VizWorld.com

Roku Hits 1M Units Sold [INFOGRAPHIC].

infographics

The Foundry dropped news today of a new tool in their collection called ‘Katana’, a 3d scene preparation tool that operates non-destructively and interactively on even very large datasets.  Originally developed by Sony Imageworks for use in films like Beowulf, it’s now in use by several studios.

“Many brilliant technical innovations come out of production, but historically those breakthroughs remain only within the production company.  The Foundry works with digital studios to make those innovations widespread, which benefits the entire industry.  I look for KATANA to have a similar impact on the industry that Nuke has achieved.” – Cliff Plumer, Chief Executive Officer, Digital Domain.

Expect commercial release in 2011.

via CGSociety – KATANA.

Graphics foundry, katana, software, thefoundry

Former BOND Edit Founder and Creative Director Jeff Beckerman will be joining Shooters to head their new ShootersNYC division.  Housing its own creative staff, they hope to tap into now only their local expertise in their home-base of Philadelphia but the exciting landscape of New York.

‘’We are excited about being in New York,’’ Ray Carballada, Shooters’ President says. ‘’Our unique structure and success in advertising, television development and feature films is proving to be a major asset in working for networks, agencies and brands.”

Get the full details after the break.

Read more…

Graphics shooters

At the University of Leeds, researchers are working on a project called ‘ImREAL’ to bridge the real-world and virtual-world for training environments.  Hoping to avoid inevitable budget cuts that tend to slaughter training programs in every line of work, a virtual-world training program could be more inexpensive, and they’ve found even more effective than the real thing.

The €4 million research project involves an interdisciplinary team of computer scientists, psychologists, business and social scientists, experts in adult learning and two SMEs who produce training software, from across Europe. Radically new intelligent technologies for learning will be developed by adopting the latest advances in computerized learning tools such as Semantic Web, context modelling, and dialogic interaction. Technical implementation will be grounded in sound socio-pedagogical theories, such as ‘activity’ theory, andragogy, and self-regulated learning.

via Virtual training gets real! – University of Leeds.

Science research, training, virtual environment

America’s Most Bizarre Taxes | The TurboTax Blog.

infographics taxes

Today we bring some more infographic retrospectives, starting with Social Commerce Today‘s look back at the Year in Social Commerce, then followed by the major events in the Gaming industry, presented by Kotaku, and a sad look at the Fatal airliner accidents of the year, provided by Aviation Safety. Two Interactive features to close: the most popular charts of The Economist, and the 2010 World Bank timeline.

Read more…

Graphics, Science design, economy, environment, infographic, infoviz, Visual Loop, visualizations

Just to wrap up this little piece, the previously reporting Canon T2i 4K firmware that was to be released this weekend was, in fact, a hoax.  Resulting in nothing more than a RickRoll (I really thought that meme would die by now), things got more and more ridiculous closer to the release (I was busy all weekend, didn’t pay any attention til today) making it somewhat obvious by the time it was finally “released”.

Well as was suspected just a hoax but with the weakest of punchlines, a rickroll. Not a lot of originality there! A shame that he couldn’t have done something as cool, fun and original as the above video, that would have been a worthy punchline. Just someone after their 15 minutes of fame, well he has had them so time to move on. These things are done on the 1st April for a reason! I did my Canon Raw blog on April 1st last year, got a lot of hate mail but mine was nonsensical from the start even for the non technically minded, with pictures of a Video 8 player as a high end capture device, introduction of interlaced for coveted video look, the loss of the stills function and a lot more utter silliness littering the post. Only speed readers would have been taken in by it and it was not dragged out over 3 days! But as I said then I will repeat now, if we cannot laugh at ourselves who can we laugh at?

Perhaps the best part of the hoax is this parody video which shows why we may not really want 4K on the T2i.

via HOAX: T2i 4k | Philip Bloom.

Hardware camera, canon, hoax

FlowingData pointed me to an interesting thread over on Quora where they are attempting to define the difference between a Data Visualization and an Infographic.  It’s an interesting discussion, with several different theories floating:

• Infographics are Static, while Data Visualization is Dynamic?
• Infographics are Editorial, while Data Visualization is Scientific?
• Infographics are a subset of Data Visualizations?
• Multiple Data Visualizations create an Infographic?

It’s a tricky question for sure, made more difficult by the many types of Infographics out there.  Some people look at the charts on ManyEyes and call those Infographics, while some people look at “How a Cell Phone Works” and call that an Infographic.  My best guess is to define what they “should be”, not what they are:

• Data Visualizations present scientfic data (either simulated or measured) through known visualization algorithms and processes (Isosurface, Line graphs, etc)
• Infographics present unstructured information in a visually pleasing form (Flow Charts, comparison tables)

What do you think? What’s the difference?

What’s the difference between a data visualization and an infographic? – Quora.

Graphics, Science question

Now here’s a field I’ve heard very little about in the commercial space.  MediaCybernetics has a product called ‘AutoQuant’ for image deconvolution.  For the non-math nerds out there, it’s a nice software package for mathematically removing well-defined blur from images, like what would come from incredibly high magnification microscopes.

AutoQuant offers the most complete suite of 2D and 3D deconvolution algorithms available. Save time and money using blind algorithms that calculate Point Spread Functions (PSF) without having to spend countless hours capturing images of beads. Prepare image sets quickly, align stacks or channels, deconvolve in 2D or 3D, visualize time, Z, and channel, and then analyze all parameters within the same advanced application. See complex datasets come to life with the easy-to-use 3D visualization and manipulation tools and then easily export to any partner application.

In the new version, v X2.2.1, they’ve added support for more files and some nice 5-D visualization tools (5D defined as stacks of images with multiple channels and timeseries).

via AutoQuant Deconvolution Software | Image Deconvolution | 3D Visualization.

Science imageprocessing, software

CGSociety digs back into the Vault to bring us a great lengthy piece by Kieron Helsdon on the Anatomy of Explosions.

Explosions can be natural or artificial – simply defined as a sudden release of energy. This release produces a sudden expansion of the material accompanied by large changes in pressure, typically with a flash or loud noise, which is called the explosion. Explosions cause pressure waves in the local medium in which they occur. These pressure waves are called deflagrations if they are subsonic and detonations when supersonic. An example would be gunpowder in a firearm or fuel in an internal combustion engine. Deflagrations are easier to control than detonations – when the goal is to move an object (a bullet in a gun, or a piston in an engine) with the force of the expanding gas.

via CGSociety – BANG! The Anatomy of Explosions.

Graphics, Science education