Samsung patented new audio systems and 3D interface for mobile devices
...Samsung’s patents published by the site Patent Bolt . In the article, we describe two new features that may be present in future releases of the company: a directional sound system and a 3D interface that will detect “hits” to the next screen.
Interaction with 3D images
Imagine you are watching a 3D movie and suddenly need to pause the video. With the vision accustomed to the effects that jump off the screen, you may press the air instead of touching the screen truly. But with Samsung’s patent, would you still pausing the video.
Read the full story here: http://www.technocrates.org/samsung-patented-new-audio-systems-and-3d-interface/
Apple’s next innovation: 3D gesture-based computing puts the ‘post’ in Post-PC
... To understand the potential here, imagine your Mac desktop to be a three-dimensional place. As a user you might actually experience the sensation of walking through that space, reaching for the files and folders you need, controlling them through a mix of spoken word and gesture controls.
The entire experience would be visible to you through your glasses. The logical outcome would see your computer become discreet to an extent far beyond anything in Minority Report. ...
Leap Motion meanwhile seems content to forge its own path. It offers a sensor device that introduces the tech to other computers (PCs and Macs) and is whispering of plans to offer its own app store through whichindependent developers can offer up their 3D-ready apps.
Maybe, maybe not
However, it might be that Apple has no need to pick up Leap Motion -- after all, the surfeit of 3D interface patents may well suggest the company has its own plans for this. It's also important to keep the Apple maxim in mind: it will only bring a technology to market if it is able to apply it properly. ...
Disruptive technology
Meanwhile industry observers at MIT Technology Review seem giddy with anticipation for the new interface, calling this the "most important technology since the smartphone", they write:
"The fact that the Leap can see almost any combination of objects - a pen, your fingers, all 10 fingers at once, should make every interface designer on the planet giddy with anticipation. ...
Read the full story here: http://blogs.computerworld.com/mac-os-x/20821/apples-next-innovation-3d-gesture-based-computing-puts-post-post-pc
Gun Lobby Loves 3D-Printed Weapons
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“People have been making firearms at home since before America was a country,” Dudley Brown, executive vice president of the National Association for Gun Rights, tells Danger Room. “And not only does it not make it dangerous, it makes America safer. It’s where most of the innovation came from. John Moses Browning built guns out of his basement. We’re still using them.”
Neither Brown nor the NAGR condone building firearms illegally. But at-home plastic gun manufacturing raises some thorny legal and regulatory questions, and has some worried it could undermine attempts to keep America’s guns under control. Managing the flow of solid weapons is one thing. How do you control a digital pattern that people can use to print guns in their living rooms? ...
Read the full story here: http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/08/3d-weapons/
Why some people have 3D viewing issues
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A recent study has uncovered a particularly condition that may increase the risk of having 3D viewing issues.
In the study, published in the Journal of Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus (July/August 2012, Volume 49, Issue 4: 248-253), some subjects with symptoms associated with viewing three-dimensional (3D) images (referred to as 3D asthenopia) were found to have exophoria. The study concluded that exophoria may be a risk factor for 3D asthenia.
The study included one hundred fifteen volunteers between the ages of 18 and 55. ...
Sony Names New 3D Center Director
Sony Pictures Technologies has named stereographer Grant Anderson the executive director of its Sony 3D Technology Center.
A producer, digital artist and visual effects supervisor, Anderson has lent his expertise to Beowulf 3D, Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs and The Green Hornet, and more recently to The Amazing Spider-Man and Battle of the Year: The Dream Team.
Previously, Anderson served as a CG supervisor and digital artist on Spider-Man, Spider-Man 2, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, The Matrix Reloaded and The Aviator, and supervised the team that created the visual effects for Spider-Man 3. Anderson was part of the Academy Award-winning visual effects teams for Titanic, Spider-Man 2 and the short film The Chubb Chubbs.
Prior to joining Sony Pictures, Anderson helped comic icon Stan Lee form Stan Lee Media, and also served as a digital artist at Disney. ...
Read the full press release here: http://www.homemediamagazine.com/sony/sony-names-new-3d-center-director-28051
Can Olympics Closing Ceremony Save BBC’s 3D Campaign?
The data on TV audience for the nightly one-hour tri-dimensional highlights programme further exposed the underwhelming pulling power of even free 3D content. From the 30th of July to the 7th of August, only an average of 10,460 Brits watched the show each night on BBC HD, with the number plunging to as low as 4,000 on the 4th, 5th and 6th of August.
Several reasons have been put forward to explain the disappointing viewing figures, ranging from low penetration of 3D-capable HDTV sets among UK households to lack of promotion on the part of the Beeb. What hasn’t been discussed much is the quality of the 3D programming itself.
While 3-dimensional coverage of the opening ceremony was excellent, watching the men’s 100m final in 3D did not provide a satisfying viewing experience: 3D depth during the race itself left a lot to be desired; the camera perspectives were limited ...
Read the full story here: http://www.hdtvtest.co.uk/news/olympic-closing-ceremony-3d-201208122095.htm
3D printer could build a house in 20 hours
[Philip Lelyveld comment: nothing new here - they are already doing this in Europe, but putting it in a TEDx talk makes it legit.]
The apparatus, instead of being the size of your typical laser printer, would actually be somewhat bigger than the house it would build through a concrete layering system called Contour Crafting.
The professor explained the process in a speech at the TEDx conference, which you can watch. (Start at 4:30 to see the animation demo.) In the video, the professor demonstrates how the machine lays down a concrete foundation, puts up walls, even inserts wiring and plumbing, and eventually constructs an entire building, which Professor Khoshnevis says can be completed in less than a day. (All that's left to add are doors and windows. ) Robotics could even be used to add details like tiles, says the professor.
Khoshnevis doesn't have just efficiency in mind—he wants to end the scourge of slums in the developing world. The system would be right for emergency, low-income, and commercial housing, notes the Contour Crafting website, such as in areas devastated by a natural disaster. Mechanizing home building would be cheaper and more efficient, Khoshnevis argues.
See the full talk and video here: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/3d-printer-could-build-house-20-hours-224156687.html
3D Innovation Center to open August 28th
After over a year of planning, the 3D Innovation Center will officially open its doors in Berlin on August 28th and a week later, will be hosting a 3D Innovation Day as part of its presence at IFA on September 4th.
The 3D Innovation Center features a range of new stereoscopic technology and 3D Focus enjoyed asneak preview last year. The 3D Innovation Day will question how or whether stereoscopic 3D media has a long term future. Dr. Ralf Schäfer, Chairman of Steering Committees will introduce the day at 10.00 followed by a morning devoted to the emerging 3D market in China.
Read the full story here: http://www.3dfocus.co.uk/3d-news-2/3d-innovation-center-to-open-august-28th/9833
Schklair talks Stalingrad 3D and frustrating US 3D market
Due for an October 2013 release, Stalingrad is the first Russian made entirely in 3D and will cost a reported $30,000,000. Steve Schklair, who's company 3ality Technica is supplying 3D rigs for the London Olympics 3D coverage, was the 3D Producer for the picture.
“I think China is the growth market” he said “We are so deeply involved with china. I believe the 3D market in the UK is growing at a nice steady pace thanks to BSkyB taking the first jump. I believe the 3D television market in the US is going nowhere because everyone that launches channels don’t have any plans for content, so there are all these channels with nothing to see on them. There have been some mistakes made in the market over here”.
Read the full story here: http://www.3dfocus.co.uk/3d-news-2/schklair-talks-stalingrad-3d-and-frustrating-us-3d-market/9768
A new take on 3D volumetric display
And here’s the explanation of what you’re looking at: “Light from a source (1) is reflected by a polarizing beamsplitter (2) towards a spatial light modulator (3), whose image patterns are generated by a personal computer (4). Projection optics (5) make image patterns onto a rotating double helix screen (6).”
But is this just theory turned into prototype for proof of concept, or is this something that might soon be commercially available? SPAR called Geng to find out.
Partly, this is because Geng, who has received government grants over the years to work on everything from an ultra-miniature lidar device to a 360-degree video surveillance camera, sees the display as only part of an overarching capture-process-display system.
See the full story here: http://www.sparpointgroup.com/News/Vol10No32-A-new-take-on-3D-volumetric-display/