Michael J. Freeman

Michael J. Freeman
Born	Michael James Freeman 1947 (age 68–69)
Alma mater	City University of New York, Baruch College, City College of New York
Occupation	Inventor, business and government consultant, educator, entrepreneur
Known for	Trend analysis, ACTV Inc., 2-XL toy, Electronic Talk 'N Play, Kasey the Kinderbot, Touch tone phone menus development, Inventor, Philanthropist.

Michael J. Freeman (born in 1947 at Bronx, New York City, United States) is an American entrepreneur, trend consultant,^[1] corporate CEO,^[2] educator^[3][4] and developments in smart toys.^[5] He is a philanthropist and a collector.^[6][7] He was a professor at three American universities.^[8][9]

Freeman was the founder, chairman, and chief executive officer (CEO) of ACTV Inc., a Nasdaq publicly traded corporation.^{[10][11][12][13]} ACTV had a Wall street capitalization of $2 billion ^[14][15] and was on the 2003 list one of the fastest growing technology companies.^[16] He developed pioneering award winning educational products such as 2-XL,^[17][18] Talk'N Play,^[19][20] and Kasey the Kinderbot.^[21] Freeman produced programming and licensed software to Disney, Hasbro, NBC, and others. He is a business and corporate consultant in trend analysis, developed core technology covering touch-tone phone branching, and in 2015 he allowed for the public display of his $8.5 million Astolat Dollhouse Castle for charity.^{[22][23][24][22][25]}

Education

On rare public display at the Time-Warner Center in New York City 2015, from November 10th till December 4th for the exclusive purpose of raising money on behalf of children’s charities. Approximately 7,000 people per day attended not including special events.

Freeman received his bachelor's degree in Economics and Management from the City College of New York-Baruch in 1969. His MBA in Business Management and Economics followed in 1970 from Baruch College.^[8] In 1977, he received his Ph.D. in Philosophy majoring in Behavior Sciences and specializing in mental adaptation techniques, from the City University of New York.^[26][27]

Career

Freeman was a professor at Baruch College of the City University of New York.^[8] at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, and at Hofstra University in the Village of Hempstead, New York. He was a consultant to governments and business, and founded a publicly traded US corporation. He has numerous patents covering behavioral systems, interactive learning, smart toys, telephony.

TV Show Producer

Under the Tiger License, Freeman in conjunction with Marc Summers Productions produced a TV game show named Pick Your Brain.^[28] Freeman did not voice the character. Within ACTV Inc. Freeman produced over 100 shows for the American, Canadian, and European markets. Via Hyper-TV Freeman produced approximately 50 distance learning shows.

Corporate and Government Consultant

During his career, Freeman consulted for many corporations and governments in trend analysis, mental adaptation techniques, technology, and programming. Freeman holds forty US Patents.

Developments

The world's first Telephone Branching Machine invented by Freeman in 1979.^[29]

In 1960, at the age of 13, Freeman was awarded first prize in the Westinghouse Science Fair, now known as the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair. He developed and demonstration rudimentary computer memory. He incorporated this into a robot machine which could be programmed to move to a destination and automatically rerun the cycles repeatedly as many times as requested.^[30][31]

Leachim

In 1974, Freeman developed Leachim, a 6-ft, 200 pound robot teacher, which verbalized computer output. Leachim was tested in a fourth grade classroom in the Bronx New York and received publicity world-wide.^{[31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42]}

Automated Phone Menus System

Leonard Nimoy giving Dr. Freeman the Vulcan nerve pinch in 1987

In 1984, Freeman pioneered telephone branching technology, the process where callers hear menu options provided by an automated telephone attendant. Callers may then respond to queries using their touch tone phones for call redirects.^{[43][44][45][46][47]}

Cable Television and Hyper TV

In the early 1984, Freeman developed a form of interactive TV and a distance learning technology, that provided different broadcast content based on needs, selections, and interests of the user. He founded New York-based corporation ACTV. It became a publicly held Nasdaq listed Corporation on May 4, 1990. Freeman served as the company's CEO and President until 2001. Leonard Nimoy was the company spokesperson for a number of years.^{[48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55][56][57][58]}

Educational (Smart) Toys

2-XL System

Left: The Mego 2XL Robot. Right: Michael Jordan appeared in the 2XL TV ads in 1992 to support a charity campaign with Dr. Freeman.

In 1975 Freeman developed the 2-XL educational toy system and licensed it to the Mego Corporation, a US based toy company.^{[58][59][60][61]} Freeman voiced the initial programs and the product was soon expanded into six foreign languages, and sold world-wide.^[62][63] The line was later expanded with games.^{[64][30][65][66][60][61]}

In 1992, the toy was reintroduced by Tiger Electronics, an American toy company based in Vernon Hills, Illinois. Famous basketball player Michael Jordan and Freeman teamed up with 2-XL to raise charity money.^{[67][60][68][69][70][71][72][73]}

Talk 'n Play (Electronic Talk'N Play)

In 1984, Freeman developed Talk 'n Play which allowed children's TV characters to interact with the user. It was originally manufactured by CBS Toys within the Child Guidance brand.^[74] Later in 1986, it was reintroduced by Hasbro Toys, a Pawtucket RI, American Toy company, under the Playskool brand. Sub-licenses for programming were awarded to Sesame Street (Children's Television Workshop) and The Walt Disney Company featuring characters such as Big Bird, Elmo, and Mickey Mouse.^{[75][76][77][78][79][80][81][82]}

Kasey the Kinderbot

In 2002 Freeman developed Kasey the Kinderbot,^[83] an educational toy learning system sold by Fisher-Price, a wholly owned division of the Mattel Corporation. Kasey taught forty different learning skills.^{[84][85][86][87][88][89][90][91]} The line was expanded in 2004 with the introduction of two lower priced items. Kasey was reported as an important item in the balance sheet of Fisher-Price.^{[92][93][94][95][93][96][97][98][99][100][101]}

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Michael J. Freeman.

• Michael J. Freeman's US patents at Google Patents
• Dr. Freeman and Kasey the Kinderbot on YouTube on CNN fn