3.5 out of 5

Art, Computer Graphics, Music, Tech

Will? Is.

Carnegie Mellon University Professor, Jesse Schell, dives into a world of game development which will emerge from the popular “Facebook Games” era.

Jump to 21:20 if you get bored (foursquare).

Wii Fit = $1,000,000,000
More Farmville players than Twitter accounts
Club Penguin = $350,000,000 (Thanks Disney)

Games, Tech

What a difference 22 years makes.

Tech

Scenes from a video shot from a streetcar traveling down Market Street in San Francisco in 1905. Before the earthquake and fire of 1906.

Tech

Sci-fi, Tech, humor

The Known Universe takes viewers from the Himalayas through our atmosphere and the inky black of space to the afterglow of the Big Bang. Every star, planet, and quasar seen in the film is possible because of the world’s most complete four-dimensional map of the universe, the Digital Universe Atlas that is maintained and updated by astrophysicists at the American Museum of Natural History. The new film, created by the Museum, is part of an exhibition, Visions of the Cosmos: From the Milky Ocean to an Evolving Universe, at the Rubin Museum of Art in Manhattan through May 2010.

For more information visit http://www.amnh.org

Thanks, Adam.   This confuses, enthralls, saddens, excites, depresses and fills me with joy all at the same time.

Computer Graphics, Sci-fi, Tech, Wellness

Mag+ from Bonnier on Vimeo.

This conceptual video is a corporate collaborative research project initiated by Bonnier R&D into the experience of reading magazines on handheld digital devices. It illustrates one possible vision for digital magazines in the near future, presented by our design partners at BERG. The concept aims to capture the essence of magazine reading, which people have been enjoying for decades: an engaging and unique reading experience in which high-quality writing and stunning imagery build up immersive stories. Read more…

Computer Graphics, Design, Tech

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoekens_linkage

Misc, Tech

Between October 2007 and August 2009, a new digital all-sky mosaic image was assembled from more than 3000 individual CCD frames. Using an SBIG STL-11000 camera, 70 fields (each covering 40° × 27°) were imaged from dark-sky locations in South Africa, Texas and Michigan. In order to increase the dynamic range beyond the 16 bits of the camera’s analog-to-digital converter (of which approx. 12 bits provide data above the noise level), three different exposure times (240 s, 15 s and 0.5 s) were used. Five frames were taken for each exposure time and filter setting. The fields were photometrically calibrated using standard catalog stars and sky background data from the Pioneer 10 and 11 space probes. The new panorama has an image scale of 36 arcsec/pixel (approx. 3× the resolution of the old, film-based mosaic), a limiting magnitude of approx. 14 mag and an 18 bit dynamic range. At full resolution and bit depth, it is a 648 MPixel, 7.7 GByte FITS cube. Unlike the old image, the new panorama was carefully calibrated to preserve the large-scale star and dust clouds.

http://home.arcor.de/axel.mellinger/

Tech

Danish physicist Dr Holger Bech Nielsen and Dr Masao Ninomiya from Japan claim the LHC startup has been delayed due to nature trying to prevent it from finding the elusive Higgs boson, or “God particle”.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/

http://www.news.com.au/

Sci-fi, Tech

Oh my, this is cool.

The two earphones inside his ears—developed by NTT DoCoMo—can detect the eye movement using electrodes so sensitive that they can detect how his eyes move—just by being in contact with his head.

Tech

RepRap 1.0 “Darwin” is a rapid prototyping machine that is capable of making the majority of its own component parts. Instructions and all necessary data are available completely free under the GNU General Public Licence from this website to everyone.

Tech

Google’s tools are great.  The design is simple and fairly clean, but there’s room for a lot of improvement.

Helvetical (seen above) improves Google Calendar.  Helvetireader redesigns Google Reader, and Helvetimail is a nice clean skin for Gmail.   If you’re using Firefox, download Greasemonkey and go from there.

Design, Links, Tech

“Functional visualizations are more than innovative statistical analyses and computational algorithms. They must make sense to the user and require a visual language system that uses colour, shape, line, hierarchy and composition to communicate clearly and appropriately, much like the alphabetic and character-based languages used worldwide between humans.”

Art, Computer Graphics, Links, Tech

Watch as Erik Weihenmayer experiments with the Brainport Vision Device, a revolutionary new technology enabling a blind person to see with his tongue. Mounted on Weihenmayers head is a small video camera which translates visual information to a credit card-size tongue display. Four-hundred tiny pixels present electrical patterns on his tongue, which Weihenmayers brain then interprets as a visual picture in three-dimensional space. Watch as he uses the device to read words and numbers on note cards, to play tic-tac-toe and stone-paper-scissors with his daughter, and to rock climb. To learn more about Brainport, go to www.wicab.com.

I’m absolutely floored by this. This can go beyond the blind, training anyone to see behind or beside them.  -j

Tech

Commercial biometric airport screening speedpass company, Clear, has closed it’s doors. So get back in line! I really hate taking off my shoes.

http://www.flyclear.com/

At 11:00 p.m. PST on June 22, 2009, Clear will cease operations. Clear’s parent company, Verified Identity Pass, Inc. has been unable to negotiate an agreement with its senior creditor to continue operations.

Previously seen here: http://red6hosting.com/3.5/?p=1034

Tech

DaVinci is a prototype/experiment that blurs the lines between the physical and virtual world by combining object recognition, real-world physics simulation and gestural interface design on Microsoft Surface.

Check the blog at emergingexperiences.com.

Art, Tech

Adam Savage has spent his life gathering skills that allow him to take what’s in his brain and make it real. He’s built everything from ancient Buddhas to futuristic weapons, from spaceships to dancing vegetables, from fine art sculptures to animated chocolate and just about anything else you can think of. The son of a filmmaker/painter and psychotherapist, Adam has been making his own toys since he was allowed to hold scissors. Having held positions as a projectionist, animator, graphic designer, carpenter, interior and stage designer, toy designer, welder, and scenic painter, he’s worked with every material and process he could get his hands on — metal, paper, glass, plastic, rubber, foam, plaster, pneumatics, hydraulics, animatronics, neon, glassblowing, mold making and injection molding, to name just a few. Since 1993, Adam has concentrated on the special-effects industry, honing his skills through more than 100 television commercials and a dozen feature films, including Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace and Episode II: Attack of the Clones, Galaxy Quest, Terminator 3, A.I. and the Matrix sequels. He’s also designed props and sets for Coca-Cola, Hershey’s, Lexus and a host of New York and San Francisco theater companies. Not only has he worked and consulted in the research and development division for toy companies and made several short films, but Adam has also acted in several films and commercials — including a Charmin ad, in which he played Mr. Whipple’s stock boy, and a Billy Joel music video, “Second Wind,” in which he drowns. Today, in addition to co-hosting Discovery Channel’s MythBusters, Adam teaches advanced model making, most recently in the industrial design department at the San Francisco Academy of Art. Somehow he also finds time to devote to his own art — his sculptures have been showcased in over 40 shows in San Francisco, New York and Charleston, W.Va.

Tech

http://www.photographyblog.com/news/atp_gps_photofinder_pro/

The ATP GPS PhotoFinder Pro is a new device that allows you to geotag all of your photos. Designed for use with geotagging sites and software such as iPhoto, Flickr, Picasa3, Locr, SmugMug, Panoramio, Google Earth, and Google Maps and compatible with with more than 450 models of digital cameras, the ATP GPS PhotoFinder Pro provides easy geotagging without a PC or a need to go through complicated software installation processes. To use it, you first need to make sure there is no discrepancy between the time your digital camera is set on and the UTC time used by the Global Positioning System. Then all you need to do is take the PhotoFinder Pro along for the day’s shooting, then insert your memory card into the PhotoFinder Pro to geotag your photos. The MSRP is $119, and availability is slated for mid-July.

Tech

The Kindle 3. So advanced, even illiterates can use it.

Tech, humor