'Faceshift' Delivers Markerless Motion Capture Via Kinect
So it might not deliver the kind of sophistication in motion-capture that was utilised by Team Bondi for its ground-breaking crime caper L.A. Noire – that, after all, relied on a studio set-up with 32 high-def cameras tracking a single actor’s face – but new facial animation software ‘Faceshift’ does more than an adequate job in replicating such techniques, and it relies solely on Microsoft’s Kinect.
'The Carp And The Seagull.' A Haunting Interactive Short Film
Designer Evan Boehm has launched the interactive film The Carp and the Seagull: an innovative Web-GL-Driven video that has been described "an experiment in space and user-driven narrative". This haunting, folktale-inspired journey between two overlapping worlds is told by rotating the scene, to reveal new insights and perspectives.
US Army Tests Truck-Mounted 10 Thousand Watt Laser Cannon
Boeing, the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command have begun testing the High Energy Laser Mobile Demonstrator (HEL MD): a truck-mounted laser cannon, capable of shooting down missiles.
Red Bull Stratos LIVE. Watch The Freefall From The Edge Of Space Here
Felix Baumgartner will attempt the world's first supersonic free fall from the edge of space, and we will be showing the whole thing live from 1:30pm GMT.
Invisible QR Codes Could Be Used To Tackle Counterfeit Bank Notes
The application of QR codes has been a conundrum for quite some time. Now, a team of researchers at the University of South Dakota and South Dakota School Of Mines & Technology may have finally found a real use for them: to combat counterfeit goods.
The Mystery Over Valve’s Hardware Deepens, New Job Ad Spotted
Despite previously shooting down rumours that the company was working on a Steam-powered console that could prove a worthy rival to the Xbox 360 and PS3, a new job listing spotted online now seems to confirm Valve Corporation is thinking extremely seriously about hardware in some form, whatever that may bring.
Study Shows Teenagers Listen To Music More On Youtube Than Anywhere Else
A report from Nielson shows that most music consumption amongst young people happens on Youtube.
'View From The ISS At Night.' Photographer Creates Amazing Space Timelapse
Photographer Knate Myers has created a visually stunning timelapse video of Earth and space with a series of photographs he took from the International Space Station.
McDonald's Staff Assault Inventor Of AR Glasses
Canadian university professor and inventor of Eyetap, Steve Mann was assaulted this week at a McDonalds, whilst on holiday with his family in Paris, France. After purchasing their meals and sitting down by the window to watch the world go by three men came up to Mann and his family, assaulting the professor and throwing them out onto the street.
Rolls Royce Recreate Boeing Engine Out Of 152,455 Lego Bricks
There’s very little that surprises us these days about Lego, such is the extraordinary amount of quite-breathtaking builds we’ve witnessed through the years. But even so, this effort by Rolls Royce to reproduce the Trent-1000 engine is staggering, showing off in glorious detail the inner-workings of the engine and the immense feat in engineering it requires to build such a piece of machinery.
The Next Microsoft: Design Student Rebrands The Company
Los Angeles-based design student, Andrew Kim, has presented a comprehensive rebranding plan for Microsoft. Something that he has worked on in the space of just three days.
EyePhone: Apple Is Latest To File 'Wearable Computer' Patent
The filing of a patent is far from a sure-fire marker to signal what it is a company is developing behind closed doors. Literally, hundreds of thousands of patents are filed every single year, and the very largest technology companies are responsible for a good grand of them just by themselves. Still, some patents just simply can not be ignored, such is the one granted to Apple Inc. today, entitled “Peripheral treatment for head-mounted displays.”
Researchers Bring Physical Buttons To Touchscreens With New Tactile Technology
Tactus Technology is currently busy showcasing a ground-breaking new touchscreen technology that is being described as the “world’s first” deformable tactile surface. Using a ‘microfluidic’ technology, the team of researchers is demonstrating how any touchscreen display can be enhanced through pressable buttons literally ‘rising’ through the surface to create the impression of physical hardware.
Researchers Hoping To ‘Eliminate Death’ By 2045, Working On Humanoid Robot Avatars
It is estimated that a total of 55.3 million people die each year, equivalent to almost 2 every single second. Death is a fact of life, or so we thought. A project by the name of Russia 2045 is ambitiously attempting to conquer immortality in as little as 33 years by way of creating humanoid robots that have human personalities stored on artificial brains.
The Instagram Camera Is The Modern-Day Polaroid Camera, With Added Social Features
Having already been behind some of the most gorgeous iPhone 5 concept designs currently filtering through the many layers of the net, artist Antonia De Rosa of ADR Studio is now turning his sights on a Polaroid-like camera inspired by social photo-sharing app Instagram.
Lost For 25 Years, Indian Man Finds His Mother Using Google Earth
In 1986, a young Indian boy by the name of Saroo Brierly was working as a sweeper on India's trains. On one fateful night, he'd make a mistake that would go on to determine not only the rest of his childhood, but a substantial portion of his life. It was a sequence of ill-fortuned events that led the then five-year old Saroo over 1,000km from home and his family, to the impoverished slums and crowded streets of Calcutta. It took him 25 years and the help of Google's virtual globe to find his way back home...
Just How Big A Portion Of The Internet Does Porn Take Up?
Porn is literally everywhere on the internet. Look no further than targeted explicit advertisements that seem to adorn what seems to be every other page, the healthy amount of X-rated content on popular video-sharing sites like Dailymotion and Metacafe, the streams of birthday suit-clad models filtering through nearly every online forum known to man. And that's not even taking into account the porn websites themselves. But how much porn does the internet actually hold? It was a question technology website ExtremeTech simply had to find out, and one that we can do nothing but share. The reality will blow you away.
Nanoscale Racing Car 3D Printed Within Minutes
A Formula One-style racing car just four times the width of a human hair has been created in just four minutes and 8 seconds thanks to a world record-breaking high-precision 3D printing technique. Developed by Jan Torgersen and colleagues from the Vienna University of Technology, the technology is capable of building such supremely detailed, intricate models at an all-impressive speed of 5 m/s.
Mercedes Creates ‘Invisible’ Car For Its Latest Marketing Campaign
We can only imagine a life in the world of marketing. A life in which we picture groups of creative-types huddled around a vast, bleach-white meeting room table darting ideas off each other, reminding every other person that thinking ‘outside the box’ is key to success. For every dozen or so marketing campaigns that crash and burn under their own ridiculousness - think Coca Cola's entire launch and subsequent withdrawal of 'New Coke' – there comes along one every so often that is so well thought-out it demands attention and ignites discussion.
Anonymous Intercept Phone Call Between FBI And Scotland Yard
Hacktivist group Anonymous have released a recording of a telephone conversation between the FBI and Scotland Yard, in which they discuss ongoing investigations into activities surrounding the aforementioned hacking network.