Hovering over the water

Nick Spiker

Systems Architect & Spectral Imaging Engineer

[email protected]

Professional Identity

Systems architect and spectral imaging engineer with over 20 years building critical infrastructure from first principles. Career spans telecommunications systems (1,000+ tower climbs, emergency services), custom spectral imaging (UV thru X-ray), and foundational computing architecture. Philosophy: rebuild from mathematical correctness rather than patch legacy compromises. Currently developing replacement computing primitives while seeking relocation to New Zealand.

Current Focus

Building interconnected foundational systems that solve architectural problems in modern computing:

Spirix - Two's complement floating-point arithmetic eliminating IEEE-754's sign bit and mathematical inconsistencies. Early benchmarks suggest 2x+ performance potential when properly implemented.

ferros - Kill-switch ready mobile OS written in Rust with ring-based memory architecture.

TOKEN (Transparent Organic Keyless Evolutionary Network) - Cryptographic identity with social attestation enabling passless authentication.

Photon - Decentralized peer-to-peer messenger with social key recovery.

Lumis - Manual RAW camera controls for Android with zero automatic features.

VSF (Versatile Storage Format) - Unbounded exponential-width encoding for variable-sized integers with O(1) seekability.

Clutch - Post-quantum key exchange protocol with device-unique secrets and serverless routing

Telecommunications Infrastructure

Extensive field experience across all major US carriers (Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint, US Cellular and many others):

Spectral Imaging Engineering

Full-spectrum capture and processing from silicon to software. Work spans medical imaging, cinema colour science, and perceptual modification optics:

VERICHROME

Current

Spectral colour targets capturing accurate wavelength information (not 1931 RGB-xy approximations). Colourization systems for X-ray and SWIR medical imaging revealing diagnostic information invisible in monochrome. Novel file formats and standards beyond conventional encodings.

LitePanel

Spectral Calibration & Embedded GUI Engineer

2022–2023

Developed spectral calibration systems and embedded GUI tooling for professional LED panels (Gemini, Quasar product lines).

  • Analyzed LED flicker characteristics across tube types; built real-time analysis tools returning quantifiable visual and recordable artifact metrics
  • Developed spectral calibration software and hardware for diode-level calibration; defined tolerances and profiled panels across brightness levels and time
  • Characterized per-channel spectral response; determined crosstalk coefficients for accurate primary combination
  • Integrated perceptually uniform Kelvin/tint tables for computing accurate output display transforms (ODT)
  • Provided perceptually uniform colorspace conversion formulas across product colourspaces
  • Built GUI tooling for calibration data review and engineering workflow integration
  • Wrote low level C interface code for colour conversions and profile selections

SHOTOVER Camera Systems

Custom spectral imaging integration for cinema applications.

LargeSense

25+ layer vapor deposition Bayer coating stack for 4×5 inch sensors.

Varian Medical Systems

X-ray colourization filters and processing algorithms.

Kolari Vision

Custom filters duplicating Kodak Aerochrome 1443 spectral response on modern silicon.

TriWave SWIR

SWIR filter stack and low-level processing (dark frame profiling, flat field correction, temperature correlation).

Developed VSF RGB colour space using wavelengths derived from biological cone cell response patterns. "Translateration" techniques preserve perceptual relationships while shifting electromagnetic windows across UV, visible, IR, SWIR, and X-ray spectra.

Systems Development

Embedded & Low-Level

  • Custom hardware integration at CLI level
  • Performance-critical algorithm implementation
  • Rust-based RAW processing pipelines
  • G-code for laser/CNC manufacturing
  • Calibration systems and geometric transformation

Architecture Philosophy

  • First-principles engineering from mathematical foundations
  • Determinism and correctness over convenience
  • Kill-switch ready security design
  • Ring-based memory architectures
  • Fault-tolerant systems for mission-critical applications

Current Stack

  • ~4 years developing replacement computing architecture
  • Cross-platform determinism
  • Cryptographic protocol implementation
  • Custom file format specifications
  • Academic documentation for credibility establishment

Technical Domains

Spectral Engineering - UV thru X-ray capture, sensor design, optical coatings, thin film deposition, perceptual optics for human vision enhancement

Telecommunications - RF systems, emergency services infrastructure, precision timing, redundancy design, field deployment

Computing Architecture - Floating-point arithmetic, memory systems, cryptographic protocols, file formats, OS development

Precision Systems - Custom environmental controls, real-time data integration, fault tolerance, mathematical correctness

Notable Projects

Personal Context

Lives in Seattle with wife Brittany (chemical engineer) and daughters Azie and Esme. Outdoor skills include tower climbing, rope climbing, skiing, hiking, biking. Planning relocation to New Zealand within 6-9 months targeting roles in systems engineering, telecommunications, or embedded systems development.

Approach

Works largely independently. Prefers mathematical correctness over social consensus. Identifies inefficiencies in established technologies and rebuilds from foundations rather than accepting legacy compromises. Values truth over diplomacy but recognizes optimal navigation requires understanding what others optimize for.

References

Available upon request