Jack McCauley

Jack McCauley is an American engineer, inventor and video game developer. He invented the first scrolling feature of the computer mouse and designed the guitars and drums for the Guitar Hero video game series.^[2][3] He is also the developer of the Oculus DK1 and DK2 virtual reality headset.^[1][4]

Early life and education

McCauley was born on December 3, 1959 in Battle Creek, Michigan.

In 1980, McCauley was accepted to the U.S. Navy Nuclear Power School to work at Westinghouse Reactor Design.^[5] From 1980 to 1984, he attended the University of California, Berkeley on a scholarship from the Information Assurance Scholarship Program (ISAP),^[6] awarded by the U.S. Department of Defense and the National Security Agency.^[5] He specialized in electronics and circuit theory and received his Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science in 1986.^[1][2] He has credited the University of California, Berkeley with sparking his career. "Cal kicked everything off for me," he told Berkeley students at a December 2014 lecture at the university.^[1]

McCauley has stated that his interest in the fundamentals of engineering began at an early age. "I would spend hours drawing and painting," he said at his December 2014 Berkeley lecture. “I liked to pick things up and draw them, try to study them, and then take them apart. Many of my days consisted of going to the library and reading books. Then at night, I would go home, pick up some model or something at the store, take it apart, and put it back together. That’s basically what I liked to do,” he said.^[1]

Career

McCauley started his professional career working for the U.S. Department of Defense.^[2] After graduating from Berkeley, he worked for a year for Temescal and then for 14 years, from 1991 to 2005, as an engineer for various companies, including Microsoft in Redmond, Washington, where his responsibilities included the development of USB drives, kernel mode drivers, arcade machines and video game related peripherals.^[2][5][6] The position at Microsoft was followed by others in the video game industry, first at RedOctane and Activision as Director of Research, and then at Electronic Arts. In 2012, he co-founded Oculus VR, where he serves currently as Vice President of Engineering.^[1][5][7][8] At Oculus, McCauley also has overseen the China-based manufacturing of the Oculus Rift, the company's virtual reality head-mounted display.^[9]

Accomplishments

McCauley has authored research papers in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) and mathematical modeling of AI-based systems. His inventions, patents, and intellectual property span multiple technologies. He is one of the authors and originators of the Universal Serial Bus (USB) specification,^[6] and is an expert in Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS).

As architect and research head for RedOctane, McCauley was the chief engineer, designer and a key contributor to the Guitar Hero game series.^[10] He designed the electronics for the Guitar Hero guitars and drum controller, which formed the basis for all subsequent Guitar Hero versions.^[11] Other video games that he has designed include Time Crisis II and Time Crisis 3, Silent Scope, Dance Dance Revolution, Area51, EA Sports Active 2 and Grand Theft Auto.^[12]

Through his development work on Guitar Hero and work for Electronic Arts and others, McCauley has been a key figure in incorporating MEMS technology into video games.

McCauley's inventions include the wireless video game steering wheel, the video game light gun, the composite HID USB device for gaming, and the guitar and drum controller for the Guitar Hero franchise.^[2][10][11] He holds more than a dozen different patents for his inventions,^[2] including game controllers, haptic technology, and sports and medical physiology measuring devices.^[13]

Personal life

McCauley lives in Livermore, California.^[5]

External links

• Jack McCauley at IMDB

References