Gizmodo Australia » reality

Dinosaurs To Storm Japan Through Augmented Reality Exhibit

Mark Wilson — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 13:54:39 +0000

Japan just can’t help but to tempt fate. First they produced the Godzilla movies. Now they’re voluntarily bringing dinosaurs back from the dead.

As part of a 260-specimen dinosaur exhibit in Chiba, Japan, visitors will be able to see moving, life-sized dinosaurs right on the museum floor.

Running from July through September, the “Dinosaurs over time!” exhibit uses Canon video scopes to offer a “site-wide view” of 3D CG dinosaurs. Useful for both enhancing the museum-going experience and scaring children away from learning, the result is a “mixed reality” experience (also known as augmented reality), in which the analogue and digital worlds combine to begin man’s inevitable fall into the purely digital realm.

Sounds fun, but when Japan falls to a giant reptilian beast, I’m gonna be the first to say I told you so. [Museum and Canon via DVICE]

Image of the Day: A Better Reality

Jason Chen — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 00:00:00 +0000

This image by pyxelated on deviantart has been floating around for a little bit, but I think it captures one possible future scenario perfectly.

People walking around with headphones and MP3 players/cellphones already aurally isolate themselves from their surroundings, but if personal viewing glasses like the Myvu take off and get really immersive, will we find visual-tainment junkies in rooms like this? [Deviantart]

Apparently, We All Exist Only in a Computer Simulation in the Future. Bummer.

Adam Frucci — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 20:00:00 +0000

According to Oxford philosopher Nick Bostrom, the chances are pretty good that we’re currently existing not in the “real world,” but instead are a vast computer simulation created by a future, further advanced version of ourselves. Yeah, crazy, I know. Basically, he argues that because computing power will advance to the point where a system could be built that could simulate every brain on earth, future “posthumans” could set up an “ancestor simulator” that would be indistinguishable from real life for the inhabitants. I’m totally not stoned enough for this to really blow my mind, but it’s a really interesting theory. While Bostrom thinks there’s a 20% chance of our entire world being a computer simulation, John Tierney of the New York Times thinks the odds are closer to even. But hey, even if it’s true and this is really all happening in some future nerd’s PC, it’s not so bad, is it? As long as the computer doesn’t overheat; that’d be a really lame way to go. [NY Times]

Human Tetris Part II – ‘Cos Once Just Wasn’t Enough

Anna King — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 23:15:40 +0000

New human Tetris action!

Thereâ€™s something about grown men dressed up like condoms attempting to contort their bodies into wacky positions – whilst maintaining a look of absolute concentration on their face – that makes me so very happy…

Honestly, where would our lives be without the Japanese? -Anna King

Human Tetris II [YouTube]

Real Life Optimus Prime Challenges Megatron To Epic Battle

Seamus Byrne — Sat, 07 Jul 2007 04:08:05 +0000

You may remember these two gentlemen, as we recently covered them in the run-up to the Transformers movie debut. Optimus Prime changed his name to honor his childhood hero, while Jason Burrows took the less drastic step of altering his middle name to Megatron. Now it seems that Optimus has had enough tomfoolery and wants to settle things once and for all:

Jason “Megatron” Burrows:

The mighty OPTIMUS PRIME is “OFFICIALLY” calling you out. If you are going to TAKE credit for bearing the name of my one true nemesis, then man up and take MEGATRON as your first and ONLY name. Otherwise, stop being a poser and come up with your OWN idea!

If you accept, we shall publically do battle to be recorded for the entire TRANSFANDOM!!!

“One shall stand, one shall fall!”

We know that 36-year-old Optimus Prime stands a mere 5′9″ tall, but he’s a trained soldier and firefighter serving in the National Guard. Some words he uses to describe himself are “spark, rank, intelligence, skill, courage, endurance, speed, strength and firepower.”

30-year-old Jason “Megatron” Burrows is a hulking man with a passion for coed softball. He spends his days behind a desk at CBS Radio, which may handicap him when the mayhem breaks loose.

‘Japanese Tetris’ Makes Deal or No Deal Look Totally Tame

Seamus Byrne — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 20:15:00 +0000

glumbert.com – Japanese Tetris

Man, I love Japan so much. What other country would have a game show that consists of contestants dressed in metallic spandex trying to squeeze through moving walls with holes obviously smaller than they are carved into them? Although I’ve gotta admit I lost some respect for those contestants when none of them just dove through the middle of the cut-out shapes. You could have fit, guys!

Oh, it’s OK. I can’t stay mad at you. –Adam Frucci

Japanese Tetris brings a new meaning to getting into a game… [Shiny Shiny]

Real Network’s Media Player Rips Youtube Vids and More

Seamus Byrne — Thu, 31 May 2007 19:05:23 +0000

RealPlayer used to be cool, until iTunes and Windows Media Player made it obsolete. The new RealPlayer is badass for one reason: It can rip net videos, even those on YouTube and from video streams, with a single click.It won’t work on DRM’d enabled content. But so many sites use Flash players as their sole download deterrent, or video streams that can’t be saved as more than a bookmark otherwise. The UI on the player pops up over a Flash or movie stream window, allowing you to click to download. What’s cool is that it preserves meta-data, like name, rating, description, and where you got it from. Sharing videos with friends at that point sends the source URL instead of the actual video file. Right now, it can’t transcode, but it will burn DVDs if you pay for the registered version. Thankfully, the freeware still rips.

Will it nag you to upgrade in old school Real fashion? I don’t know. But the beta is live now, and it’s worth checking out. [UPDATE: June...live in June, not now.]– Brian Lam

RealNetworks Introduces Breakthrough New RealPlayer

New One-Click Downloading Lets Consumers Enjoy Videos from Thousands of Web Sites Wherever and Whenever They Want

CARLSBAD, Calif., D: All Things Digital Conference – May 31, 2007, 11:30 a.m. Pacific Time – Leading digital entertainment services company RealNetworksÂ® today unveiled the new RealPlayerÂ®, the first media player to make it one-click simple to download online videos from thousands of Web sites. The new RealPlayer makes it easy for consumers to watch videos whenever and wherever they want, burn them to DVD and CD, and share video links with friends. Most major formats are supported, including Real, Windows Media, Flash, and Quicktime. The new RealPlayer will be available for free beginning next month at RealPlayer.com.

“The new RealPlayer gives consumers more control of Internet video than was ever possible before,” said Rob Glaser, chairman and CEO of Real. “By floating a “download this video” button next to video seen on thousands of Web sites, RealPlayer makes it one-click simple. The new RealPlayer is a major step towards realizing our vision of bringing great digital entertainment to more people on more screens around the world.”

In 1995 RealNetworks gave the Internet a voice with the first-ever Internet broadcast via the release of the RealAudioÂ® player, an innovation that garnered Real a coveted Emmy AwardÂ® by The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. Since then, the RealPlayer has become one of the most downloaded software applications on the Internet, with an average of more than 1.5 million copies downloaded daily.

Fast Facts about the New RealPlayer:
n Consumers can use the innovative, single-click process to quickly download and save videos for later enjoyment.
n Consumers can download multiple videos simultaneously with RealPlayer, allowing people to save time and easily multitask. Users can also start downloading in the middle of watching a video, and the entire video will be captured.
n Consumers don’t need to worry about video format compatibility issues – the new RealPlayer supports videos created in the most popular formats, including Flash, Windows Media, Quicktime, and Real.
n Consumers can easily burn videos to CD (or to DVD, using RealPlayer Plus). The Video CD format used by RealPlayer can be played in most DVD players.
n Consumers can send links of their favorite videos to their friends with a convenient “Share with a Friend” feature. The link that arrives in their friends’ email will direct them to the online source of the video content their friend downloaded.
n RealPlayer supports both downloading and recording for popular streaming format (Windows Media, Real, and Quicktime)
n RealPlayer will only download/record video that is not protected by DRM (Digital Rights Management) systems.
n RealPlayer features an improved look and feel, a streamlined installation process and faster video playback.
n RealPlayer will first be released for Windows, and will work with both Microsoft Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox. Real plans a version for the Mac to be released later in the year.

“RealPlayer feeds the appetite consumers have for interesting Web video while maintaining a connection with the content source,” said Lisa Hungness, general manager, New Media for National Geographic Magazine Online that hosts video content, including WildCams–Web cams that stream live video of animals in the wild, connecting people to animals and environments around the world at www.nationalgeographic.com/wildcam. “Our WildCam fans love to download and share our video. Thousands of our clips are posted across the Web. This will be a great new trend in online video viewing for consumers and content owners alike because consumers can share links back to the videos’ origin where similar experiences may be found and enjoyed.”

“Time-shifting of recorded or downloaded content is a natural next step in the progression of the online video distribution and consumption,” said Michael McGuire, vice president, Gartner, Inc.. “For online video fans, the ability to capture, store and forward content is going to be transformative.”

A beta of the new RealPlayer will be available for the public in June 2007 via a free download from www.realplayer.com. Consumers and media are invited to visit the www.realplayer.com site to participate in the RealPlayer blog, register for product information and updates, and share ideas about how the new RealPlayer’s capabilities could change the face of online video.

Future versions of RealPlayer, which are now in development, will enable users to transfer online video content to their personal media devices for on-the-go viewing.