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Your face has worked out so far, but in the age of exploding laptop batteries and botched nose jobs, we can all use a spare. ThatsMyFace is a service that will create anything from a life-sized mask ($US200) to a full 3D sculpture of your head ($US2,000) with just two 2D images from you.
Last week, CNN's attempt to display the future of TV news ended up making 3D look like the gimmick that it is. Yep, 3D is a gimmick, most associated (outside of CNN) with those stupid glasses designed to fit Blockheads from Venus. But as you know, there are many different scientific approaches dedicated to tricking you into thinking bullets—or other deadly projectiles such as children—are popping out of the screen and coming right at you. Here's a quick and dirty guide to 3D magic.
I was never jealous of my friends who had those Viewmaster slide-viewer toys when I was a kid—they just seemed kinda boring, but I would have been jealous if the toy was as clever as this mod. This guy's taken the toy and added an Arduino-driven display unit, accelerometers and a Bluetooth connection to a PC so that it generates animated colour-based chromadepth 3D imagery. There's even push-button control of the imagery, which reacts when you shake it. Waaaaay better than clicking through boring 20 3D-ish static cartoon frames, though the psychological effects its psychedelicness may cause hasn't been tested. [MickeyMann via Makezine]
Engineers at Carnegie Mellon University have paired a 3D laser camera system, capable of mapping out terrain and obstacles in real time, with an unmanned Yamaha helicopter, creating an autonomous, incredibly low-flying UAV. Once loaded with preexisting topographical data, the sighted UAV is able to hug the ground at altitudes of 5m, fly around obstacles with just 3m of clearance and sense oncoming obstructions as small as 6mm.
Navigon's just announced a new high-end GPS unit, the 8100T, that actually displays the right terrain in its map representations. Dubbed Panorama View 3D, the system uses NASA-derived height data to accurately recreate the inclinations of the road as it crosses terrain ahead of you. The unit's also got a 4.8-inch screen, includes free traffic data updates for life, voice recognition for destination entry and the company's Reality View junction lane-assistance tech. It's due out this month for $US599. Press release below.
3D printers are awesome. Feed them a computer model, and out comes a real object--often with complexity that is impossible to conjure into reality via any other means. Still blows my mind nearly every time I see one in action. Especially cool, then, is the Mcor Matrix, a 3D Printer that aims to keep cost of ownership at a minimum by using as its elementals regular office paper and a common water-based glue. This hand model, for instance, was produced for only €3.70 ($US4.73).
We've seen gesture controls in gadgets before, but Mgestyk Technologies wants to bring them to your home PC. Using only a 3D camera and proprietary software, the Mgestyk gesture control system is able to capture small hand movements and translate them into commands. These commands can be applied to almost any windows application, including video games. Judging from the clips they have on their site, the system seems to work as advertised, though there does appear to be a little lag. Pricing is expected to be within the range of a high end webcam which by our estimates is around $US150. At the moment there are no details about when this will be available, but you can sign up on their mailing list to get an update when it releases. [Mgestyk via Engadget]
3D displays may or may not be the next big thing in home entertainment, but JVC has just announced the first 3D projector intended for home theatres. Needing no special glasses, the JVC DLA-RS2 uses D-ILA projection (that's similar to LCD) and stereoscopic video processing to offer a 1080p 3D viewing experience.
Sometimes you have to respect a company if only because they're doing something different. Now iZ3D has teamed with computer painters Smooth Creations to release 22-inch widescreen monitors that offer some 3D LCD "business" in the front and a little 2D hot rod paint job "party" in the back.
From a technical standpoint, the Dennou AR Figures virtual 3D girlfriends, first announced a few months back, aren't much more impressive than PlayStation 3's Eye of Judgment. You install webcam software to that when your camera detects the special bundled cube onscreen, it fills a 3D companion into your environment. But when that 3D companion is a girl who can be dressed, tickled or, errr, spanked, the concept is born anew.
Since the demo clip is ever so slightly NSFW, we've tucked it after the jump.
