November 03, 2005
Window management
Organize your open windows with Deskloops . "Deskloops does this by arranging windows along a virtual horizontal loop. At any one time, you’ll see window open on screen as usual, but in fact any number of other windows, set on that loop, can be rotated in from left or right. A strip of thumbnails on top of the screen maps the loop’s full content."
Lifehacker
Living off virtual worlds
Picturing online gaming's value. "One player he met in the virtual world, Second Life, earns $70,000 a year creating female avatar clothing, he says. Another player, Mark (aka Marcos Fonzarelli in Second Life) has turned himself into a "robot tailor", designing robot costumes that characters can wear. Admittedly, it is a niche market, says Mark, but he still earns $250 a month. "
BBC NEWS
October 26, 2005
Collaborative map-making through GPS
London Poster. "OpenStreetMap has put together all the GPS data it has in London and made a stunning poster from it. [...] Data submitted to OpenStreetMap of people walking, driving and cycling around London. So the thicker the lines, the more people travelled them. "
OpenStreetMap
October 21, 2005
Non-US cellphone innovation
Samsung demos 3D camera, display for cellphones. "Samsung recently demonstrated a working concept that incoporates stereoscopic cameras and a 3D-capable display directly into a cellphone, allowing for a more lifelike rendition of the subject. The stereo cams work under the same principle as human eyesight, while a parallax barrier LCD display gives on-screen images more depth and robustness. The new camera setup and displays should start appearing on foreign handsets next year, by which time we’ll hopefully be seeing 3 megapixel phones with optical zooms here in the technologically-backwards US."
Engadget
October 06, 2005
Another 3D display
Pioneer develops 3D floating interface. "Using a 3D lens, the system creates a 3D image from an image that is displayed on a 15inch LCD. Spatial sensors are installed around the projected image. Users can see the 3D image with their naked eyes, no need of any special glasses.) Sensors detects positions of fingers and a specially developed software computes and renders images in real time. Users can thus draw in the air or manipulate windows."
we make money not art
October 03, 2005
Things that live in the network
Network organism. "Nomen Nominandum, an organism that can live and grow for several years, floats around on the school network. If you call for it by voice or mouse movement it may come to your machine. If you play with it in the right way it will stay until it gets bored. At night, it sleeps curled up on its secluded plasma screen. It has real-time moods, sleeps in on Mondays and may decide to go away for a month in January. Its growth is very slow and as with living things you may never see it grow, but rather remember that it looked completely different some years ago."
we make money not art
Interactive 3D theater
Laptop illusions add extra dimension to live theatre. "3D technology currently used in the theatre is pre-recorded so every show is identical. Bogglevision, developed by Teesside company Amazing Interactives, allows the technology to adapt to whatever happens on the night. In Horrible Histories, as characters on stage search for a missing book, a member of the audience is asked their name and sees it appear instantly in a 3D book that suddenly floats, dancing in space, in front of them. "
we make money not art
September 28, 2005
Tracking you in virtual space
VirtuSphere Immersive Virtual Reality. "The device consists of a large hollow sphere which is mounted on a specially designed platform that allows the sphere to rotate freely as the user walks in any direction. The user wears a head-mounted display, which provides the virtual environment. Sensors under the sphere provide subject speed and direction to the computer running the simulation. Users can even ineract with objects in virtual space using a special manipulator." "
Usability In The News
September 27, 2005
Simple 3D drawing
"Magical Tools" for 3D Drawing and Painting. "Teddy is one of the most well-known works of his, which allows users to create 3D models just by drawing freeform strokes. Such a 3D authoring method could allow anyone to create 3D objects and effectively support creative processes of making 3D characters and objects. Look what kids made using Magical Sketch 2. "
we make money not art
September 20, 2005
Taxes in virtual worlds
Virtual Gaming's Elusive Exchange Rates. "Eventually, there's going to be a portfolio of these synthetic currencies," said Castronova. "Cyberspace nations that are issuing these currencies are going to be under legal obligation to report sales and volumes and transactions, because in worlds where those currencies can be freely liquidated into dollars, there are clear tax implications..." "
networked_performance
September 16, 2005
Projectors augmenting reality
Augmented carnage. "The remote-controlled vehicles scurry around, while status circles and other data are projected on the surface. As the vehicle moves, cameras and photo-detectors relay the movement to tracking software. Images are projected to the areas corresponding to the actual positions and directions of the toys: virtual laser beams and missiles appear to fly out of the real vehicles; explosions are overlayed on the screen as they connect with their targets. "
we make money not art
Virtual stuff in real space
Installation. "."Installation is a system created by Simon Greenwald,at the Aesthetics and Computation Group at the MIT media lab,consisting of a viewing window and a stylus with which users can create virtual forms and install them permanently into a real space"."
MIT
August 30, 2005
Tiny flying things
Tiny robot plane flies indoors, transmits data. "Swiss researchers have demonstrated a flying bot with an 31-inch wingspan and a weight of just 1 ounce, that can fly indoors, avoiding walls and other objects via its onboard cameras. The robot plane has gyroscopic stabilizers and a Bluetooth transmitter to send data back to a nearby computer."
Engadget
August 25, 2005
Massively multiplayer games through the phone
Artificial Life announces First Massive Multi Player 3G Game. "Players of the game can select a virtual persona for themselves and inhabit and live in a simulated virtual city. When navigating through the virtual city, users can contact and interact directly with other players in real time, have live real time chats with other human players or chatter bots, enter and explore virtual buildings, use interactive objects and co-operate with others to solve certain tasks or to avoid certain threats."
gizmag
3D input mechanisms
Laser-scanner for 3D human-machine interface. "The team's tracking system is currently using a laser diode (visible or invisible light), steering mirrors, and a non-imaging photodetector, which is capable of acquiring 3D coordinates in real time without the need of any image processing at all. Essentially, it is a smart rangefinder scanner that instead of continuously scanning over the full field of view, restricts its scanning area, on the basis of a real-time analysis of the backscattered signal, to a very narrow window precisely the size of the target."
we make money not art
Surface-less displays
Heliodisplay projects into thin air. "A California-based firm today unveiled a futuristic projector that projects video onto thin air. The Heliodisplay, developed by IO2 Technology, is designed to display any video source in high-resolution without the need for a screen."
vnunet.com
Virtual TV?
Gov't to push for virtual reality TV by 2020 - Japan's Leading International News Network. "The Japanese Communications Ministry is to establish a research group that will work to commercialize virtual reality television by 2020. VR TV will enable images to be seen in 3D from any angle at a quality equivalent to that offered by high-definition TVs, and allow viewers to feel and smell the objects they are watching."We make money not art
August 24, 2005
More 3D browsing
NTT 3D SpaceBrowser. "Japanese NTT is works on a 3D information browser that is scheduled to be released in October. The NTT SpaceBrowser shows web pages arranged in 3D. This is not a new concept, and I am still not convinced it makes sense to navigate information in 3D without having solved the 3D navigation user interface in general. The SpaceBrowser is nice to look at, but in my opinion just a toy."
I4U News
Super security cameras
CCTV video mixes maps and images. "Smart software is taking CCTV into the domain of 3D gaming by combining graphics, map data, and different camera views in one composite image. The system automatically tracks and stitches 3D images with CCTV video, maps and other real-time information. It automatically alerts operators to intruders, unusual behaviour, left objects or anything it is told to spot."
BBC NEWS
Visualizing and predicting traffic conditions
Innovative new traffic visualisation tool to debut in Northern California. “Beat the Traffic” is cutting edge 3-D traffic displays that offer the viewer a look at traffic from a completely different angle. One of the most exciting things “Beat the Traffic” will provide is travel forecasting. The system computes historical traffic information and will predict how long it will take to arrive at a destination. Travel forecasting can tell you what time on a Friday before a major holiday that traffic will start backing up! This will help viewers save time when planning events and trips."
gizmag
August 10, 2005
Printers that cut
CraftRobo Pro. "The craftrobo pro is a new inkjet printer sporting a built in cutting head which can spit out pre-cut patterns that fold into 3d objects. The craftrobo site features a library of downloadable patterns with novelties like robots, and dinosaurs..."
Gizmodo
Horizontal 3D displays
Toshiba Develops Flatbed 3D Display. "Toshiba Corp. has developed a display technology allowing 3D images to be viewed on a flatbed display. All the various conventional 3D displays developed thus far have been upright displays. By switching the way displays are placed, "We can offer a realistic touch of depth," said a company spokesperson."
Tech-On!
July 18, 2005
Tangible interfaces to media
MusicCube. "Users can physically interact with their music collections via the MusicCube using gestures to shuffle music and a rotary dial with a button for song navigation and volume control."
we make money not art
July 16, 2005
Touchless UI
Ethertouch. "An array of Ethertouch sensors track the position and velocity of your finger or hand as it passes through the field and convert the data into a digital signal, which is then processed. This ability to measure velocity as well as position makes the technology particularly attractive to the computer games industry, where it could enable a new level of immersion in VR gaming. The touch-free interfaces could appear on the market by the end of next year."
networked_performance
July 13, 2005
Getting "into" the display
An immersive existence simulator and telepresence apparatus. "Enter the Panoscope 360 to be fully immersed in a 3D world. A 3-axis joystick will let you and your friends (up to 8) fly through the space as in dreams. The immersive display uses a PC and a hemispheric projector to project in real time a rendering of your entire horizon onto the screen."
we make money not art
July 06, 2005
Getting things into 3D
Surveying The Future... Digitally. "...EZ2CAD, has developed a new system which can measure accurately an apartment inside a building, without the limitations of the current (and more expensive) systems. [...] the new device is composed of two units, a base station and a lightweight mobile unit called Rover. [...] this device also creates a CAD model directly usable by a software such as AutoCAD to build a 3D model in real time."
Primidi
June 30, 2005
Visualizing sports
Wimbledon goes hi-tech with Shot Tracker. "Shot Tracker (or Hawkeye) provides a three-dimensional animated image of every rally not just to commentators, players or coaches but now to punters and yobs alike on the wimbledon.org site."
Engadget
Virtual globes
Download of the Day, part II: Google Earth. "Holy geography geek, Batgirl! Google's released Google Earth, a downloadable 3D mapping application that starts you out looking at a view of the entire planet, and lets you fly all over Earth to locations you specify, search, add bookmarks and annotations to places and get directions."
Lifehacker
All around views
The Nissan over-head view eliminates blind-spots. "Now they are testing a system which incorporates these and front-mounted cameras to project a bird's-eye-view of your auto and its surroundings right onto your dashboard display."
Engadget
June 27, 2005
Multi-sided displays
Magic cubic movie player. "You can receive video mails on the cube and this newly coming message can be shown on the bottom face to avoid getting in the way of your work. Even if you put Z-agon up side down the device would recognize it and automatically corrects itself by algoritm."
we make money not art
June 23, 2005
3D TV
Holographic movies show promise for medical, military applications. "UT Southwestern's Dr. Harold "Skip" Garner and his colleagues have developed the first true, three-dimensional holographic movies. The technology shows promise for medical visualization and heads-up displays for helmets and military aircraft."
utsouthwestern
Teleporting copies of 3d objects
'Teleporting' over the internet. "Professors Todd Mowry and Seth Goldstein of Carnegie Mellon University in Pennsylvania think that, within a human generation, we might be able to replicate three-dimensional objects out of a mass of material made up of small synthetic "atoms"."
BBC NEWS
June 15, 2005
Real & virtual through the camera phone
CamBlaster. "Shoot at flying targets through the camera! Move the phone away and discover swarms of new targets to shoot! Come back, and see the previous targets still flying in the same zone!"
Realeyes3D
June 10, 2005
Virtual/real overlap
Computer Scientists Develop Wireless Application For Ubiquitous Video. "Computer scientists at UCSD have taken the wraps off a new technique for mixing images and video feeds from mobile cameras in the field to provide remote viewers with a virtual window into a physical environment. Dubbed "RealityFlythrough", the application constructs a 3D virtual environment dynamically out of the live video streams."
UCS
June 08, 2005
3D views of the world around you
Airtrack Passenger GPS Display. "By using real GPS data and satellite photos, Airtrack supplies a realtime view of the ground and surrounding airspace. The roll-out is pretty slow - just Air Berlin and an unnamed Middle Eastern line - but the system can render 2D and 3D images of the flight path and holds 40 hours of monitoring video."
Gizmodo
June 03, 2005
More 3D displays
Perspecta: the 3D video goldfish bowl. "Perspecta is made of a circular white polymer screen 25 cm in diameter, mounted atop a 1 meter tall black box for eye-level viewing. Software inside the machine dissects generated 3D models into 198 slices, which get projected onto the screen in rapid succession by an optical system mounted below the screen. The result is a 3-dimensional image that appears to be floating in a white fishbowl."
Engadget
Simulations of complex events
Biggest ever cosmos simulation. "The simulation by an international team is the biggest ever attempted and shows how structures in the Universe changed and grew over billions of years."
BBC NEWS
3D from any angle
View-Dependent Stereoscopic Projection in Real Environments. "Imagine projecting a virtual corridor on a brick wall that maintains its illusion by removing any distortions caused by texture or color and by visualizing the depth of the corridor stereoscopically as the viewer changes position."
networked_performance
May 31, 2005
Virtual medical help
3DVR haptics help rehabilitate stroke patients. "Software environments are designed to challenge patients with "cyber tasks" - such as grasping, pinching, squeezing, throwing and pushing, depending on the impairment."
Engadget
May 20, 2005
Visual metaphors for social networks
GORI.Node Garden. "As a gardener, you decide which GORI from your mobile contact list you will plant and grow. It could be somebody from either your phone list or somewhere else. A flower planted at the edge of the garden, starts to grow when you exchange messages and it moves towards the centre. When it moves, it vibrates."
we make money not art
May 12, 2005
Medical imaging
Body Image. "The latest medical-imaging advances provide unprecedented speed, sharpness, and diagnostic power- and get high points for artistic merit."
Tech Review
Real to virtual interfaces
Natural Interfaces. "Real objects such as tree branches, leafs and sand, function as an interface between the visitors and the art piece. By moving and repositioning the physical objects in space, the visitors initiate the real-time transformation of a digital landscape, in which mountains emerge, clouds move in the sky and trees grow. Evolutionary processes are inter-connected with the interaction, making the visitors pro-active in the development of the virtual environment."
D-SRUPT
May 11, 2005
3D card games
Augmented card game. "TARBoard consists of a glass table, two cameras and a mirror. Markers are attached to the back side of the cards (the front side shows the creature). A first camera tracks the image of markers reflected in the mirror below the table. Another camera, the "augmenting" one provides a 3D model of a creature when the card is flipped. A player cannot see the card processed by the other player."
we make money not art
May 09, 2005
Fast 3D city models
Fast 3D city model generation. "Virtualised reality scans the urban landscape using lasers and digital cameras mounted on a truck or plane. A laser measures distances to objects such as lamp posts and building facades, while the camera takes 2D photos. Another laser calculates the movement of the truck and checks its position against data collected from the aerial laser. [...] The researchers recently created a model of downtown Berkeley in just 4 hours - 26 minutes of driving plus 4 hours of data processing."
we make money not art
April 26, 2005
3D displays for tables
Toshiba Introduces Still More 3D Display Technology. "This technology led to the display you see at the right, which is intended to be placed on a flat surface (think: playing chess using a 3D display)."
Gizmodo
Real objects driving UI
3D Magic Story Cube. "Each side of the magic cube is a different component of the story, represented by the illustration on that side. As you flip sides, you get a different part of the story that is played out as an animation on the computer screen."
we make money not art
April 17, 2005
Enhancing sport
Virtual Spectator Squash Technology. "Watching live sport could take on new meanings in the future as new technologies put a virtual dashboard of information, infographics and overlays that enhance the experience in different ways for newbies and experts."
gizmag
April 12, 2005
Virtual city planning
Planning cities in cyberspace. "Instead of having to build and rebuild time-consuming physical models, architects would be able to immediately modify their models. Virtual, computer-generated models can be displayed using semi-transparent head-mounted displays, and appear to be right on the planning table."
we make money not art
March 10, 2005
GPS for bikes
New TomTom Rider navigation system for bikers. "A closely guarded secret indeed. As far as I know this will be the first Satellite Navigation system which is designed specifically for a bike with a Bluetooth audio system. I know other manufacturers make bike kits, but this is really a bike system not a dual purpose one."
PocketGPS.co.uk
Games and film merges
Virtual Reality Psychodramas. "So, as the human user proceeds through the drama, his or her actions are being recorded computationally over the Internet, interpreted psychologically and used to prompt the responses by the virtual characters. Because of this, the drama is different every time, a factor that the researchers say is both a more challenging and exciting type of entertainment, while also more computationally demanding."
Tech Trends
March 09, 2005
Future mobile communications
rb.log. "The video you are about to see portrays the kind of technological advances that could transform our world over the next ten years. The events depicted are fictional, but the potential of NTT DoCoMo's cutting-edge technology is very real. Our third-generation (3G) FOMA service is already operational throughout Japan; and by 2010, we hope to have fully brought our vision of advanced mobile communications to fruition."
DoCoMo
March 07, 2005
Visualizations in healthcare
Parkinson's hope over 'glasses'. "A pair of glasses which use virtual imagery could help people with Parkinson's disease cope with walking problems, scientists say. The device uses light to project images in front of the user, helping them to focus and control their movement."
BBC NEWS
February 21, 2005
Hi-res 3D maps of urban areas
A 3-D View of the City, Block by Block. "Both the vehicle and a plane that flew over the same area were taking authorized pictures of each building and its surroundings, at the behest of the downtown improvement district. Now the terabytes of imaging data are being used to build a three-dimensional model of central Philadelphia, down to the last cornice, mailbox and shrub."
The New York Times
Instant 3D scanning
Instant Scene Modeler. "Using a hand-held unit, a scene can be quickly imaged and a 3D model is generated for viewing from any perspective."
MD Robotics
Audio-vision for the blind
Blind student 'hears in colour'. "A blind student has developed software that turns colours into musical notes so that he can read weather maps."
BBC NEWS
February 09, 2005
More augmented reality
Total Immersions D'Fusion Technology. "Total Immersion's D'Fusion software solution allows for real-time video capture and perfect merges between video streams and 3D objects. All you need is a camera, a few sensors, and a HUD. This turns your world into an immersive gaming experience, where you are IN the game...or where the game is all around you. Words cant really describe this, so just check out the video."
Gear Live
Visualizing forces
Gravicells 2.0 "Walking freely in the site, visitors are able to feel gravity that they are seldom aware of, resistance to it, and the effects caused by other participants."
Gravity and Resistance project
February 07, 2005
Adding virtual objects to live video in real time
Augmented-reality machine works in real time. "Previously, it has been necessary to calibrate a computer using several markers added to a scene. The Oxford team's machine only requires an object of known size to be placed in its line of sight to perform a complete calibration. The system then automatically picks out its own visual markers from a scene. By measuring the way these markers move the computer can judge how far away each marker is."
New Scientist
February 05, 2005
Projected displays
Video Images Floating in the Air. "Air comes into the device, is modified then ejected and illuminated to produce the image. Nothing is added to the air so there isn`t any harmful gas or liquid emitted from the device, and nothing needs to be refilled."
Technology Trends
February 02, 2005
Virtual displays
User interface for virtual butterflies. "Moony [...] uses steam as both a screen and an interactive interface. If you touch one of the virtual butterflies projected into the vapor, it will fly away and disappear. But hold your hand into the steam for a while and butterflies will flock around and play."
we make money not art
Mapping photos to the globe
Escape Lab Travel Album. "It offers 3D, 2D, and plain flat interface navigation through dozens of destinations around the globe with high quality photos from each."
Josh Rubin: Cool Hunting
January 27, 2005
Business visualization tools
ADVIZOR Updates Business Visualization Software. "There is a growing need to interact with data in a more visual manner, to improve the overall value of data analysis and exploration," said Kurt Schlegel of the META Group. "This coincides with the trend toward more intuitive, self-service business intelligence solutions."
EWeek
January 06, 2005
Visual representations of network activity
VisitorVille: Website Traffic Statistics Visualization Software. "'...instead of representing website visitors simply as numbers or graphs, it displays them as real people in a real environment. You can watch your site traffic as if you were people-watching in a big city."
networked_performance
December 06, 2004
Made-to-fit car
Design your own car parts. "The 3D profile of the client would be scanned at a dealership equipped with the RM machines now being developed at Loughborough University. These machines will build up the components in a layering technique similar to the way inkjet printers make images."Ferret.com
November 17, 2004
Freeform Operating Systems
Croquet Project. "Croquet is a computer software architecture built from the ground up with a focus on deep collaboration between large numbers of users. Croquet makes it possible to change and author virtual worlds in collaboration with others inside them while they are operating."
Croquet Project
November 12, 2004
3D displays in phones
Samsung SDI develops world's first '3D' mobile display. "The '3D' display market is expected to grow from 300 million dollars in 2007 to more than two billion dollars by 2010, according to Samsung SDI."
Yahoo! News
November 05, 2004
3D surgery
Hospital uses cutting edge telemedicine. "Donning 3-D glasses, doctors at a medical conference in India resembled an audience at an IMAX movie Monday as they watched the live broadcast of a Henry Ford Hospital doctor performing prostate surgery."
Detroit News
November 01, 2004
Virtual self
Citris Allows 3-d Interactions. "Bajcsy's technology takes pictures of a subject in her laboratory from 48 different cameras and combines them into a 3-D image. The image can then be placed into historical Sicily, one of the three cyberspace environments created so far."
The Daily Californian
October 25, 2004
Visualising data to aid information discovery
'Knowledge discovery' could speed creation of new products. ""If you were a chemist, you could walk right up to this display and move molecules and atoms around to see how the changes would affect a formulation or a material's properties," said James Caruthers, a professor of chemical engineering at Purdue."
Purdue
October 08, 2004
Discovering the environment through sensors
Reality Mining: Browsing Reality with Sensor Networks. "As sensors become inexpensive and easily deployed, individual measurements may become less significant than the sensor data relationships within the network. Sensors act as pixels, allowing us to construct views of the people, processes, and events we care about."
Sensors Mag
August 26, 2004
Visualizing genetics
The Human Genome Interactive . "The Human Genome Interactive will introduce the visitor to the human genome, [...] and will reinforce the connections between understanding animals and understanding ourselves."
davidsmall.com
August 20, 2004
Virtual environments
CirculaFloor. "The movable floors employ holonomic mechanism that achieves omni-directional motion. Circulation of the floors enables the user to walk in virtual environment while his/her position is maintained. The user can walk in arbitrary direction in virtual environment."
VRLab
3D parts, made to order
Online Machine Shop. "Download our free software, draw your part, and click to order - it's that easy! Your part will be machined and delivered. Even better, your cost is low due to the Internet, software, and automated machines."
eMachineShop
August 17, 2004
Visualization services
TouchGraph AmazonBrowser V1.01. "The TouchGraph AmazonBrowser allows one to examine the graph of similar items at Amazon.com. Items are linked together by directed edges, with an edge from item A to item B indicating that people who buy A also buy B."
TouchGraph
August 14, 2004
Augmented reality phones
Cell phone melds video and data. "The cell phone system inserts computer-generated three-dimensional models into real-time video shown on the cell phone's display and aligns the models with physical markers in the camera's field of view."
TRN
July 30, 2004
3D sound
MP3 Pioneer Debuts Spatial Sound. "Using a digital pen and a touch-sensitive tablet, a sound engineer drags individual sound elements from one point to another to direct the position of sound elements."Wired News
July 27, 2004
Big, immersive screens
VisionStation. "Standard flat-screen applications can display a field of view (FOV) of no more than 60. The Elumens VisionStation allows for a fully immersive display of 160. The VisionStation's ultra-wide FOV creates an amazing sense of space and depth, without need for goggles or glasses. The large size of the VisionStation screen (1.5 meters) also helps promote an excellent sense of immersive 3D."
Elumens
July 26, 2004
Virtual design studios
Virtual Design: As clay fades, GM shifts toward digital imagery . "The studios allow designers and executives to view three-dimensional, full-sized representations of vehicle designs. Designers can rotate images, change lighting and see surfaces in detail. Design teams in different parts of the world will be able to review and revise projects together at the same time."AutoWeek
July 23, 2004
Architectural visualizations
Design Approaches to the High Line Master Plan . Some great examples of architectural boards that look like representations of data.
Friends of the High Line
July 09, 2004
Seeing through walls
This New Radar Can See Through Walls. "...a radar system, based on UWB (ultra wideband) technology, that can produce three-dimensional pictures of what lies behind a wall, from a distance of up to 20 meters. The pictures, which resemble those produced by ultrasound, are relatively high-resolution."Roland Piquepaille
July 08, 2004
Home 3D laser cutter
VersaLaser. "VersaLaser can transform images or drawings on your computer screen into real items made out of an amazing variety of materials - wood, plastic, fabric, paper, glass, leather, stone, ceramic, rubber - and it's as easy to use as your printer."
VersaLaser
June 23, 2004
Virtual meeting rooms
This Is How We Will Meet: SmartMeeting. "People gather together in an actual three-dimensional space and can gather, discuss and hold effective meetings in front of a business table or while facing a panoramic giant projection screen."RG News
June 16, 2004
Rich, 3D based navigation
Video-Game Graphics Hit the Road"This navigation system can give you detailed 3-D visual images of the street and corner that you are going to," said Sony Japan spokesman Shinji Obana. "Compared to conventional GPS navigation systems, it's much easier to grasp where you are and (in) which direction you have to drive."
Wired News
Virtual sports replays
Virtual replay. "You can choose a favourite camera position or a player perspective from the menu bar. Hit the Play button to start the replay, or the rewind button to start again."BBC SPORT
June 14, 2004
Visualizing search
Visual View of Global Searching. "It's an animation showing the relative numbers of queries to the Google site in various parts of the world. Very cool, and revealing."
Dan Gillmor's eJournal
Powerful maps
A SuperMap for Soldiers - Or Business Travelers. "HeraclesMaps can instantly solve life-and-death tactical questions like, "Help us find a route from point A to B where we cannot be observed (or shot at) by someone at point C."
Information Sciences Institute
Visualizing flight patterns
Air Traffic Ant Farm. "The Aviation Systems Division of the NASA Ames Research Center has published an animation of a day in the life of air traffic over the continental US. We all know there are lots of planes in the air at once, but you don't really understand until you see something like this."
Cool Hunting
June 11, 2004
Mapping of government information
Local elections map. "This year 166 councils across England and Wales are holding elections. No council elections are taking place in Scotland, Northern Ireland and London."BBC News
May 25, 2004
Increasing use of 3D graphics
The Virtual Tectonics of Renascent. "Joost Korngold is an independant dutch graphic/motion graphic artist."
Archinect
3D in the operating system
Sun to share 3-D stash with developers. "At the JavaOne conference next month, Sun will release a developer kit for its Project Looking Glass 3-D software. This will be the first time Sun has let anyone outside of the company fiddle with the dadaist code, and the move confirms that Project Looking Glass is heading toward a general release on Linux and Solaris."
The Register
Books augmented with digital content
Books get interactive makeover. "The 3D images are seen via a handheld viewer that watches where a reader is looking. With a flick of a switch the viewer can also plunge readers into an immersive virtual world that lets them explore the book's subject in more depth."
BBC NEWS
Heads-up display overlaying the real world
Nomad Expert Technician System. "By superimposing test and repair data into the technicians' vision, the Nomad Expert Technician System allows them to stay focused on the task itself."
Microvision
May 24, 2004
Rich medical imaging
An intimate look at me. "I have been having weird, persistent chest pains for about a month. I figured I had best have them checked out so my doctor sent me to Inner Imaging for a some electron beam tomography of my heart, lungs, and chest to see what was up. It took 5 minutes to do these scans."
gould.weblogsinc.com
Visualizing human motion
Biological Visualization: Motion Synthesizer. "This interactive Flash dataset allows you to manipulate three essential variables of a human walking: Weight, Sex, Rleaxed/Tense, Happy/Sad while visualizing 14 light points outlining its body movement and expressivity."
BioMotionLabs
May 13, 2004
Online worship
3D online church. "Welcome to Church of Fools, the UK's first web-based, 3D church, which opened this week on May 11th. Please read our house rules, and then click here to enter the church. Created by Ship of Fools and digital media agency specialmoves as a three-month experiment, Church of Fools promises to be one of the most ambitious attempts yet to do church on the internet. Click and read below for news and info."
Church of Fools
May 07, 2004
Digital movies on a budget
Kid Robot and the World of Tomorrow. "...every scene is at least partly computer-generated. The actors are real, but just about everything else, from city sidewalks to exploding zeppelins, is digital. "A lot of filmmakers would find it limiting, but I find it strangely liberating," Conran declares. "You wish you could just move that actor over an inch? Well, we can."
Wired
Cinema-quality 3D games
What will it take to boost computer games to cinematic levels?. "Today's game systems expend around 10 GPU cycles per vertex on average; the next generation will be able to expend 100 or more. This amount of processing per pixel will allow shading effects as complex as those we see in special-effects-rich feature films or animated films such as those produced by Pixar Studios."ACM
May 06, 2004
3D on handhelds
Net lets hand-helds view 3D data. "The scheme offloads the compute-heavy modeling and graphics processing required by three-dimensional models to specialized network graphics servers. This type of processing is far beyond the relatively low compute power of mobile devices like hand-held computers."trnmag.com
April 21, 2004
Push for standard format for 3D data
Intel touts 'MP3 for 3D' universal graphics format. "In particular, they hope that such a standard will allow 3D data to be more easily incorporated into other apps, such as web browsers, to make 3D imagery more widespread - and, in turn, boost demand for faster processors and graphics chips."The Register
April 08, 2004
Mapping digital data
Here there be data: Mapping the landscape of science. "Representing the computer, information and cognitive sciences, mathematics, geography, psychology and other fields, these researchers present attempts to create maps of science from the ever-growing and constantly evolving ocean of digital data."
eurekalert.org
April 06, 2004
3D representation of street for in-car navigation
Sony's car navigator/multimedia player with PC dock. "Deserving of mention on the navigation front is the "motion street guide" (see pic bottom right), a 3D graphical representation of the road ahead with a golden line showing your course that looks highly detailed and probably nigh-on indispensable if you get lost as easily as we do."
dottocomu
April 05, 2004
Design a creature and watch it on TV
BBC - Norfolk Kids - Bamzooki with CBBC's Jake Humphrey. "Teams of children design creatures or 'Zooks' which are brought to virtual life and put to the test against each other."
BBC
Location based mobile gaming #2
Mogi: Second Generation Location-Based Gaming. "Mogi is a collecting game - "item hunt". The game provides a data-layer over the city of Tokyo. As you move through the city, if you check a map on your mobile phone screen, you'll see nearby items you can pick up and nearby players you can meet or trade with."
TheFeature
April 02, 2004
Spherical Windows environment
The SphereXP. "The SphereXP is a 3D desktop replacement for Microsoft Windows XP. Taking the known concept of three-dimensional desktops to its own level. It offers a new way to organize objects on the desktop such a icons and applications."
hamar.sk
March 31, 2004
A more immersive videoconferencing system
impoint. "The locale conference table will be seamlessly integrated in a virtual conference scene including other remote participants represented on a large display and under correct perspective."
The Heinrich-Hertz-Institute
March 16, 2004
March 11, 2004
Robot that "prints" buildings
Robot builder could 'print' houses "A robot for "printing" houses is to be trialled by the construction industry. It takes instructions directly from an architect's computerised drawings and then squirts successive layers of concrete on top of one other to build up vertical walls and domed roofs."New Scientist
March 09, 2004
Cheap 3D scanner
Cheap 3D scanner nearing the desktop . "As the object turns on the table, the system builds up a complete picture of the object's shape. Colours captured by the camera are applied to the virtual object once the complete shape has been generated."New Scientist
March 05, 2004
3D models for buildings
For New Buildings, Digital Models Offer an Advance Walk-Through "While nothing could replicate the open-air spectacle of actually being there - the crack of the bat, the cheering fans, the aroma of hot dogs and peanuts - thousands of people toured the park, in a sense, long before it existed. They visited it virtually, gliding through a finely detailed, three-dimensional digital model."NYTimes
March 02, 2004
Virtual Real Estate
3D mall. A nice example of virtual real estate. Processor hog, though, and the navigation gets frustrating REALLY quickly.artificialinfluence.com
February 25, 2004
3D reconstruction of Mars
These animations have "been created by our computer technique which automatically fuses the NASA input images by simulating the human brain." I.E Take two images from the Mars Rovers and create these videos.MS Research
Virtual therapy
"The Virtual Airplane places the patient in the window seat of the passenger cabin of a commercial airplane. With a few simple keystrokes, the therapist can expose the patient to the different aspects of a complete flying experience such as sitting in the plane with the engines on or off, taxiing on the runway, takeoff, flying in either smooth or turbulent weather, and landing. The sights and sound mimic those found in actual flight. Patients experience anxiety as if they were actually on a real plane."virtually better
January 27, 2004
3D virtual models for you
Toshiba is developing a system that create a 3D model for you to "try" on clothes. It takes snapshots of the shopper, then combines them with clothes and accessories in a 3D view.
BBC NEWS
January 26, 2004
3D displays come to phones and PDAs
Sharp's 3D display technology is also being applied to cellphones and PDAsGizmodo.com
December 15, 2003
Sun - Project Looking glass
A 3d desktop demo, from Sun, showing some interseting animated stuff, and fairly unoriginal perspective windows.Sun.com
November 18, 2003
October 21, 2003
Notebook with 3D display
Sharp have released a new notebook with a 3D display that works by transmitting individual images for the left and right eye. Not sure if this means that you have to keep your head still.Sharp
October 20, 2003
September 24, 2003
Electronic magazines
Still not flickable enough, but I'm suprised by how many mainstream titles are already available for this difital magazine reader. Animations are nice, too. Probably works way better on the vertical form factor of a Tablet, too.Zinio.com