What is an Inertial Frame?

It’s a concept borrowed from physics. An inertial frame refers to a body with no forces acting on it.

Einstein’s Theory of Relativity shows us that such a body actually moves through time faster than an identical body that is subject to external forces.

When talented and capable software engineers work, they often enter a flow state — when time flies by without being noticed.

And that’s the inspiration for our name. We cultivate a team where our engineers are given autonomy in their domain and freed from distractions — allowing them to fully apply their energy and momentum into creating sophisticated software solutions for our clients.

Colin Fox

Founder, Principal Software Engineer

Colin earned his Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from Portland State University in 2013. He then entered a Masters program in Digital Signal Processing in 2015, while still working in industry. In grad school, he learned how to apply advanced math to some very interesting projects, including:

  • a Deep Neural Network trained on human speech that recognizes the identity of the speaker

  • a Classifier that uses Power Spectral Density Estimation to identify the musical key of any song

  • a Particle Filter that tracks objects in a real time video stream

  • a Matched Subspace Detector that recognizes human faces

In 2017, joined a company called Avnera that was later acquired by Skyworks. There, he developed patented intellectual property for an embedded audio processor, including:

  • Off-Ear Detection for noise-cancelling earbuds

  • Automatic channel assignment for wireless speakers in a home theatre system

  • Snoring Detection for a next-generation smart bed

In 2019, he joined a small startup called YorLabs, which endeavored to build a wireless ultrasound imaging system that did image beamforming on a Nvidia GPU. There, he applied DSP concepts to transform sound reflections into striking images, and also detect the direction of blood flow within human tissue (Doppler).

In 2022, Colin joined ESS, a company making iron flow batteries for long-duration energy storage. He created a customer-facing software product that provides an interface to an array of batteries, simplifying the coordination of multiple networked systems, balancing state of charge across the array, optimizing energy efficiency, and automating scheduled maintenance cycles.

At the end of 2024, Colin started Inertial Frame, with the goal of having a business that demands constant engagement, continual learning, and a revolving door of interesting challenges.

Colin lives in Tigard, OR with his wife and daughter. In his spare time, he plays guitar in a recording project called Goblin Knows Best, which released an EP in 2023 and is slated to release an LP in 2025.

“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving.”

— Albert Einstein