Hugo Blu-ray 3D Review
The Picture
In the post-World-War-I era of Hugo, film is exalted as one of the great spectacles of its day, and now Scorsese has echoed that same spirit of technology and showmanship by making this his first film shot in 3D. The results are outstanding, with an appreciable depth in most scenes, particularly the bustling locales of the train station. Subtle successful touches are layered in, sprays of dust and so on, and we may find ourselves tempted to bat away the frequent snowflakes.
Computer-generated effects are heavily employed, and here too a strong, credible dimensionality is displayed, as in the Parisian cityscape. This was also Marty's first movie to be capture digitally and the 16:9 image has a gorgeous clarity, right down wrinkles and pores and the faintest glint of perspiration. There's a pleasing, filmic warmth thankfully, and an intoxicating color palette.
...
Read the full review here:
Making Stuff: 3D Printing on Campus [Campus Technology]
... He'll be teaching a course in the fall, "Elementary Science Methods," to pre-service teachers. As part of that he'll be introducing them to the inclusion of engineering in their science lessons. As a result of theNational Research Council developing a national framework for K-12 science standards, he says, "One of the things that's happening in science education is that there's a big emphasis on including engineering in science classes."
3D printing fits well, Meadows explains, in a scenario where the student is "designing something, testing it, learning, recording information, going back and redesigning. It's really a great way to do problem solving." ...
The fascination instructors have with the MakerBot recalls an era when humans did more for themselves, muses Meadows. "Like we used to do with our cars. You'd go in and take things apart and fix things. With computerization it's difficult to do that. Now we're getting back to the idea of making something, building something, testing it, fiddling around with it, and rebuilding it. It goes back to that hands-on DIY ethic." ...
Read the full story here:
Panasonic Bringing Star Wars 3D Home This Year
Up front: Don’t get too excited because it’s only The Phantom Menace…
See the full story here
Bang + Olufsen BeoVision 12-65 3D TV hits North America in March for $11,350
The TV comes with the latest in plasma technology offering an even greater experience in both 2D and 3D. The panel is a NeoPDP panel, which includes new phosphors with a very short retention time, which allows for an improved 3D performance and a much better motion performance in a 2D viewing situation.
BeoVision 12-65 also comes with Automatic Color Management to compensate for the effects of aging that is common for the plasma technology. For BeoVision 12-65, the robotic arm featuring a camera is located underneath the screen, hidden behind the loudspeaker grill.
See the original press release here
‘Singing gloves’ turn motion into music
A team of engineers from the University of British Columbia has developed a pair of gloves that read hand gestures and convert them to speech and song, potentially giving those with speech and/or hearing disabilities another way to communicate.
The project, called Digital Ventriloquized Actor (DIVA) and led by UBC professor of electrical and computer engineering Sidney Fels, tries to replicate the movements of real vocal cords through the use of hand gestures read by a system of sensors.
The right glove features 3D motion sensors that can detect whether your hand is open or closed. When open, DIVA produces vowel sounds (much like real life, where vowels require the throat and lips to be open), while closing your hand creates consonant sounds. Meanwhile, the left-hand glove has finger contacts that produce stop consonants, such as "b" and "p," when touched together.
What's unique about DIVA compared with other text-to-speech systems is its ability to sing. ...
Read the original story here
Sony Patents Kinect-Like 3D Depth-Sensing Camera for PlayStation Consoles
...A newly published patent has revealed that the company has begun work on a new 3D camera that could potentially be a part of the PlayStation 4.
Only just published, what’s most interesting about the patent is that is was originally filed last October – a full year after the Kinect launched and broke Guinness World Records for sales. ...
The patent says: ...
A system for providing a real-time three-dimensional interactive environment, comprising: a depth sensing device capable of obtaining depth values indicating distances from one or more physical objects in a physical scene to a depth sensing device…
See the full original story here:
See the patent here:
Paleontologists print out 3D dinosaur bones
"Technology in paleontology hasn't changed in about 150 years," says paleontologist Dr Kenneth Lacovara. "We use shovels and pickaxes and burlap and plaster. It hasn't changed - until right now."
Using 3-D printing can not only create exact-size replicas for museum display, but also test possible movements of extinct species.
See the full story here:
Be Lou Reed for 64 Minutes: How 3D Sound Met “Metal Machine Music”
...now through April 15, California State University at Long Beach’s University Art Museum is presenting an audio installation of Reed’s Metal Machine Trio. The show provides audience members with an accurate sonic replica of Reed’s experience onstage during an April 2009 performance of the composition,...
Making the 3D recording and subsequently reproducing it in a public installation was a serious test for Arup’s acoustic consultants, applying the company’s extremely deep resources – including a 3D SoundLab in the heart of their TriBeCa offices – to make a unique method for Metal Machine immersion. ...
“Essentially the technique involves having three overlapping figure-of-eight microphones, individually capturing sound in the X [front-to-back], Y [side-to-side] and Z [floor-to-ceiling] axis at the listening location, and a W channel capturing the omnidirectional responses,” says Patel. “The captured signal type is called B-Format. With the appropriate decoding you can re-create for a listener, either within an appropriate loudspeaker array, or on headphones, the true 3d sound as would be experienced by the listener.” ...
Read the full story here:
Nintendo 3DS sets Japanese console sales record
Nintendo’s 3DS is the company’s fastest device to reach 5m unit sales in Japan, the company has confirmed, beating sales records previously set by the GameBoy Advance. The glasses-free 3D capable portable had found the market tough to break into upon its launch, with Nintendo forced to dramatically slash the price in order to stimulate sales.
At the time, Nintendo’s president issued an apologetic open letter explaining the motivation behind the cuts to early adopters, warning that if Nintendo hadn’t dropped the price then the handheld might not have gained sufficient traction among developers. That move seems to have worked, at least in terms of Nintendo’s immediate competitors; the 3DS is reportedly more popular among them than Sony’s new PS Vita.
See the original post here:
More design hobbyists, entrepreneurs use 3-D printing
[Philip Lelyveld comment: The bolded comment is reminiscent of what the record industry said about MP3s.]
Thanks to the Internet and declining hardware costs, 3-D printing — once a specialized process used sparingly by industrial companies for prototyping — is becoming more common among design hobbyists and entrepreneurs such as Summit.
The consumer market's embrace of the technology has been swift. Sales for all 3-D printing products and services worldwide grew 24% to $1.33 billion in 2010, fueled in part by a fast-growing market of do-it-yourselfers, says industry research firm Wohlers Associates.
Want to make a toy robot for your third-grader? MyRobotNation.com, which specializes in 3-D-printed toy robots, has design software and a product ordering page on its website.
Despite its potential, 3-D-printing technology does not yet pose a serious threat to traditional manufacturing.
Read the full article here: