Twin Lens HD-3D Video Camera Set for Release

via engadget.com

You know that 3D bandwagon you're still hesitant to jump on? We get the feeling that this year's NAB show may just push you over the top. Shortly after hearing of Fujifilm's newest P2 memory cards comes this, a conceptual camcorder in which to eventually slot 'em in. Currently, Panasonic's 3D Full HD Camera Recorder is merely a prototype, but it's made clear that the company intends to bring this to market as soon as possible. Essentially, the device will boast a twin-lens system for capturing 3D footage natively in 1080p, and all of the video streams will be stored on Panny's professional P2 cards. It's hard to say if this would even be useful for 2D shooting on the side, but with practically every major studio at least considering (if not committing to) 3D production, we'd say it's a solid investment on Panasonic's part either way.

Refing the HDR imaging technique

My friend Brian asked me to take Christmas pictures of his family to send out to their relatives. I thank God for providing such a beautiful day at Salt Creek Beach!

Good times with my bro at Salt Creek Beach

Winter is favorite time of the year in California - some of the only times of the year you will actually see cloud formations in the sky, a wonderful break from the boring blue haze.

Zcam- low cost 3D input device

The following from 3DV systems website:

The new ZCam^TM (previously Z-Sense), 3DV's most recently completed prototype camera, is based on DeepC^TM and is the company's smallest and most cost-effective 3D camera. At the size of a standard webcam and at affordable cost, it provides very accurate depth information at high speed (60 frames per second) and high depth resolution (1-2 cm). At the same time, it provides synchronized and synthesized quality color (RGB) video (at 1.3 M-Pixel). With these specifications, the new ZCam^TM (previously Z-Sense) is ideal for PC-based gaming and for background replacement in web-conferencing.



Link to videos.

Sixense TrueMotion 3D Controller

This technology opens the door to a variety of potential low-cost applications: Interactive scanning with your hands? Affordable motion capture?
Link to Sixense website
Link to EngineeringTV videos

Sketch Furniture by FRONT

Not sure how comfortable this would be, but conceptually an awesome concept in designing straight from the fluid imagination.

excerpt from Front's website:

Is it possible to let a first sketch become an object, to design directly onto space?

The four FRONT members have developed a method to materialise free hand sketches. They make it possible by using a unique method where two advanced techniques are combined.
Pen strokes made in the air are recorded with Motion Capture and become 3D digital files; these are then materialised through Rapid Prototyping into real pieces of furniture.

Textured graphics can be captured in a flash

Colin Barras via newscientist - 12:30 27 August 2008

The virtual worlds in computer games provide a realistic backdrop to the action. But step too close and the effect is lost – you'll see that textures and patterns are usually displayed on flat surfaces that look dull and artificial.
A simpler way to add depth to textured surfaces could change that.
The new technique can reconstruct the depth of a surface simply by taking two photos of it – one with a flash and one without (see video, right). Merely analysing the resulting shading patterns can capture the surface's 3D texture.
Until now making realistic textures required the use of bulky and expensive laser scanners, says Mashhuda Glencross at the University of Manchester, UK. And the process is really time-consuming, she adds.

Link to article
Link to Advanced Interfaces Group

Link to PDF Research Paper

Realistic special effects coming soon to home movies

11:17 21 August 2008
NewScientist.com news service Colin Barras


Digital photographers are used to tinkering with their photos at home. Now, amateur video makers can create movie special effects thanks to prototype software from Microsoft.
Their application, called Unwrap Mosaics, makes adding a moustache to a family member in a video as easy as scrawling on a digital picture. A video (right) shows it in action.
For example, drawing a tattoo on a person's arm requires editing only a single image. The programme makes the change throughout the video, making it ripple realistically with their skin.

Easy editing
A video is simply a sequence of still images that capture the movement of objects over time. But editing the appearance of objects in even a short movie is difficult because every frame shows objects differently and must be edited separately.
"We thought it would be good if you only had to draw your edit once and [the software] propagate the information from that single edit through the whole video," says Alex Rav-Acha at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel.
Rav-Acha and colleagues at Microsoft Research in Cambridge, UK, have done just that. Editing objects using their software is a one-step process.

Special effect
Unwrap Mosaics was developed by Rav-Acha, Andrew Fitzgibbon, Pushmeet Kohli and Carsten Rother. It virtually strips the skin from a selected object in a video, producing a 2D surface that can be easily edited using photo-editing software.
Rav-Acha likens that surface to a tiger-skin rug: a flat surface that once covered a 3D object. The software reverses the process after any edits are complete, wrapping the edited skin back around the 3D object. Because the edits are attached to the skin, they then move with the object throughout the movie.
The 2D skin has to capture every inch of the 3D surface for edits to match the object when it is wrapped up again. For example, an "unwrapped" face must include information from both sides of the nose so that changes to the nose remain realistic even when the head turns from side to side.
To fully unwrap an object the software tracks 5000 points spread evenly across its surface, making sure that all of those points are present in the final 2D skin.

Reverse unwrap
That means the final unwrapped skin contains more information than any individual video frame. For instance, if the video shows a person's head from the front and then turning to the left, the unwrapped skin contains a full view of the ear as well as a forward view of the eyes, nose and mouth.
The user makes their edits to the skin before the unwrapping process is reversed to send those changes throughout the final movie.
Rav-Acha and his co-workers have successfully tested their software on a range of videos. "There are professional tools that can do these kind of edits but it's an incredibly skilled procedure," says Fitzgibbon. "We believe that with this procedure anyone should be able to edit video."
Alex Rav-Acha's team presented their work at the SIGGRAPH conference in Los Angeles last week.

Online High-Res Panoramic Viewer - xRez

I saw Eric Hanson's work at Siggraph 2008 last week. I must say it is quite impressive to see what seemed like a 100' wide x 6' tall panoramic in high resolution. It is an exercise just walking around to view the whole thing.
Link
Link to Panoramic QTVR
Link to Oahu, Hawaii Panoramic
Video of Peace River's PixOrb in operation

Using Photographs to Enhance Videos of a Static Scene

This is simply amazing, and I can't imagine how much this changes the future credibility of video...


Link
PDF
Video 1
Video 2