Review: Space Junk 3D
... A new short film, Space Junk 3D, takes advantage of the state of the art in cinema technology to better communicate the threat and potential ways of dealing with it.
Space Junk 3D, currently screening in a handful of theaters that are primarily associated with museums, is intended to bring the issue of orbital debris to the verybig screen. Designed for IMAX 3D theaters, the film offers plenty of dramatic visuals, both real and animated, to describe the threat of orbital debris. While narrated by British actor Tom Wilkinson, the central figure in the 40-minute film is Don Kessler, the former NASA scientist who led some of the early studies of the subject, long before it appeared on the public’s radar. (Kessler is perhaps best known for promulgating the concept known as the Kessler Syndrome, where the density of debris in a particular orbit reaches the point where debris creates a self-sustaining cascade of impacts, effectively making that orbit unusable.) Kessler provides the expert voice describing the growth of debris and ways to address, and perhaps eventually resolve, this problem. ...
The film at times makes good use of its giant three-dimensional canvas, primarily in the form of computer animations that illustrate the growing population of debris and what the effects of debris collisions can be. The film also tries to be forward-looking, displaying at the end some of the concepts that researchers have proposed in recent years to capture debris or deorbit satellites at the end of their lifetimes. The film does look perhaps too far ahead, envisioning a fleet of orbital tugs—effectively space garbage trucks—gathering debris ...
Those issues aside, Space Junk 3D, does a good job illustrating the problem of orbital debris that can otherwise be difficult to visualize. In a discussion after a screening of the film at the Smithsonian’s Natural Museum of Natural History in Washington in mid-March, producer Kimberly Rowe said she was drawn to the topic precisely because of the lack of visuals. “It left you wanting to know more, and it’s also incredibly visual, yet there were no visuals to really see with this,” she said of the subject of orbital debris.
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Fighting Fears with 3D
... Although phobias and anxiety disorders can be treated effectively using traditional approaches, immersive virtual environments offer a more practical approach in a clinical setting. A typical doctor’s office is no place to keep spiders, alligators, snakes, high places, tight places, or other common fear-inducers. However, these creepy crawlies and uncomfortable architectures are easily available in a VR studio.
This is why our researchers in the Cyberpsychology Lab and at the Canada Research Chair in Clinical Cyberpsychology at the Université du Québec en Outaouais (UQO), Canada, are leveraging immersive virtual environments to help patients with anxiety disorders face and manage their fears in a safe, controlled environment.
Facing Fears
Immersive treatment conditions are created by projecting the virtual environments on the walls, floor, and ceiling of a virtual cave environment, or by using special 3D goggles referred to as HMDs. Everywhere patients look, the environment surrounds them, changing as they react to the scenarios – much as a video game changes based on the choices players make. The applications are in use to treat patients with conditions ranging from simple phobias to social anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorder. ...
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‘Wrong stars’ force Titanic 3D scene to be reshot
Cameron, a notorious perfectionist, has admitted re-doing a scene in which character Rose lies on a piece of driftwood after leading expert Neil deGrasse Tyson sent him a “snarky” email.
The American astronomer accused the original film of having the wrong star field for the time and date, 4.20am on April 15, 1912, and claimed Cameron should have known better. ...
“And with my reputation as a perfectionist, I should have known that and I should have put the right star field in.”
“So I said ‘All right, send me the right stars for that exact time and I’ll put it in the movie.’
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LG flexible e-paper launching this month
Ebook readers could be about to become a lot more like traditional paperbacks. LG will launch a flexible e-paper display in Europe this month, theTelegraph reports.
The 6-inch EPD (e-paper display) is the same size as the screen on the Amazon Kindle, Sony Reader, and a lot of other e-book readers. It's about a third thinner though, and because it's made of plastic rather than glass, is only half the weight. You can't fold or roll it up, but you can bend it up to 40 degrees apparently. That should make it more tactile for reading, as well as more durable when slung into a bag or pocket.
The maximum resolution is 1,024x768-pixels -- that's the same as the LG Optimus Vu. Though don't expect any colours or animations. Not yet anyway. That's a very high resolution for just showing text and the odd picture though, so everything should look crisp. ...
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THE SHOCK LABYRINTH 3D REVIEW
Some films are, to be charitable, far from Academy Award winning material. Some are just dumb. And some are just plain fun to watch... because of 3D. ...
That the film is in 3D makes it work -- that “3D” is in the name makes more sense and cannot be overstated. And as crafted by the Japanese director Takashi Shimizu (see his Ju-On: The Grudge), you’ll be a lot more entertained than any U.S. ‘’remake.” The film was shot in high-definition 3D and looks it -- but only if you saw it in the theater. For your home theater, the 3D is enacted using the anaglyph model: red and cyan glasses you might have on hand from 7-Eleven, a NBC special event or from a comic book (recent or ancient), etc. This means that you don’t have to have a 3D TV in order to see it – thus explaining why there’s no 3D logo on the Blu-ray box -- but it also makes the effects more exaggerated and less technically efficient than would be the case if real 3D were being employed. ...
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Baroque Church Transformed Into A Virtual Musical Instrument [Video]
An interesting 3D projection and music installation by projection mapping collective Macula transformed a Baroque church in the Czech Republic into a virtual musical instrument that could be interacted with using laser pointers. The virtual surface of the Olomouc Baroque de-baptized chapel’s interior was mapped, and parts of the architecture reinterpreted by virtual visual elements via projection and sound.
Up to 10 visitors could interact with the Archifon installation at a time, by directing laser pointers at more than 100 elements to trigger different audiovisual actions. Angel statues sing when the laser points at them, window parts represent tones of the different instruments, elements of the paintings play different soundscapes, and sliding up and down the pillars creates a range of visual effects.
Take a look at the video to see Archifonin action here:
Ring Around the Full Trailer for Sadako 3D
The spirit of Sadako of the Ring series is alive, well, and ready to crawl out of your viewing device and grab you! That's right, kids, the full international trailer for Sadako 3D has made its way online! Dig it!
Koji Suzuki has penned the script for the flick coming to us from Kadokawa Shoten Company.
Sadako, identified by her long black hair covering her face, has become an iconic character in the Japanese horror genre. Suzuki, the author of the original Ring novel series, indicated that the new 3D film will include a scene of Sadako coming out of a television set, similar to the original.
Synopsis
13 years after the original Ring movie, Sadako returns to the big screen in 3D! ...
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Will Summer Be Kind to 3D TV?
...As a result, 3D TV prices have dropped a lot over the past year. According to a new report by DealNews, 3D-enabled TVs are going to reach an all-time low this summer. Will this finally be the summer of 3D?
.... DealNews says that 3D TV models are dropping. The big push, however, should come when Westinghouse enters the 3D market. The upcoming W47 won’t have web connectivity, but it will be an affordable 3D TV option. When it first hits shelves, the price is expected to be somewhere in the $674 range—for a 3D TV. ...
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Failure rate of China’s flat-panel TVs hits 14.5%
A total of 14.5 percent of the flat-televisions purchased by Chinese families have hadmalfunctions, most of which were screen failures, according to China ElectronicsChamber of Commerce (CECC).
In March of 2011, the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection andQuarantine of China brought the flat-panel television into the "three-guarantee" policyand clearly prescribed that the full flat-panel television should be guaranteed for a yearand the screen should be guaranteed for three years. ...
In the first half of 2012, the draft of the technical standards for the 3D television will beconfirmed and submitted to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology ofChina for examination. ...
Taking the 3D television as an example, in order to watch 3D pictures, people have tobe right in front of some 3D televisions, and some other 3D televisions give peoplehealth problems such as the visual fatigue and dizziness due to their too large depthsof fields. ...
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Apple patent pitch hints at 3D imaging on iPhone, iPad
Patently Apple yesterday found an Apple patent application describing a way in which cameras in iOS-based devices would snap 3D images. According to the blog, which tracks all Apple patents and applications, the technology would utilize "depth-detection sensors," like radar and lidar, and use the latest and greatest luminance sensors to recreate an image's color as accurately as possible. By the time the picture is taken, it'll deliver a full 3D image.
The fact that Apple is thinking about 3D implementation on the iPhone and iPad isn't necessarily a surprise, given the importance the third dimension has taken on across the industry. At this point, it's hard to find a television that doesn't come with 3D support. And across the mobile space, more and more companies are starting to integrate 3D features. ...
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