After looking into the current state of 3D-printed gun-making, CNET's Rich Brown asked the various 3D-printing services about their policies toward printing firearms and firearm components.
[Philip Lelyveld summary -
i.materialise - no
Ponoko - maybe
Sculpteo - no
shapeways - no
3D Systems - no response
Thingiverse (MakerBot) - no, but their software library contains gun part designs ]
See the full story here: http://news.cnet.com/8301-11386_3-57508385-76/which-3d-printing-service-will-make-you-a-gun/
From health care and housewares to electronics and entertainment, RKS's team of researchers, designers and engineers use a holistic approach when developing a product. Using the psycho-aesthetics methodology developed by Sawhney, the company says it integrates not only product development but also the psyche and psychology of the targeted consumer.
Sawhney, a designer for Xerox before opening his own firm in the San Fernando Valley in 1980, said it was the disconnect between designers and consumers that changed how he approached his own business.
"Designers also have had to become more holistic in their approach," Sawhney said. "People are no longer interested in disposable products. They want something that would last and something that would help make them feel a certain way. This made us turn our attention more deeply into researching people."
Read the full story here: http://www.vcstar.com/news/2012/sep/07/thousand-oaks-design-firm-goes-global-with/
[Phil Lelyveld comment; brighter lamp house to compliment digital projection is an importance next step in the evolution of the theatrical experience, but how many times can they do this for the first time!?]
"Hugo 3D" Feature and Clips from "Transformers: Dark of the Moon" and "Puss N' Boots" Will Be Shown at 14 ft-L
See the full story here: http://acquisition.broadcastnewsroom.com/article/Worlds-First-Laser-Projected-Screening-of-Full-Length-Movie-Debuts-With-Christie-Laser-Projector-at-IBC-2012-2182797
[Philip Lelyveld comment: this is a great story in today's LA Times about how Darcy Antonellis is leading WB's initiatives to make the studio as innovative in content distribution and awareness as it is in content creation.]
Warner Bros. is embracing high tech, including hosting Silicon Valley-style 'hackathon' events to spur innovation. Studio's program is unusual in an industry known for resistance to new technology.
See the full story here: http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/moviesnow/la-fi-ct-warner-tech-20120909,0,7534346.story?page=1
The researchers believe that it possible to create a contemporary 3D printable, once-fired, self-glazing, non-plastic ceramic material that exhibits the characteristics and quality of Egyptian Faience.
Faience was first used in the 5th Millennium BC and was the first glazed ceramic material invented by man.
See the full story here: http://phys.org/news/2012-09-ancient-egyptians-key-3d-ceramics.html
[Philip Lelyveld comment: I've been talking to Zane Vella regarding the ETC's Hyper-Personalized Entertainment Offer project.]
AMSTERDAM, Sept. 7, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- IBC 2012 -- Watchwith® and Gracenote® today announced Gracenote's Automatic Content Recognition (ACR) platform, Gracenote Entourage™, has been pre-integrated with the Watchwith related content syndication Platform. The combination of Gracenote and Watchwith technologies gives broadcasters and content distributors a means to develop companion apps that can sync second-screen devices with broadcast programming and deliver scene-level, related content.
With Gracenote Entourage's ACR capability pre-integrated into the Watchwith Platform SDKs, developers can create apps that easily identify what a user is watching, and unlock scene-by-scene custom content powered by Watchwith's Related Content Database™. This revolutionizes the TV experience, letting viewers sync their tablets and smart phones with main TV screens to unlock extra content, purchase featured products, get more from advertising, and interact with other viewers in real-time.
"Automatically identifying what the viewer is watching at a specific moment in the program is the starting point for a more engaging user experience and a game changer for television programmers, advertisers and video service providers," said Zane Vella, CEO of Watchwith. "Integrating with Gracenote Entourage allows our broadcast and cable network customers to accelerate time-to-market for their apps and gives them the business flexibility they need to create profitable, differentiated viewer experiences and build viewer engagement across multiple screens."
See the full story here: http://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/watchwith-and-gracenote-announce-live-television-sync-to-broadcast-platform-offering-168876186.html
So this feels like the future: Amazon's X-Ray for Movies can tell what flick you're watching on your Kindle Fire HD, and gives you every piece of information you could ever want about it every time you pause. Pretty incredible stuff.
The information is gleaned from IMDB (which Amazon conveniently owns), and pulls granular detail down to which specific actors are in the scene your watching. From there, you can navigate back through their whole career, read their bios, and do all the other creeping you'd normally do on the world's foremost movie database.
Read the full story here: http://gizmodo.com/5941067/
Early adopters who want twice the resolution as ordinary HD TV will have to pay dearly for it. The price tag for Sony's XBR-84X900 works out to 0.3 cents per pixel.
One hurdle for Sony to overcome: there's barely any video available that's shot in 4K, though there's a 4K YouTube channel, some movies and movie theaters are making the shift, and Sony's TV can upscale traditional 1,920x1080 HD video to 4K. Another hurdle: 4K resolution is too high to perceive unless you're sitting very close to the screen, by some measurements.
See the full story here: http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57507096-93/sony-puts-a-price-on-its-4k-tv-$25000/
With never.no technology, broadcasters can monitor, filter, approve, and harvest—tweets, SMS,MMS, Rss feeds, Facebook posts, — all kinds of content cascading from the many new social media platforms. They can build playlists or carousels of select social content they want to push to air. The never.no user interface empowers broadcasters with secure editorial control over what social media content they aggregate, post, or use on-air.
See the full story here: http://www.screenafrica.com/page/news/animation/1382692-Immersing-social-content-into-graphics
Huge technology trade shows like IFA are meant to parade the biggest products around. But what if the biggest isn’t the best? What if intimacy, personalization and customization are the things we crave? That’s what I argued at a fringe event in Berlin last week.
See the full story, which discusses 3D printing, here: http://gigaom.com/europe/what-do-future-products-look-like-personal-sensual-intimate/