Humor: Sinfest Takes on Booth Babes
9:04 am
I’m at SC10 this week, and found this recent comic at SinFest apt for what I always see at these events.
Why 3D Camera Technology Will Be The Future
9:02 am
Over at BenchmarkReviews, they’ve got an editorial piece of the inevitability of 3D technology in both cameras and camcorders, and becoming the ‘de-facto’ standard. It seems focused around this idea:
So with a solid foundation of platform devices, 3D imagery is already professional requirement for present-day photographers. Digital cameras such as the Sony α NEX-5, Panasonic Lumix-G 3D, and Fujifilm FinePix REAL-3D W3 are already taking 3D photographs that impress people today, and meet the potential standard of tomorrow. Full-3D video cameras such as Panasonic’s HDC-SDT750K have made three-dimension broadcasts of NASCAR events, the entire US Open Tennis tournament, PGA Golf Championship, and Masters Tournament all possible. Those are all real-world events that have already happened in 3D, proving that the day is quickly coming when events like the UFC Ultimate Fighting Championship and X-Games could also be broadcast in 3D. This all brings me back to the central thesis of this editorial, which is that we’ll soon be watching movies and viewing images in 3D.
I have to disagree. 3D is nice and useful, yes, but hardly what I’ld call a ‘requirement’ for professional photography. While it’s slowly moving into the home, there is still a lot of disgust amongst consumers for the crappy 3D that’s out and the requirement to wear the bulky, ugly, and expensive 3D glasses that current televisions use. While 3D in sports is a fun trick, you just have to look at the numbers and reports from the industry to see it’s not really feasible for anything but the biggest of sports (World Cup Soccer, NFL footbal).
If autostereoscopy comes ‘of age’ fast enough, it stands a chance to push 3d “over the hill” and make it mainstream. I still think, however, that 2D will remain the predominant focus for the near future.
NVidia Releases Production CUDA 3.2
8:56 am
Yesterday NVidia announced the newest release of the CUDA Toolkit, version 3.2, that not only offers some new CUDA libraries for things like sparse matrix work and random number generation (important for crytography), but a nice 300% performance boost in the older CUDA BLAS libraries. They’ve also added an h.264 encode and decode algorithm to the mix, and some cluster management tools for folks running bigger GPGPU setups.
If you want to know more, they are also hosting a free webinar Tuesday November 23rd at 10am PT to discuss it. Get all the details in the press release after the break.
Daily Viz from Visual Loop – 18/11/2010
7:00 am
We’ve chosen some infographics about several assorted issues topday. First, the environmental impact of the different kinds of bulbs, by Elemental LED, then, the problems surrounding Workaholism, made by Focus, followed by GOOD‘s analysis on the international aid given to Haiti and Pakistan. Finishing today’s round up, the escape velocity, by Jameson Campbell, and what is good Design about, by Lisa Oreshkina.
Build Your Career Tree Now
1:00 pm
Newsweek has a fun little toy on their website that imports your LinkedIn profile data (or lets you simply fill out a form) and create a ‘treemap’ of your work history.
Your career tree traces the branches of your education and work life, and lets you connect with others who share similar paths. Every addition causes your tree to grow a new branch so the bigger the career, the bigger the tree. And you can share it with Facebook friends and on Twitter!
See my tree above. The size of the circles indicate the length of the job, although I can’t really figure out the rhyme or reason of the branching.
It’s a fun toy, but it has limited use. Merging in information like recommendation, friends, or at least a popup with the description of the job would be more useful.
Sony teases us with NXCAM HD Super 35mm camcorder
12:00 pm
Sony is “leaking” out some preliminary information about a new NXCAM HD professional camcorder that patches up a Super 35mm CMOS sensor with an E-mount interchangable lens.
Last week it was the “affordable” PMW-F3, and now the company is teasing the NXCAM HD, a decidedly professional-oriented camcorder with a Super 35mm equivalent large format CMOS sensor nestled behind an E-mount interchangeable lens system. It’ll record to AVCHD in 1080p at frame rates covering all the majors: 23.98, 29.97, and 59.94, along with 25 and 50. All progressive, natch.
No details on pricing, other than making it “affordable” for professionals.
via Sony teases us with NXCAM HD concept Super 35mm camcorder, strictly for the pros (video) — Engadget.
Stargate Studios Makes the Dead Walk Again
11:00 am
I, like many others, have fallen in love with AMC’s new show “The Walking Dead” based on the graphic novel of the same name. The fantastic story combined with great special effects is a great entertaining piece of television. Over at FXGuide they have an interview with some of the guys at Stargate Studios, the folks with the job of making the zombies come to life in the post-apocalyptic Atlanta.
Stargate relied mostly on Maya and After Effects for its digital work, as well as Lightwave, 3ds Max and Photoshop. Production was co-ordinated amongst its US, Canadian and Indian offices using the studio’s visual operating system to tie everything together. This enabled artists to meet tight turnarounds and offer effects as a way of speeding up production. “We like to use visual effects to save a production money,” says Nicholson. “For instance, the shot of Rick on the horse was just quickly shot on greenscreen. It was in a parking lot right next to another shoot which was convenient and could be done in a matter of an hour, which let the company move on, as opposed to having to shut down a freeway.”
via fxguide – vfx knowledge – Stargate Studios: Walking (the) Dead.
Panasonic introduces a 3D version its amazing 103” TV
10:00 am
Time to start scrounging pennies, because Panasonic has just announced a new 3D Television. Available for a massive 8.5 Million Yen (just around $100,000 USD), it’s a 103″ Plasma 3D TV.
Not much else in the way of details yet, but with a size like that, honestly what else do you need to know? Except maybe how many air conditioners you need to add to your living room.
Panasonic introduces a 3D version its amazing 103” TV « Akihabara News.
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