Well the Mythbusters point was to illustrate the difference between CPU and GPU processing (graphics hardware terminology) and how GPU being parallel-processing would be much faster. But that doesn’t really matter, because all you need to see in this video is how they INSTANTLY painted with a massive array of paintball barrels all lined up and programmed to shoot a colored ball at specific locations.
Jump to 8:00 if you’re impatient:
I think we are on the verge of surpassing the what animators term as the ‘uncanny valley’:
For many years now, animators have come up against a barrier known as “uncanny valley”, which refers to how, as a computer-generated face approaches human likeness, it begins take on a corpse-like appearance similar to that in some horror films.
As a result, computer game animators have purposely simplified their creations so that the players realize immediately that the figures are not real.
The animation above is being done by Image Metrics (who are behind popular computer/video game Grand Theft Auto). We’re still not able to do this on-the-fly. Massive amounts of computations are required to calculate and control every little movement – every little twitch of the eye, the sneer, the muscles that contracts under the skin, etc.
But with chip technologies and architecture developing, it’s certainly not a pipe-dream to envision some day in the very near future where this becomes common place. What does it mean for us in the real world when we cannot distinguish the real from the fake? At a massive, ubiquitous level?
Really amazing animation – check out Times Online for a more comprehensive article.
I admire anyone who is willing and able to take the plunge in bringing their ideas/inventions to market – it definitely take a lot of guts and determination. But, this ‘goatee saver‘ still goes into the ‘Unreal’ book for me:
‘Tired of the constant struggle every morning trying to get your goatee to look perfect? Goateesaver revolutionizes the way you shave and trim your goatee. goateesaver can be customized to your face in seconds, with three easy adjustments. Just slide it over your mouth and shave to get the perfect look that women will admire and men will respect.’
The three knobs are extendable towards the side – this will help to define the outline of the shape. You then bite onto a mouthpiece, turn yourself into Darth Vader and then use any normal razor to shave along the perimeter. If that still doesn’t explains it, here’s the video:
What do I know though – there could be a ready market of goatee-wearers who always wanted something like this. If he really does make millions of it, it can probably join this honored list.
From TechEBlog:
Called Alter Ego, this software basically takes advantage of blend shapes to copy facial idiosyncrasies and produce emotive life-like 3D character animations. Its flexibility allows for the software to be used in real-time game cinematics, pre-rendered projects, and even game trailers.
This would be a bit like Poser (for those of you who’re familiar with this program) but in rendered videos instead of simply character poses. Nifty!
Here’s a nice coverage of an interesting ferrofluid art by Sachiko Kodama:
While most visual artists prefer traditional materials such as oil, acrylic, bronze and ceramic, Tokyo-based SACHIKO KODAMA prefers FERROFLUIDS. Composed of magnetic nanoparticles, ferrofluids often contain high levels of iron and, as such, are deeply affected by and responsive to the presence of magnetic fields.
While the NASA-developed ferrofluids are being used increasingly for commercial applications – on everything from compact disks to weight-responsive car suspension systems – Kodama is revolutionary in applying their widely dynamic qualities to the fine arts arena.
Using a computer to manipulate electro-magnetic fields in the sculptures, Kodama coerces her stunning ferrfluid pieces to grow and disintegrate, flower and shed, and constantly reinvent themselves without the aid of animatronics or video wizardry.
Privacy issues aside (I don’t suppose these were very much private data anyway in this day and age – particularly in Britain where surveillance is really part-and-parcel of life), this is some amazing infosthetic video showing the pulse of a nation – through its land, sea and air traffic channel, as well as phone communications. I’d look forward to the actual documentary (if I could watch it).
This research is pretty interesting. Here’s the premise: photos are easier to capture (and in a better quality) and it’s also easier to edit/manipulate. Put the ease-of-maneuver of photos into video shots, and composing them together as if they were originally one to begin with.
Here’s the description from the researchers:
The work presents a system for automatically producing a wide variety of video enhancements and visual effects. Unlike traditional visual effects software (e.g., After Effects, Shake, Boujou, etc), the system is completely automatic and no manual labor is required from the user. The major limitation of the work is that it can currently handle only videos of static scenes (i.e., videos shot with a moving camera but containing no moving objects in the scene). Efforts are being made to lift this restriction in future work.
rust the Japanese for the weirdest and yet engaging content on their variety show. In this one, they’ve managed to (in my view) put nostalgia and creepiness into one – a variety-show rendition of the famous ‘We are the World’ MTV.
This brought me back to the times of school physics – I remember we were introduced to a bunch of abstract symbols (the icon for each gate type), what each meant (bunch of truth tables), etc. This video shows each of the logic gate in a more physical form though – through domino constructions. Much more interactive isn’t it?
Put together a bunch of these dominoes, and we’re on our way to a Core-I7 (or something)…
Wow, that’s way cool – demolishing a building from the lowest level first:
How do they do it? First they replace the support pillars at ground level with computer-controlled metal columns. Then, a crew carefully demolishes the entire floor by hand, leaving the structure resting on the mechanical pillars, which then go down slowly until the next floor is at ground level. They replace the support pillars again with the mechanical ones, destroy that floor, and repeat the operation until they get rid of all the floors. This makes it look as if the building is shrinking in front of you, or being swallowed by the street.
According to the company, this method greatly reduces the environmental impact of the demolition, as well as the time. Kajima says that it speeds up the task by 20%, while making it easier to separate materials for recycling, as well as reducing the amount of products released into the air.
I suppose a method like this would also work very well in a congested urbanscape like Tokyo. The marvels of engineering!
[via Gizmodo]
