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FarmVille vs. Real Farms

Graphics, Science digest, infographics, list

At CEDEC 2010, Toshiba presented a naked-eye 3D display using integral imaging, which enables 3D images to be seen from 9 distinct viewing angles without requiring 3D glasses.

The conventional frame sequential method, which requires 3D glasses, utilizes the parallax between two images for the left and right eyes. By contrast, integral imaging can reproduce 3D images even without special glasses, by producing lots of rays of light projected at different angles. Due to the multiple parallax, the picture seen changes as the user’s viewpoint moves. A feature of this system is that it causes very little eye fatigue, even if used for a long time.

“This display is achieved by using a lenticular lens sheet on a high-definition LCD panel. This method uses images from nine directions to create one 3D picture. Technically, this is called a nine-parallax 3D image, and there are nine pixels underneath each lens. This creates a 3D perspective by enabling each pixel to be observed through the lens from a different direction.”

Because integral imaging produces a multi-parallax display using spatial division, one problem is that the resolution of the on screen 3D image is correspondingly lower than the displays pixel count. But this problem can be solved, by combining the system with a super-high-definition screen using low-temperature polysilicon technology. The result is a high-resolution, large-screen 3D display.

“One problem is that it’s necessary to create content, such as images taken from nine directions. So the question is how to minimize the burden of creating that content. Also, as the display is made smaller and viewed from closer up, it becomes more difficult to design. So I think that, from now on, we need to keep working on these issues.”

Toshiba expects the new display will be used for advertising and games, and would ultimately like it to be used in TVs and PC monitors.

via : Glasses-Free 3D Display Using Integral Imaging – Toshiba

Hardware 3d

Stereo3D Unlimited, has just shot and released the stereoscopic 3D music video “Shake The Apple” by Ariana Gillis on YouTube 3D. It is too bad that the video has disabled embedding. Ariana Gillis is pretty, as you can see from the picture to the right, she has a good voice, and the song is good. At least you can find the music video on-line right here on YouTube 3D. The cool thing about YouTube 3D is that it allows you see in 3-D with 14 different settings. There are two more settings, but those are for left and right eye views, so that they are really 2-D.

“We only had one afternoon available to shoot so I borrowed some random set pieces and props from other productions, whatever was available, and we set out to light each one in a different style and T-stop” says Dashwood. “It occurred to me that it would be interesting to have a model walk from set to set without changing the camera exposure and see how it reacted in LogC mode…all in one take. This meant one continuous tracking shot from a string of tiny christmas lights, to green screen, to outside. I rang up Ariana to see if she would perform a new song for us just to make our test more interesting to watch. The whole crew reacted so positively when we played back the dailies that I figured we should upload it to YouTube and Vimeo to share it with the world.”

via : World’s First 3D Music Video Shot with ARRI’S Alexa Camera

Science 3d

FarmVille vs. Real Farms [INFOGRAPHIC].

infographics

The Fujifilm FinePix Real 3D W3 Digital Camera comes with two 10-megapixel sensors which allows you to capture 720p movies in 3-D. If you have a 3-D HDTV, then all you need to do to see the 3-D movie is to connect it up with an HDMI cable. William Meredith of the New York Stereoscopic Society has posted a review of the new camera. The Fujifilm FinePix Real 3D W3 Digital Camera is available for order at Amazon for $499.95.

I bought the Fujifilm W3 expecting that it might be an “almost, but not quite there” attempt at what I was looking for in a 3D camera. And I made very sure I could return it when it fell short of my expectations. After one day on full auto, I’m totally impressed with its design, quality and capabilities.

The rock-solid, cableless synchronization, HD video and amazingly clear 3D screen solve many of the difficulties I’ve dealt with previously. The fact that it has a multitude of other modes and features adds substantially to its value for my needs. No camera is perfect for everyone, but the W3 is a solid 2nd gen contender and, for me at least, a keeper.

via Fujifilm W3 – A “First Impressions” Review by William Meredith (New York Stereoscopic Society)

Hardware 3d, camera

A bit of sad tangential news here, but one of the Lead Developers at Relic Entertainment, currently working on the next Company of Heroes game, perished this weekend in a tragic car accident, but managed to become the hero himself by sacrificing himself to save his wife and unborn child.

With an out-of-control Chevy Blazer bearing down on him, the 33-year old North Vancouver man braked and swerved his Subaru wagon so that he would take the force of the head-on collision, saving his wife of five years, pregnant with their first baby..

“All the policeman say that if we had hit the car head-on all of us would be dead. At the very last second (Brian) braked really hard and turned right so that he would be put in the path of the SUV and not me and the baby, and that is the only thing that saved us both.

RIP Brian Wood.  You can send your condolences here.

via North Van dad-to-be’s final act saves family.

Graphics offtopic, relic, video game

I must confess that I am not a Resident Evil fan. I have never played the video games, and I have never seen any of the movies. I think that the movie will be poorly reviewed, have no storyline, and not do well at the box office. Backing this up is the fact that the movie was not screened for critics before its release. That is a sure sign of a poorly done script. Still, the movie does use the same technology as James Cameron used in Avatar. Maybe I will be proved wrong.

Sony Pictures’ “Resident Evil: Afterlife,” which opens September 10, is the first video game movie filmed in stereoscopic 3D.

Writer/director/producer Paul W.S. Anderson even used the same 3D camera rigs that director James Cameron used on “Avatar” to bring the fourth installment of the popular survival horror game franchise to the big screen.

via: “Resident Evil” movie uses 3-D to engage viewers @ Reuters

Science 3d, movie

NVidia has another pair of press releasees out today that shows some more information about their impressive Quadro Digital Video Pipeline.  NVidia seems to be all over the IBC2010 floor, and the press release lists over 30 booths with NVidia hardware in operation.

In addition, an impressive roster of more than 30 exhibitors at IBC 2010 are featuring NVIDIA Quadro professional graphics solutions and the NVIDIA CUDA parallel computing architecture. These solutions empower broadcast, film, and new media production pros to improve their workflows and deliver content like they’ve never done before.

The picture above is of the new Quadro Digital Video Pipeline product, sucking up 2 PCIe slots and 4 case slots to give you realtime live preview and editing of HD streams, 3D footage, and 4K footage like RED RAW.  As impressive as the product is, the press release is tainted by this one sentence:

The Digital Video Pipeline integrates live action 3D acquisition, real-time 3D graphics, 3D encoding, and 3D distribution for home theater or PC based viewing – all accelerated by graphics processing units, or GPUs, from the company that invented the GPU in 1999.

NVidia Invented the GPU in 1999?  What about 3dFX (Voodoo in `96)? What about Rendition (Verite in `96)?  What about SGI?

Full press releases after the break.

Read more…

Hardware nvidia

I have written before about what I think will sink 3-D movies and television shows: movies and shows with no storyline, but with an attitude of “Hey! it’s in 3-D! It is the latest coolest thing! People will come!”

The Nielsen Company has taken a different approach. They have done research that shows that once people see 3-D televisions in action, they love it. However, they also do not want to buy into the technology because they cannot multitask, the glasses are uncomfortable, the lack of programming, or the technology is not standardized yet. USATODAY picks up the story from there:

Nielsen found that the percentage of active TV shoppers who’d consider a 3D model dropped to 12% from 25% once they experienced it firsthand and considered the higher cost and scant amount of programming available. Still, Beales says, that more than half of the respondents were impressed by the quality of the 3D images, especially for nature shows, sports, movies and games. She adds that the technology will be easier to market than high-definition TV was because so many people have already seen 3D at the movies and the difference from 2D is so stark.

The study will help cable operators and programmers figure out “what to work on to make (3D) a viable product,” she says.

via Study: Glasses for 3D TV are no fun – USATODAY.com

Hardware 3d, hdtv

HDR Video Demonstration Using Two Canon 5D mark II’s from Soviet Montage on Vimeo.

HDR cameras are nothing new, with the Spheron VR camera probably leading the way.  However, what if you can’t afford the pricey HDR camera but happen to have some old stereoscopic equipment laying around.  A new video from Soviet Montage takes two Canon 5Dmk2′s and a Beam Splitter rig, and combines it into live HDR video (although only at two exposures).

This video highlights several clips we’ve made using our new High Dynamic Range (HDR) process. Video is captured on two Canon 5D mark II DSLRs, each capturing the exact same subject via a beam splitter. The cameras are configured so that they record different exposure values, e.g., one camera is overexposed, the other underexposed. After the footage has been recorded, we use a variety of HDR processing tools to combine the video from the two cameras, yielding the clips you see above.

While this is a neat and inexpensive way to do HDR Video, it probably wouldn’t hold up under ‘production’ standards. What do you think?
HDR Video Demonstration Using Two Canon 5D mark II’s from Soviet Montage on Vimeo.

Hardware hdr, video