VizWorld.com

DXG has unveiled the DXG-321 pocket-sized camcorder that can shoot images in 3-D. The DXG-321 camcorder has dual lenses that allows it to capture 3-D images in the motion JPEG format. The DXG-321 also features a flip-out 7-inch 800×480 screen. The DXG-321 camcorder should be available in June for approximately $600.

The downside of this is that it appears that the model is not high definition, but standard definition. Another downside is that I cannot see how this can be connected to a 3-D television. No glasses are needed to view 3-D on the flip out screen since it uses a parallax barrier. All-in-all, I expect something that is not really that high of quality. Perhaps they will surprise me.

The 3D camcorder utilizes side-by-side lenses to capture images from two different perspectives. Stills are captured in resolutions up to 5 megapixels, while videos are saved in AVI format on an SD card. The camera lacks an HDMI output, however.

via : DXG unveils 3D-enabled compact camcorder | Electronista.

via : DXG readies first 3D camcorder @ DVICE

via : DXG introduces 3D-capable compact camcorder @ CrunchGear

Hardware 3d, camcorder

I detest maps like this for one simple reason. They take something that is easy to understand, place it on a map, and then distort the map beyond reason. Where did Africa go? Where did China go?

Is the size of the country related to the debt to GDP ratio? No, the size of the country has no relationship to the color of the country. Is the size of the country related to external debt? The CIA, which they list as their source, has the external debt of the United States is $13.45 trillion, while the U.K. has an external debt of $9.08 trillion. Is the U.K. larger than the U.S? How can you tell?

Take a look at the United States. According to the map it has a 30% to 60% debt to GDP ratio. If you look at the U.S. National Debt Clock, our debt to GDP ratio is 89%. How did they get a ratio of less than 60% then? Simple. They ignored the asterisk. The CIA calculated a debt to GDP ratio of 52% for the United States, if you ignored the United States Treasury bonds held by Social Security, Federal Employees, Medicare and Medicaid.

Following the map of Europe’s external debt, here comes the same data put into global context. This map is a modified version of a work that has been made for the Times newspaper (featured in the printed edition on March, 25) in their coverage of the 2010 budget. As this picture shows, it is not only the Eurozone, but most Western countries in a deep crisis – global inequalities the other way around this time – this is a topic that will be with us for months (and years) to come and still a long way to go on the road to recovery. So, keep this picture in mind:

via Global recovery? The real dimension of external debt.

via : Global Debt Relative to GDP

Graphics bad, infographic

Beginning as a single lonely chapter in GPU Gems 2, Michael Bunnel’s chapter on real-time occlusion without ray-tracing became a revolutionary new rendering technology (Read his chapter online).  His point-cloud algorithms enabled a faster, more accurate rendering that was of great interest to Pixar, and Per Christensen integrated it into their Renderman tool.  An article on CGSociety chronicles the effort.

During early stages, Christensen worked with Sony’s Rene Limberger who integrated point-based rendering on pre-production tests for Surf’s Up. Christensen further refined these techniques with ILM’s Christophe Hery who applied these methods to Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest. It quickly became apparent that these techniques had major implications for feature film rendering. Bunnell's single chapter had kicked off a minor revolution in CGI for feature film, point-based rendering.

via CGSociety – PIXAR POINTS.

Science algorithm, pixar, renderman

We have posted several articles in the past talking about the national debt of the United States. On April 1^st (an appropriate day in my opinion) we talked about federal taxes and the national debt. BillShrink has talked about Visualizing America’s National Debt and The Growing Problem of National Debt worldwide. Finally, you can also see the U.S. National Debt Clock in Real Time.

Financial Infographics has created a nice graphic, even if it is a bit wordy, explaining the problem of the United States national debt. Their takeaway is that the United States must spend $810 billion less every year just to keep our debt at its current level. That is more than the entire Social Security budget. The other alternative is to raise taxes.

The United States is in some hot water financially. This graphic is a comprehensive look at exactly the kind of mess we’re in.

via The US National Debt Exposed @ Financial Infographics.

Graphics infographic

In November 2008, astronomers using the Keck and Gemini telescopes imaged three orbiting companions to star HR8799, which is approximately 150 light years from Earth. Astronomers have revisited these planets and directly imaged them using a small, ground-based telescope. Small is a relative term, of course. They used a 1.5-meter telescope to look at the planets. That is the equivalent of a 59 inch telescope, which is out of the range of just about all amateur astronomers, although you could buy a monster 50 inch Dobsonian from Orion Telescopes for a mere $123,000.

One key here is that they used a “portion” of the telescope. The Hale telescope is 200 inches. Another key item is that they used adaptive optics to take the distortion out of the atmosphere. Finally, they used a coronagraph to mask out the light from the star, but not from the planets.

Personally, I would like to know what the remaining blue smudges in the image are.

This picture was taken using a small, 1.5-meter (4.9-foot) portion of the Palomar Observatory’s Hale Telescope, north of San Diego, Calif. This is the first time a picture of planets beyond our solar system has been captured using a telescope with a modest-sized mirror — previous images were taken using larger telescopes.

The three planets, called HR8799b, c and d, are thought to be gas giants like Jupiter, but more massive. They orbit their host star at roughly 24, 38 and 68 times the distance between our Earth and sun, respectively (Jupiter resides at about 5 times the Earth-sun distance).

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Palomar Observatory

NASA – Small, Ground-Based Telescope Images Three Exoplanets.

Science astronomy, nasa

Steve Jobs is somewhat famous for his 1-word responses to emails that crop up all over the internet every time there is one.  In a surprising turn of events, he sends a 3-sentence response to a user curious about the current lacking state of Final Cut Pro, which hasn’t seen significant updates in a while.  His answer?

“We certainly do. Folks who left were in support, not engineering. Next release will be awesome.”

Will it be named “Final Cut Awesome” ? I doubt it, but looks like we may have something to look forward to at the next Apple event.

via Steve Jobs responds to customer’s email about Final Cut Pro.

Graphics apple, finalcut

NVidia has released a new open beta of their Parallel Nsight plugin for Microsoft Visual Studio that enables debugging of GPU code at runtime. This new version adds several new features for working in DirectX11, as well as support for the new Fermi-based GTX470 and GTX480 cards.

You can get more information and register for the beta at the Nsight website. Full press release after the break.

Read more…

Science nsight, nvidia

Do you think that the Nvidia GeForce GTX 480 is the fastest graphics card? Well, not really. The ATI Radeon 5970 really the fastest graphics card out there right now. The 5970 is a pair of 5870 GPUs on one graphics card with 2 GB of GDDR5 memory. The only drawback is that the GPUs are down-clocked from 850 MHz to 725 MHz. O.K. Maybe it is not a fair comparison as it is two GPUs for the 5970 versus one for the 480.

PC Perspective has the scoop that Asus will be releasing a dual GPU version of the, well, you can read for yourself.

While the card we are showing here is a production sample, ASUS assures us that it will be available in about 2 months or so. The ASUS ARES as it is called is a dual-GPU Evergreen product with a pair of TRUE HD 5870 GPUs – not a combination of underclocked HD 5870 GPUs like the Radeon HD 5970 released back in November.

Click on the link for more pictures and more details.

via PC Perspective – ASUS ARES Graphics Card is true dual HD 5870 goodness.

Hardware 5870, amd, asus, ati, hd 5970, radeon

The Grasslands Entrepreneurial blog has just completed and compiled their “Entrepreneur State of Mind” survey and presents the results in a rather large infographic.

After a great response rate to our “Entrepreneur State of Mind” Survey, the results are in.

Highlights include:

• 52% of entrepreneurs use an iPhone
• 36% feel the recession hasn’t hurt their business much
• 28% feel 2010 is going to be the best year ever

Thanks to everyone who participated!

In addition to some opinions about the future, they have some rather good demographic data about various entrepreneurs ages, educations, and interests.  See the full size after the break.

via Entrepreneur State of Mind 2010 Survey Results – Grasshopper | Founders Blog.

Read more…

Graphics infographic

It is time once again to break out the old-time red/cyan glasses to see some spectacular views of the moon in 3-D. Nathanial Burton-Bradford took some of the images from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), that is orbiting the moon, and made anaglyphs out of them. You can view more of his images on his Flickr account.

What you are looking at is the Apollo 14 landing site. Apollo 14 was the 3^rd mission to land on the Moon, which occurred on February 5, 1971. They landed at the Fra Mauro formation, which was the target of the successful failure of the Apollo 13 mission.

That’s the Apollo 14 site. Click to embiggen — and I urge you to do so. You can really see the lander popping right off the surface. In the Apollo 11 image you can even see that the lander feet are farther away from you than the top of the lander. It’s incredible!

via Bad Astronomy | Discover Magazine.

Science 3d, astronomy