...I’ll take you behind the scenes at Microsoft, IBM, and university labs where researchers are experimenting with a range of fascinating technology that may appear in future consumer products. Look forward to 3D images you can "touch," touchscreens that get sticky, robotic astronauts, and -- yes -- even flying cars.
"Who are the real Hollywood stars?" Scott Ross asked the packed crowd filling Salon 1 of the Renaissance Hollywood Hotel during October's annual SMPTE Technical Conference.
Then he put a list of the top 20 highest-grossing box office films of all time on the screen in front of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers audience.
"Notice that, in this whole list, only one franchise featured an established star," Ross said. "But all of them, without exception, were powered either by massive digital visual effects or computer-generated animation."
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The demand for visual effects will not go away, of course. So Ross envisions a future VFX industry built around a hub-and-spoke paradigm, which is being accelerated by broadband Internet connections.
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"We need a major change in the industry," Ross finished up. "The people who own and operate visual effects facilities have to understand that they are not the tail that wags the dog. They are the dog!"
After all, as Ross told the SMPTE audience, "It don't mean a thing if it can't go ka-ching!"
Also, Google recently launched its Art Project, which allows users to visit museums from all over the world - virtually. The innovative new web tool gives audiences unprecedented access to museums, artworks, and collections of masterpieces, enabling them to zoom in on chosen works, as well as create and share personal art portfolios. And let’s not forget Adobe’s Museum of Digital Media, which holds the unique position of being a virtual venue dedicated to displaying digital art.
... A true history of product design could easily fill out a feature-length film, so Off Book's video is more of a quick primer. But it still manages to touch on the past, present, and future of product design, embodied by three luminaries: Harvey Moscot of Moscot Eyewear, Yves Behar of fuseproject, and Peter Schmitt of MIT's Personal Robotics Group. ...
But first, this is NOT a review. It’s just an early look at a product that hasn’t yet shipped (they expect to ship them sometime in Q1, 2012, so by April 1, although first units might start shipping in February). The software isn’t done, and Eric showed me a few things that they are working on for the future.
You’ll have to wait for an official “review” of the final camera.
So, why was it disappointing?
Well, if you just want the ultimately sharpest photo, this isn’t a camera for you (it won’t do 22 megapixel photos like my Canon 5D MKII will, and the images are generally good enough for on-screen use but if you want to blow them up to wall sized images, this isn’t a camera for you).
If you like having a huge choice of lenses, this isn’t a camera for you.
If you want to shoot action sports, this isn’t a camera for you.
If you want to see through the viewfinder to choose your own focus point, this isn’t a camera for you.
If you want the best low-light performance, then this isn’t a camera for you.
But why is it enthralling?
It let me see the world in a new way. I no longer needed to worry about focus. In fact, I quickly learned that there’s a kind of photo that only works on the Lytro: one where you can get very close to the subject and just shoot, without any worry about where the focus is.
Plus, coming sometime after the camera ships you can turn each image into a 3D image. I saw some examples from Eric’s computer on my 65-inch Vizio 3D TV and they rocked.
This development places the world on the brink of the fifth era for manufacturing: “mass personalisation”. In 3D printing – also called “additive manufacturing” – machines based on advances in electronics, laser technology and chemistry build up complex shapes from granules of plastics or metal.
“It adds up to a new industry which reduces immensely the gap between design and production,” says Ian Harris, from the Additive Manufacturing Consortium, a US-based industry think-tank. “Manufacturers will be able to say to their customers, ‘Tell us what you want’ and then they will be able to make [specific products] for them.”
Philip Lelyveld comment: Watch the video - The other nine are either odd experiments or lifestyle rather than tech.
3. This 'robot ostrich' probably will outrun you
Many animals can sprint faster than a human. Now, a "robot ostrich" is among them.
Scientists are trying to imitate the fastest two-legged runner on the planet by creating a robot ostrich that stands almost 5 feet tall, weighs 66 pounds and can run at speeds up to 32 mph. Fittingly, founders call this speedy ostrich FastRunner.
The online screenings are the latest effort by the movie industry to try to follow viewers online as the traditional movie business struggles. DVD and Blu-ray disk sales are expected to drop 8% this year from 2010, continuing years of decline, according to Nielsen VideoScan data analyzed by research firm IHS Screen Digest.
To promote his upcoming movie, "Damsels in Distress," director Whit Stillman will host a screening of his 1990 film "Metropolitan" next month on website Constellation.tv, which bills itself as an online movie theater. He expects to answer questions from fans who log in and to tease clips from "Damsels."
"Not many people live in places where they can participate in real Q&A screenings," Mr. Stillman says.
With five days left in 2011, ticket sales in North America are running about $500 million behind last year — despite higher prices — prompting a round of soul searching by studios trying to determine what went wrong and how best to proceed. ...
Revenue, for instance, has been propped up by a glut of 3-D films, which cost $3 to $5 more per ticket. Studios made 40 pictures in 3-D in the last 12 months, up from 24 last year, according to BoxOfficeMojo.com, a movie database. Theaters have also continued to increase prices for standard tickets; moviegoers now pay an average of $7.89 each, up 1 percent over last year.
Attendance for 2011 is expected to drop 5.3 percent, to 1.27 billion, continuing a slide. Attendance declined 6 percent in 2010. ...
“As bad as the economy is for adults, it’s worse for teenagers,” said Phil Contrino, editor ofBoxOffice.com, by way of an explanation. “Because they have less disposable income and because they are more plugged in to audience reaction on Facebook and Twitter, the teenage audience is becoming picky,” he added. “That’s a nightmare for studios that are used to pushing lowest-common-denominator films.” ...
“There may be a correlation to the recent strength of video game sales,” he said. “You look at a game like the new ‘Call of Duty’ selling $400 million in its first 24 hours and say, ‘What? How is that even possible?’ ”
On the other hand, several movies aimed squarely at older audiences attracted stronger-than-expected revenue, “The Help” was the prime example. That period drama cost DreamWorks about $25 million to make and took in more than $169 million in North America. ...
The emergence of “personalised manufacturing” promises to resolve the contradiction. Using computerised designs, techniques such as three-dimensional printing will enable businesses based in Birmingham or Belize to make complicated parts for products from forklift trucks to space rockets that could be assembled virtually anywhere. Customer choice over how the artefacts look will increase, with only minimal compromise concerning quality or cost.
Who knew Jackass 3D gave out toilet paper!