Darren Mark Brewer

After finishing school at 16, I decided I wanted a career in the field of electronics. As I had been using computers for a number of years previous to this I was fascinated as to how they actually worked inside. My father is an electrician & so there were electrical & electronic catalogues around the house which I used to look at. So my interest gradually grew to the point where I wanted to know more than I could teach myself.

After finishing school I went on to college and did a course in Electronic Engineering, at the end of which I attained an O.N.C (Ordinary National Certificate) in Electronic and Electrical Engineering.

My first real job was working for a company that made Electronic products for industry ..timers, voltage, current, frequency and 3 Phase monitors. The position I held was Electronic Design and Development Engineer ... which is a bit of a grand title. My main job function was to build and test new prototype products. This was all very interesting and it taught me an awful lot about how to fault find and design circuits.

From October 1992 to June 1996 I studied at the University of Central England (U.C.E) which is also in Birmingham. This University was formally known as Perry Barr Polytechnic, the reason it is now a University is that a few years ago all the Polytechnics in the UK changed to Universities and also changed their names to suit.

The honours degree which I took was also in Electronic Engineering, and I finished that in June 1996. I attained an overall grade of a 2.1. The final semester of the degree lasting around 6 months was taken up with a project.

Mine was entitled: PC-BASED Tester for TTL & CMOS Logic Devices.

It was designed as a simple piece of test equipment that could be connected to any standard PC via its parallel port. The final objective was that you would be able to test a wide variety of TTL & CMOS logic integrated circuits. By use of simple menu driven software which I wrote in the C programming language. It was possible for an I.C to be recognised by just entering the number of pins on the chip. The I.Cs functionality would then be automatically determined so you would know if a chip was working or faulty.

For a short period of time I was a student at Birmingham University, doing research for a Ph.D, in the field of Image Processing. I worked in the School of Electronic Engineering as a member of the Digital Systems and Vision Processing research group   However this only lasted for a short period of time as things didn't turn out as I'd expected due to my then failing eyesight.

The research that I started was concerned with formulating methods which would allow a computer to produce a 3D interpretation (Model) from 2D stereo images. It may be surprising to know, but us humans actually see things in 2D, each eye receives a slightly different view of the scene being observed. You can prove this by closing one eye at a time, each eye will see a slightly different view of the scene. The reason that we can actually perceive depth ( 3D ) is because of our brains which perform a remarkable function known as stereopsis. This can basically be described as our brains merging the two images from each eye and producing a single 3D image called the cyclopean image and this is what we actually see. To make a computer do the same thing is an incredibly difficult task, and will be for some time to come.    The way our  eyes  work is also of great interest to me and had relevance to the research I was doing.

After leaving the university I found it increasingly difficult to find work as my eyesight was gradually becoming worse. I was first registered as being partially sighted but shortly after in Febuary 1999 I was registered blind. This happens when you can no longer read the large top letter on a standard eye chart.

A few years ago I acquired a wood turning lathe which I had set upin a small workshop in my garden. This was something I had always fancied doing and when I had the opportunity to get hold of a lathe at a relatively low cost I didn't hesitate.

Since I began using the lathe back in October 1998 I have really become interested in the subject of turning and finishing which is not only enjoyable and addictive, but is also very satisfying when you've spent hours over a piece which looks quite professional. (well it does when you do it right)

ShortlyAfter becoming interested in woodturning I attended college for a brief period. I was rather hoping to hone my skills, but as the college was geared up for blind people it didn't teach me anything new. However I did gain an interest in woodworking in general & after watching an American programme called 'The New Yankee Workshop' I was inspired to setup my own workshop with all the necessary machines and tools to create a whole manner of items.

At the moment making things in the workshop is only really a hobby. I did for some time ponder over whether I could earn a living from making small items of furniture etc. But after talking to various people it was thought that it would be very difficult, being such a competetive area. But you never know what the future may bring.

For the present I am looking to find employment in the field of computing as this is something I have been associated wit almost all my life. Computers and the Internet are going to be around for a long time to come. Both will obviously evolve in ways we can't yet imagine. They are already an integral part of everyday living, even if you don't realise it. I will always try to keep up to date with evolving technology and if possible learn how to use it. I have always loved science & technology as I think it not only enhances our lives but it has made the world seem not such a big place.

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