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Lumino Adds Third Dimension to Microsoft Surface (Video)

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by Aaron Saenz on January 7th, 2010
Lumino blocks interact with Microsoft Surface to extend digital information into a 3D environment.

Lumino blocks interact with Microsoft Surface to extend digital information into a 3D environment.

It never fails: give scientists a new bit of technology and they’ll find a way to use it to play with blocks. Maybe it’s all the Legos we enjoyed as children. In any case, researchers at the University of Potsdam’s Hasso Plattner Institute have developed Lumino, a system of blocks that interact with Microsoft Surface. The table sized touchscreen has had many interesting features, but never true 3D manipulation. Lumino changes all that by letting Microsoft Surface see through the shapes it uses. Each block is identified by markings and these markers are transferred through lower level blocks to the touchscreen via embedded fiber optics. This lets a user stack up to 10 layers of Lumino blocks to create a 3D shape that can interact with Microsoft Surface’s software. Developers suggest it may have powerful applications in architecture and design. Check out the video from New Scientist after the break.

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Avatar Movie Thrills In London Premier, Portends Future

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by Keith Kleiner on December 16th, 2009
Avatar Movie an animation marvel?

Avatar Movie an animation marvel?

The Avatar Movie from renowned director James Cameron is set to open in theaters worldwide this week.  Cameron, creator of movie greats including Terminator, Aliens, and The Abyss, not to mention Titanic, the highest grossing film of all time, has not released a movie in 11 years.  Touting a more than $300 million budget, reportedly the most advanced special effects ever seen in movie making, and the prowess of Cameron himself, the hype for the Avatar movie would seem impossible to live up to.  Yet indications from last week’s premier of the film in London indicate that the movie just might live up to viewers’ lofty expectations after all.

Those who attended the London premier were reportedly raving about the stunning animation and overall wonder of Avatar’s fictional planet Pandora and its inhabitants.  Several viewers have noted a weak plot fraught with overused cliches,  yet the overall consensus seems to be that the impressive animation and vision of this film make it a must see movie destined for box office success.  For what its worth, Rottentomatoes has given the movie a respectable 84% rating.

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3D Hologram: Best Video Conference Ever

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by Aaron Saenz on August 24th, 2009

Nothing inspires fear and obedience in your minions like appearing before them as a giant floating head. Just ask the Wizard of Oz. Now the middle managers of the world can pretend they are great and magnificent with the advent of a hologram system that allows you to teleconference in awe-inspiring 3D. ICT Graphics Lab displayed this new system at their booth at SIGGRAPH earlier this summer. Just like in Oz, a person was able to sit behind a curtain and appear before viewers via special cameras, a projector and a spinning mirror. The effect is wonderful, and sometimes hilarious. Check out the video below.

The Wizard of Oz? Emperor Palpatine? Jambi from Pee-wee's Playhouse? No, that's just Andrew in accounting.

The Wizard of Oz? Emperor Palpatine? Jambi from Pee-wee's Playhouse? No, that's just Andrew in accounting.

While holographic teleconferencing may be a wonderful application of this technology, the effects could be seen in a far wider arena. ICT can broadcast your face in real time, but they can also do the same with almost any image. Pre-recorded images can be rotated and manipulated and viewed in a full 360° arc. The possibilities for modeling and sharing 3D images are amazing. You can also scale large recorded images (like someone’s full body) down to fit in the head-sized viewing area. Hopefully we’ll see this scaling incorporated into the teleconferencing system. How cool would it be to have real Star Wars style communication in your home or office? Check out the pre-recorded image demonstration video further below.

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3D Scanner Recreates Real-Life Objects on the Computer Screen

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by Andrew Kessel on July 29th, 2009

The line between computers and reality has been blurred.  We have murders committed because of World of Warcraft, Second Life romances (an activity normally reserved for the three dimensional world), and now there’s a way to turn any real-life object into a computer model.  Yes, the NextEngine 3D Scanner does just what it’s name implies.  It scans any object with a bunch of lasers and makes it into a fully workable CAD assembly right on the computer screen.  We’ve seen 3D printers and Claytronics here on the Hub but, with the NextEngine now on sale, reverse engineering will never be the same again.

Lots of lasers and stuff...

Lots of lasers and stuff...

The idea behind it is fairly simple.  Well, as simple as one can get when lasers are involved.  The laser scans the object and takes a 3D snapshot of the face, employing the devilishly tricky wave-particle duality theories to get 400 data samples per square inch.  The computer then automatically takes the data points and strings them together to make a 3D computer model that is easily imported into other CAD software.

Depending on how big the item is, a couple of scans at different angles might be required.  That might sound daunting but, with the visual editing software that comes bundled with the package, it’s a cinch.  What, you say?  Too lazy to go through and put your own 3D scans together into one image?  Then sit back and let the AutoPositioner automatically move the sample.  No, serious.  It’s pretty neat.  Check it out in the video below.

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Enter the AlloSphere: a 360° Audiovisual Research Dome

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by Drew Halley on May 14th, 2009

“Data analysis.” Sounds exciting, right? Most of us would sooner put out an eye than crunch some numbers. But what if you could trade in that Excel spreadsheet for a giant, 360 degree visual sphere with a kickin’ sound system? Science just got a whole lot trippier.

Photo courtesy of UCSB

The dome from outside, looking like a scene from one of the Myst games. Photo courtesy of UCSB

In the early days of science, checking out your data was easy: there wasn’t very much of it. Collecting data was the hard part; analyzing and cataloging it was a relatively straightforward affair.  But the times, they are a-changin’. Nowadays, complex research can spit out mountains of data, making analysis a confounding and time-consuming process. Plus, it can be pretty boring. That is, unless you have an AlloSphere handy.

The AlloSphere is a data presentation instrument – environment, really – that allows researchers to explore complex datasets in a fully immersive audiovisual environment. It is composed of two 5-meter radius hemispheres with a catwalk along the middle for researchers to stand on. From this perspective, they can watch visual representations of their data surround them, whether they are interested in neural activity or quantum fields. At the same time, other data can be represented in audio form, making the data exploration a multimedia affair. And to top it off, it’s real-time responsive, letting users manipulate the data they look at.

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Where No Augmented Reality Has Gone Before!

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by Aaron Saenz on May 11th, 2009

Last week,  Singularity Hub gave you the low-down on Total Immersion’s Augmented Reality. Well, hold on to your phasers Star Trek fans, because AR has come to the starship Enterprise! That’s right, Paramount has teamed up with Total Immersion to produce an online AR tour of the newly revamped Star Trek movie that opened this last weekend to more than $75 million of gold-pressed latinum.

Want to join Star Fleet and take a tour of the Enterprise? Couldn’t be simpler: go to Experience the Enterprise, fire up your webcam and print out the special page the program prompts you for. Iphone users can forgo the printing and use a special webpage display instead. Activate the Active X software at the prompt and you’re good to go. As always, Total Immersion’s AR tech blends streaming video and pre-recorded images in real-time to produce an eye-popping effect. Check out the demo video:

Paramount and J.J. Abrams have been working over-time to convince the movie-going public that you don’t have to be a hard-core Star Trek fan to enjoy the movie. (I am a hard-core fan, and I did enjoy the movie, btw) The “Experience the Enterprise” website is a nice step in that direction. Even if you’ve never heard of Star Trek before, the free AR demo would be too cool to pass up. It’s one of the first, if not the first, free AR programs that you can access online and try out for yourself. Did I mention that it was easy to get to work and totally free? Stop petting your tribble, put your 3D chess game on hold, invite the Orion ambassador over and check it out!

Reality – Now With Augmentation

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by Aaron Saenz on May 6th, 2009

Somewhere between the harshness of reality and the fantasy of virtual reality lies the domain of Augmented Reality (AR). The French company Total Immersion’s AR technology uses camera capture and 3D imaging techniques to blend surrounding and simulated environments in real-time. You’ve probably seen the videos floating around You Tube — people hold simple pieces of paper up to their web cameras and suddenly cool cars or a baseball player appear on the screen, seemingly right on top of the paper. The mash of real and virtual gives the illusion that both are occurring in the same space. One look at these stunning effects and you have a hard time believing it’s real, which it isn’t, and you can’t help wanting to learn more. If you haven’t seen the videos already, check out what you’re missing below:

AR videos have been making the rounds on the Internet recently in part due to their nearly seamless blending of the captured and constructed images. Without this real-time blending, Augmented Reality would be completely redundant with the CGI movies that have been coming out of Hollywood for years. With the real-time blending, Total Immersion has opened the door for interaction between the audience and virtual environment. That interactive ability is what will transform AR from a novelty to a world-wide phenomenon.

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Breakout Year for 3D Movies In 2009 – Convergence of Physical and Digital World Continues

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by Keith Kleiner on March 2nd, 2009

3d_movieAfter a long history of false starts, 2009 looks to be the breakout year when 3D movies for the masses finally come of age.  The exciting move to 3D movies is just one example of the life altering convergence we are witnessing between the physical world and the virtual world.  Even as 3D movies seem poised to become ubiquitous, technologies such as sixthsense from MIT, wearable video projection glasses from myvu, and virtual worlds from Second Life are increasingly bringing these two worlds together.

Many will be surprised to learn that the first patents and the first working versions of 3D movies were created more than 100 years ago!  Yet only now, after several false starts, does it appear that the era of 3D movies may finally have arrived.  For futurists and technology enthusiasts, the story of 3D movies is a reminder that exciting technologies that seem just around the corner can actually be a long way off.

This year will see the production of an unprecedented number of high quality, large budget 3D movies from several big name studios.  Most notable is the announcement that Dreamworks, the studio behind Shrek, Madagascar, and the highly anticipated March release of the animated movie “Monsters vs. Aliens”, has pledged to make all of its movies in 3D from now on.

According to Reuters:

Major 3-D releases for 2009 include “Up” on May 29 from Disney-Pixar, “Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs” on July 1 from News Corp’s 20th Century Fox, and director James Cameron’s “Avatar,” also from Fox and in theatres on December 18.  All told, at least 40 big budget 3D movies are slated for the next 3 years.

Not only are big name studios spending big money to create these 3D movies, but movie theaters are finally making the expensive investments required to upgrade their equipment to show the movies.  Again, from Reuters:

1,700 3-D screens exist, up from less than 1,000 six months ago, said Patrick Corcoran, director of media and research for The National Association of Theatre Owners.  Converting the vast majority of the 38,900 screens in the U.S. will cost $2 billion, he said.

Although there were several moments during the last 100 years when 3D movies seemed just on the horizon, widespread adoption never occurred because the technology was never able to shake off some serious problems.

Most notable is that until recently the technology has been plagued by a terrible user experience.  3D movies have long been criticized for inducing headaches in their viewers.  Furthermore, limitations in the technology meant that the movie was unwatchable when viewed at an angle, such as from the side of a theater or when lying one’s head on the shoulder of a loved one.

User experience aside, the industry has also been unable to overcome the “chicken and egg” problem in regards to investment.  Producers would not invest in 3D movies because there were no theaters to show them in.  Theaters would not invest money to equip themselves for 3D movies because there weren’t many 3D movies to show.

Now after significant improvements to the technology, the user experience has been perfected.  Headaches are no longer a problem and today’s 3D movies can be viewed from practically any angle.  Meanwhile, movie producers and movie theaters seem to have overcome their inability to invest.  The result is an explosion of 3D offerings for 2009 that may reshape the entire movie landscape for the benefit of industry players and for viewers.

If you haven’t seen a 3D movie in theaters lately, chances are that you will soon.

Want to learn more?  Check out these excellent sources that were used for this story:

NPR recently did a segment on 3D movies here

Wikipedia: 3-D Film

Reuters: Recession blurs outlook for 3-D movie expansion

Star Trek Replicator? Barrier Between Physical and Digital Worlds Fading

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by Keith Kleiner on January 7th, 2009

You know that replicator from Star Trek that was able to make food and other items seemingly out of thin air?  Well, such a device does not disobey the laws of physics and is theoretically possible.  Atoms are the fundamental building blocks of everything around us and replicating any object on demand simply requires its fabrication one atom at a time.

A company called Shapeways allows you to upload a 3D design to their website and then days later they will mail you a real life fabrication of your design.  Shapeways offers a cool service that has previously been expensive and hard to find for the average consumer.  More notably, Shapeways is an example of the merger between the physical world and the digital world that is underway.

Today the physical world and the digital world are completely separate realms, but this will likely change in the future.  One day it may be possible to take a person and convert them completely into digital form with no further need for their physical body.  Conversely, it may be possible for an artificial intelligence entirely created through software and digital bits to be transferred into physical form.  This will sound crazy to many readers, yet substantial theoretical work dubbed “it from bits” suggests that physical objects and digital objects are both the same thing – information.  The Center for Bits and Atoms, lead by Neil Gershenfeld is doing some very exciting work in this field.

Star Trek style replication is still likely a far off achievement for us, but companies like Shapeways are examples of the tiny steps we are making in what may be a steady march towards a unification of the physical and digital worlds.  One day you might in essence email somebody a real physical object, such as food or a car.  The email would contain the digital recipe describing the entire information content of the object (its atoms, the location of the atoms, the interconnection of atoms, etc.) and some sort of logic at the other end would convert this digital recipe into the real world physical object.  If you still don’t believe it, then remind yourself that only 3 billion base pairs of information called DNA is what was needed to make you!

Image from “Petunia” model at shapeways gallery

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