3D

Project Natal to ship in 2010

By Alan Brandon

14:14 February 3, 2010 PST

Microsoft has announced that its controller-less accessory for the Xbox 360, dubbed Project Natal, will ship by the end of 2010. Unveiled in June 2009, Project Natal is the Redmond company’s attempt to out-Wii the Wii. Instead of a hand-held controller, wireless or otherwise, Project Natal uses a 3D sensing unit on top of your TV to read your gestures, recognize your face or other objects, and even respond to your voice. Project Natal is among the latest examples of devices that are controlled by so-called “natural user interfaces”. Read More

Photosimile: the world’s first “office photography machine”

By Alan Brandon

02:02 January 23, 2010 PST

Imagine if you could take professional-looking photos and create 3D product animations as easily as using the office copier. Ortery’s Photosimile 5000 system aims to bring that capability to the office by enabling even non-photographers to create high-quality images just by pressing a few buttons. The Photosimile 5000 is a PC-controlled desktop photography studio that integrates a light box, a DSLR camera, automated camera positioning, and specialized workflow software to simplify and automate business photography. Read More

VESA announces DisplayPort v1.2

By Mick Webb

20:16 January 22, 2010 PST

The Video Electronics Standard Association (VESA) has unveiled the long awaited DisplayPort Version1.2 digital display interface that brings with it a host of enhanced features. Aside from a doubled data rate of 21.6Gbps and bi-directional USB data transfer of an impressive 720Mbps, the upgrade also offers multi – monitor support from a single plug, improved audio synchronization and support for Full HD 3D Stereoscopic displays. Read More

Asus Core i7 gaming notebooks

By Paul Ridden

13:39 January 18, 2010 PST

ASUS' Republic of Gamers (ROG) showed off some new gaming notebooks at CES, with specs available including Intel i7 processor, Direct X 11 and 3D graphics, high definition audio and HDD support for up to 1Tb of storage. Gizmag took the opportunity to have a closer look. Read More

US$699 Optoma HD66 - 300 inches of 720p 3D projection for the home theatre

By Loz Blain

00:18 January 13, 2010 PST

No matter how much you spend, there just doesn't seem to be any clear way to future-proof your home theatre system. You can have the biggest HD screen on the block, but suddenly, if it can't do 3D, it's all but obsolete. With the rush of 3D content that's under development in the gaming, TV and cinema worlds, 3D is set to become the new HD within the next couple of years - and with that in mind, Optoma has pulled the covers off its HD66 digital projector at CES - a US$699 home theatre projector capable of showing 720p content in 3D with a max image size around 300". Read More

Vuzix display Wrap 920AR augmented reality glasses

By Mick Webb

18:59 January 12, 2010 PST

Forget looking at the world through rose colored glasses – try these on for size. Video eyewear manufacturer Vuzix has unveiled its Wrap 920AR glasses prototype that features cameras mounted to the lenses that project real world images onto LCD’s inside the glasses, seamlessly mixing real-world and computer generated imagery.

With the LCD’s offering the view of a 67” display from ten feet away and the cameras able to capture video at a resolution of 752x480 at 60fps, the application promises a myriad of uses from gaming to education and social networking. Read More

World's biggest TV: Panasonic's 4K2K 3D 152-inch Plasma

By Ben Coxworth

14:59 January 11, 2010 PST

If you’re a fan of movies like Poltergeist or Videodrome, in which people get really “immersed” in their television-viewing experiences, then you’ll probably like the latest news from Panasonic - it’s developed the world’s largest full-HD 3D plasma display TV. As presented at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, the one-off behemoth sports a 152-inch, 4K x 2K (8.84 million pixel) screen, plus a host of other complicated-sounding technical marvels. Read More

Sony BRAVIA XBR-LX900 leads the 3D charge

By Mick Webb

13:54 January 8, 2010 PST

Showing it means business in its commitment to developing 3D home entertainment, Sony has this week at CES unveiled three new 3D BRAVIA TV series, most notable of which is the behemoth XBR-60LX900. The 60” full HD 1080p Edge LED backlit unit features integrated Wi-Fi and 3D functionality, Motionflow PRO 240Hz technology along with USB and DLNA connectivity Read More

TomTom EASE - small package, small pricetag GPS to hit US stores

By Paul Ridden

19:56 January 7, 2010 PST

TomTom's EASE is the latest addition to its satellite navigation family and brings all the functionality, ease of use and practicality of its siblings at a fraction of the cost. Launched at CES in Las Vegas this week, the EASE blends a simple two icon interface menu, an integrated fold-away mount and the company's proprietary Map Share and IQ Routes - all for around a hundred US dollars. Read More

Toshiba's ZX900 Series Cell LED TV set for the US market

By Tim Hanlon

19:35 January 7, 2010 PST

The Cell microprocessor made famous by the PlayStation 3 was developed as a joint venture between Sony, Toshiba and IBM, with Toshiba taking over the majority of manufacturing duties in 2007. Toshiba plans to make the most of the Cell with a new range of Cell-powered TVs for the US market - read on to find out what 200 gigaflops can do inside a TV. Read More

US$15k uPrint personal 3-D printer brings rapid prototyping to the desktop

By Loz Blain

21:23 January 6, 2010 PST

3-D printing technology is maturing to the point where rapid prototyping machines are becoming affordable to small business owners - and even for high-end home use. Dimension's uPrint 3D printer has just been released at a retail price of US$14,900, giving anyone with CAD skills the ability to prototype and even manufacture pretty much any small shape they want in hard ABSplus plastic - including pre-assembled objects with moving parts. What would you create if you could have any plastic shape you wanted? Read More

Panasonic announce World's first integrated twin-lens Full HD 3D camcorder

By Tim Hanlon

19:31 January 6, 2010 PST

Shooting in 3D has traditionally required a complex, bulky and fragile rig using two cameras and additional hardware to calibrate and adjust them. Panasonic's straight-forwardly-named Twin-lens Full HD 3D camcorder looks to radically change the 3D game, with integrated lenses and dual memory card slots allowing you to capture 3D footage immediately, with just one device. Read More

James Cameron's Avatar in IMAX 3D: a mind-blowing glimpse into tomorrow's cinema

By Loz Blain

22:57 December 17, 2009 PST

Gizmag is hardly a movie review site, but when a film comes along that advances the art form in such a revolutionary way as James Cameron's Avatar, it becomes entirely relevant to fans of emerging technology. I saw it last night in IMAX 3D - and despite ten years' worth of building expectations and a frenzied hype campaign in recent months, I was still unprepared for the enormity of the technical and artistic achievement this film represents. If you haven't seen it yet, read on, we've kept spoilers to a minimum. Read More

Going 3D for more powerful and environmentally-friendly microchips

By Dario Borghino

20:26 December 16, 2009 PST

We've seen vertically oriented transistors, now it's time for entire chips to explore the z-axis. Collaborating with Swiss research institutes EPFL and ETH Zurich, IBM has made another important step toward creating faster, higher-efficiency "3D" processors stacking their cores vertically to increase the number of interconnections and sensibly reduce heat. Read More

Use your face to unlock the door

By Jeff Salton

20:13 December 14, 2009 PST

A facial recognition door entry access system that also keeps records of people coming and going could be the one accessory your high-tech home is missing. Or it could be that you run a business say, without a receptionist, and you want to keep track of employees’ movements in and out of the front door. With this device you can even keep out those pesky door-to-door salespeople. The Hanvon CVJB-G107 Face Recognition Time Attendance System and Access Door Lock from electronics wholesaler Chinavasion is a cheap solution (under US$500) and lets you program who gets in and out of your business or home. Read More

scoreLight musical instrument turns drawings into sound

By Dario Borghino

17:37 December 9, 2009 PST

Scientists at the University of Tokyo have found a curious way to translate drawings and three-dimensional shapes into music. The prototype laser-based musical instrument known as scoreLight uses 3D tracking technology to generate real-time sounds based on the shapes and colors it encounters along the way, transforming doodling into a truly synthesized experience. Read More

Multimedia on the move - the JVC Kenwood AVENUE MDV-313 navigation system

By Mick Webb

15:03 December 6, 2009 PST

JVC and Kenwood has produced its first in-car navigation system since last years merger and it certainly offers more than directions for getting from A to B. As well as boasting virtual 3D maps and fast response times, the AVENUE MDV-313 features a 6.1” touchscreen LED backlit display, integrated DVD player and TV tuner, as well as USB and SD card slots and optional iPod connectivity. Read More

2010 FIFA World Cup to be filmed in 3D

By Gizmag Team

22:09 December 3, 2009 PST

At Sony's press conference during IFA 2009, four members of the Gizmag team were among those treated to a demonstration of the company's latest 3D technology. While animated features are one thing, we all agreed that the snippets of football footage shown in 3D looked amazing. It's a whole order of magnitude above 2D - no matter how big or fast your flatscreen - when it comes to feeling like you are actually watching the action live. We walked away convinced that sports broadcasting will be the real turning point for the technology and it's certain to play a key role as major players try to convince people to start buying 3D TVs from next year. Sony understands this and has just announced a deal with FIFA to shoot selected matches from the 2010 World Cup in 3D. Being the world's most popular sporting event, this has to be the perfect platform with which to usher in the new technology. Read More

ProFORMA software creates a 3D model of an object in minutes using a webcam

By Jeff Salton

18:58 November 29, 2009 PST

Cambridge University PhD student Qi Pan has designed software that creates textured 3D models in slightly more than a minute using a stationary camera, such as a webcam. Conventional off-line model reconstruction relies on a number of phases - there’s an image collection phase that can be quite quick, followed by a very slow reconstruction phase, which requires a long time to verify a model obtained from an image sequence is acceptable. This new software creates a 3D model on-line as the input sequence is being collected. As the user rotates the object in front of a camera, a partial model is reconstructed and displayed to the user. Read More

Esquire magazine to release augmented reality edition

By Paul Ridden

15:04 November 15, 2009 PST

After experimenting with things like origami (May edition) and e-ink (October 2008 edition), Esquire magazine is running a special "augmented reality" edition in December where readers use custom-designed software and a webcam to interact with the pages being viewed and get access to 3D animated video content. Read More

ZMS-08: world's first Blu-ray quality media processor for handheld devices

By Paul Ridden

19:05 November 11, 2009 PST

With the development of the ZMS-08 system on a chip, ZiiLabs is aiming to bring high performance media processing to low power devices. As well as allowing full Blu-ray quality 1080p video playback, the chip supports simultaneous HD encode and decode, 3D and 2D image processing and advanced audio. Read More

The interactive 3D Virtual Autopsy Table

By Paul Ridden

16:17 October 20, 2009 PDT

Swedish researchers have developed an interactive touchscreen 3D autopsy table that allows pathologists to examine virtual representations of real bodies in minute detail and from numerous viewing angles. Using data provided by scans of an actual body, the table allows the user to remove layers such as skin and muscle, add or remove tissue and circulatory systems, zoom in and out and cut through sections with a virtual knife. The video below is a "must watch". Read More

Technicolor announces affordable 3D solution for cinema

By Mick Webb

06:29 September 23, 2009 PDT

With Hollywood set to give us over a dozen 3D feature films in the next twelve months, demand for 3D technology is at an all-time high. As the roll out of digital cinema has taken the industry longer to implement than expected, Thomson’s Technicolor Business Group has announced what it says is an affordable alternative 3D process that works with existing 35mm cinema projectors. While the introduction of such technology will expand the current reach of 3D, not everyone, it seems, is singing Technicolor’s praises. Read More

PrimeSense paints future of home-tech interaction

By Paul Lester

19:21 August 17, 2009 PDT

Nintendo certainly created a stir when it introduced motion-sensing controls to the video game industry, but subsequent developments that are no more than a year or two from fruition are already threatening to confine this relatively new technology to the proverbial scrap-heap. The latest of these is PrimeSense, a 3D camera that allows devices like televisions to ‘see a view of the surrounding area’ by scanning a room to determine who is present through a combination of shape recognition and thermal imaging. Read More

Holograms you can feel

By Darren Quick

00:53 August 10, 2009 PDT

Star Trek’s Holodeck has just became a little closer to reality with news researchers from the University of Tokyo have developed a technique that allows 3D holograms to be “touched”. By blending a holographic display, a couple of Nintendo Wiimotes and an ultrasound phenomenon called acoustic radiation pressure, the researchers were able to create the Airborne Ultrasound Tactile Display - a system that can give the feeling of holographic raindrops hitting an outstretched hand or a virtual creature running across a palm. Read More