Kenner for a "MASK" figure IR-shooting product called "Laser Command".

Also consulted for Hallmark in Kansas City: Started them on the first talking greeting card.

1987-2001
Devoted full-time to RHBC; associated with various independent toy&game designers (Phil Orbanes of POP, Charles Phillips of NE R&D);

Recordable talking doormat (BACOVA) ('94);

"Sounds-by-Me" recordable talking book for Western Publishing/Golden Books ('95);

"Bike-Max" talking speedometer product for Milton-Bradley ('96);

2004-2006
Produced an entire line of functional replicas of experimental videogame models built in the 1960's and donated these to the Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria, NY.

Click on image to view larger photo

2005
Donated all original videogame units to the Smithsonian Institution along with 500+ pages of related data. These can be accessed by going to http://invention.smithsonian.org/baer/

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