May 25, 2008
Image recognition advances
MIT takes us one step closer to being able to identify films and imagery from the picture content.
"The amount of information you need to identify most images is about 32 by 32 (pixels)."
MIT helps develop new image-recognition software - MIT News Office
February 04, 2007
WANTED: roller skating crocodile
The other day I needed to reference that VRML roller skating crocodile that Protozoa, the SF web3D company, made around 1996. They produced the Floops series for SGI - a valiant attempt at establishing the webisode format years ahead of a market.
It's a real shame that so much of the early Web has vanished. Protozoa died a dotcom death but produced some inspiring work within the technical limitations of the day. The roller skating crocodile is one particular memory playing on a slick new machine - after opening six or seven browser windows containing dancing crocodiles and it
brought Windows NT crashing down in a heap!
Just over ten years later, and there is barely a trace of Protozoa's work online. And no crocodile... {:-(
One of the few archives I could find has most of the Floops series below, but does anyone got a link to a croc for this file hoarder?
January 31, 2007
Microsoft Vista - massive disappointment?
Will 2007 be the year of one step forward, two steps back? After the resurgence in awareness of environmental issues it would appear that one of the most influential companies in the world is about to sweep the issues under the carpet once again.
I haven't verified all the information in this Green Party blurb but the monopolistic behavior attributed to Microsoft in this article sounds like business as usual and incredibly destructive. No matter how many billions Bill gives to charity this is really going to stink. As the article points out, this is really just pandering to the ignorance rife in the media sector about DRM. I doubt very much that hardware "lock down" will prove much of an obstacle to hackers. On the day before it is launched, Microsoft Vista sounds like it is already obsolete and set to become a right pain in the planet.
January 11, 2007
Petition against software patents
Tony Blair's e-petition site has a new one called for the repeal of software patents. The petition system is an experiment in two-way communication with government.
Currently there are more signatories for the software patent petition then there were for the PM to "resign immediately" but less than the number of signatories who want him to "stand on his head and juggle ice-cream"...
We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to make software patents clearly unenforcible.
November 15, 2006
Sun open sources Java
In a historic move Sun has decided to release forthcoming Java technology under the GPL v2 free software license. This will enable Java to become more tightly integrated into free software releases like Linux distributions and will probably significently increase its viability in the long term. In an effort to alleviate concerns about free software "tainting" any proprietary licensed code (GPL software cannot legally be included within a codebase without the entire lot reverting to free software), Sun are putting their support into the GNU Classpath project which will allow free core class libraries to work in tandem with commercial software.
November 04, 2006
YouTube
Don't you feel sorry for poor old YouTube? Now that they are officially on the culture vulture radar after a sensational deal with Google for US$1.65billion in stock the company is no longer alternative. They are also now a big fat target for lawsuits, and have been deluged by requests from content owners for their material to be removed from the site, or at least start sharing the pie. The process, the execs have discovered, is painful and goes a long way to explain why Internet mavericks like themselves have a bit of lead time to get a new model in place. The cost of clearing rights is cost-prohibitive. The cost of doing business as YouTube remains to be seen. With one source claiming up to 60% of the top 100 clips on YouTube have some form of copyright violation, it will be interesting to see what happens next. Rest assured, those heart-to-heart video blogs NOT sponsored by a media company will continue to flourish no doubt. Re-mixers may need more support.
YouTube Finds Signing Rights Deals Complex, Frustrating - WSJ.com
February 05, 2006
Blu-Ray movie discs
Chris Adamson expands on why every film will have its own ecommerce store before long thanks to the Blu-Ray format which looks set to be the sequel to DVD-ROM.
We Love Blu-Ray Java! It's Perfect! Now Change. - O'Reilly Mac DevCenter Blog
Listening to the engineers from Sun and Phillips talking through the spec at the Java One conference I couldn't help thinking that there are going to be some disappointed interactive movie-makers out there. No matter how far advanced the soon-to-be-mainstream features are going to be, this is still rudimentary corporate technology struggling to stay within sight of our collective imaginations without losing control. Blu-Ray stems from the consumer electronics industry which is worlds away from the lastest crop of social media APIs online. Whatever scope there is for being cheeky and innovating with Blu-Ray, you can rest assured that the official playground will require locks and keys.
January 26, 2006
November 14, 2005
Soundbeam
Soundpoint is a MIDI motion-control interface being used for installations and educational projects.
ArKaos : Interactive Visual Technologies
Soundpoint's website describes it as "the invisible expanding kyeboard in space". Much more groovy!
November 12, 2005
Blu-ray
Following on from Sony's decision to go with blu-ray as the optical disc storage technology for PS3, now Warner Bros and MGM have joined the Blu-ray Disc Association this week, making this increasingly likely as the new defacto standard for Hollywooden content.
No frequently-asked-questions on blu-ray interactivity support but the word is out that Java will be supported in all blue-ray DVD players which means that the constraints of the DVD-Video experience are soon to be forgotten.
November 11, 2005
Video codec wars
Broadband video take-up is set to explode but what codec do you use? Some insight into why Macromedia chose On2 VP6 for Flash 8 and Apple went with H264 for Quicktime 7.
November 10, 2005
Software Making-Of Videos
Documentation has come along way in recent times.
* From punchcards to PCs, there's always been programmers with attitude "Why should I write comments? I can read my own writing and the best documentation is the code itself".
* Then computer networks allowed elegant (and crap) solutions to be commented on more widely. Sometimes via elegant comments.
* Funny manuals start to appear. The Pathologically Eclectic Rubbish Lister and other gems encouraged linguistics fans to spontaneously self-organise.
* Geek culture blooms. The Internet is fully responsible.
* Open source projects explode in number. Some even manage to stay useful.
then fast forward to events in the last 12 months where we have:
* A video tutorial showing "How to build a blog engine in 15 minutes with Ruby-on-Rails" (a Ruby web framework))
* Followed swiftly by "how to build a database-driven wiki in 20 minutes in Turbogears" (an equivalent framework for Python)
* Followed shortly after by a "how to implement your own online music store in 20 minutes" (again Python/Turbogears)
* Not to be beaten by "Aardvark'ed: 12 Weeks With Geeks", available to buy soon on DVD, documenting the complete lifecycle of a software product from concept to paying customer.
Every couple of years I get all excited thinking that a major shift in public conscious around the Internet is about to happen. And then the penny drops. I'm reminded by some kind soul that programming will remain in its black geek encrusted box because most people simply just don't care.
I accept that but I'm also willing to bet, today at least, that we're going to see a dramatic shift in perception in the next five years. Since when exactly were programmers racing each other to release movies about their code? It may never be Hollywood but software development has got a lot more palatable to the masses in recent times.
Switched-on developers realise it's all about bums on seats. No doubt cheesy special FX intros will follow.
November 07, 2005
Google Creative Commons search
Not wholly unexpected, Google releases its own Creative Commons search facility.
October 13, 2005
AJAX
Buzzword alert - AJAX, or asynchronous Javascript and XML is creeping towards the web mainstream as more sites explore how to update information onscreen without refreshing the whole page. With a new-look Hotmail interface in private beta and flagship sites like Flickr gathering steam, the future of the Web is sounding more like a multi-surface cleaning product every day.
October 07, 2005
Korsakow System
The Korsakow-System is billed as "an easy-to-use computer program for the creation of interactive films, or better: interactive database narratives. "
In practice, this is a Macromedia Director application which acts as a pseudo-random media file viewer.
October 05, 2005
Autodesk acquires Alias
First Adobe buys Macromedia, now Autodesk buys Alias. It will be interesting to see how the traditional split between 3DS Max for games and Maya for films will play out now that both titles will be developed by the one company. Hopefully the transition will be handled a little more gracefully than Apple, who quickly dropped Windows support after acquiring both Logic and Shake.
August 12, 2005
DTV - non-profit TV and video
A new open source platform for Internet broadcasts and podcasts was launched this week by the Participatory Culture Foundation. DTV aims to harness the power of RSS video enclosures and Bit Torrent to provide a low cost mechanism for online expression. It all sounds very noble but ultimately it's still TV.
July 04, 2005
Big Brother Bush
Information is power and the 13 DNS root servers are certainly that. Refreshing to reflect on how little has changed since the Internet exploded into mainstream consciousness. It is still on loan from the the good ole US of A. Us outsides aren't to be trusted with anything as important as DNS.
June 06, 2005
Search on TAP
Rob McCool's Semantic Web scraper and search engine is attempting to provide additional context to online information. He is also known for developing httpd whilst at NCSA.
June 03, 2005
Winamp AVS open sourced
Swirling patterns of colour and patterns churning to the beat of your MP3s are one step closer thanks to AOL's decision to release the code to the popular Winamp visualiser plugin. Milkdrop is also being released.
April 05, 2005
Yahoo trials Creative Commons search facility
Yahoo becomes the first mainstream search engine to allow users to restrict their search to material that has only Some Rights Reserved. Expect to see other companies follow suit.
March 21, 2005
Hardware-based trust is suspicious
An eloquent analysis of the contradiction in terms which is the "trusted platform module" (TPM). Bill Thompson, writing for BBCi, notes that disempowering the audience from making future choices is an essential part of DRM business when the lock is in chips not software.
BBC NEWS | Technology | What price for 'trusted PC security'?
March 15, 2005
Hollywood hedges its bets on BitTorrent
The Washington Post notes that while the Motion Picture Association of America is waging war against illegal P2P file sharing, there has been no moves against BitTorrent developers and users directly. The paper suggests optimistically that this may be the key to legal distribution in the future.
BitTorrent May Prove Too Good to Quash (washingtonpost.com)
BitTorrent does have its issues, particularly when it comes to distributing content for which there is a markedly smaller audience, than say Harry Potter films, but it is definitely the one to watch and what other programs will evolve from.
March 14, 2005
iSM Modeler
Artificial vision systems continue to evolve. This little gadget is being used to quickly capture augmented reality views of crime scenes.
The underlying algorithm is available as AutoStitch
February 02, 2005
Kazaagate continues
It's all too easy to pick holes in other people's efforts - how many people have been truly pioneering disruptive software? - but worth checking out the ongoing Sharman Networks/Kazaa court case in Sydney for a lesson in how not end up online.
Lifeplus
Augmented reality takes another step forward with 2D3's real-time camera tracking rig for the EU Lifeplus project.
2d3 - Company - Information about 2d3 and OMG Plc
"Engineers and researchers working in a Europe-wide consortium have demonstrated a breakthrough prototype augmented-reality system that can add 'digital people' and other computer-generated interactive animated elements in real-time to the visitor's view of the site."
January 24, 2005
Hit Song Science
Another industry secret is out. A Spanish company, Polyphonic HMI, has been flogging Hit Song Science (HSS) to major record labels to perform statistical analysis on their acts. Despite only working on previous trends (with no ability to determine new popular forms), HSS analyses mathematical patterns in music such as melody, pitch and tempo and compares against known hits.
No word on when the movie industry equivalent is due out.
http://www.hitsongscience.com/
This should be a boon for execs who aren't interested personally in the media they sell. "Just get A&R to run the numbers"...
September 24, 2004
PS3 disc capacity
No worries fitting your new film on the Playstation 3 it seems. Sony is choosing "the Blu-ray Disc ROM (BD-ROM) format as a medium for the next generation PlayStation. Specifically mentioned was a 54GB (dual layer, single side) capacity for the BD-ROM, 6 times larger than that of DVD-ROM."
September 21, 2004
Nvidia Gelato - digital film rendering
Nvidia is going all gooey over its new creme de la creme rendering system designed for digital film pipelines.
September 01, 2004
May 01, 2004
Blender game engine available
The latest version of the 3D modelling/animation package Blender has had its game engine functionality re-enabled.
http://developers.slashdot.org/developers/04/05/01/1325235.shtml?tid=127&tid=152&tid=185&tid=186
April 30, 2004
Legal Torrents
Legal Torrents provides a Bit Torrent tracker and seed for legally downloadable files. It is also one of the first trackers to incorporate an RSS feed for its torrents, encouraging the spread of software (like Radio) that automate online distribution of large files via semantic web technologies.
April 05, 2004
March 22, 2004
Visually Evoked Potentials
Mind Balance: Robert Burke's Home Page
Detectable electrical artifacts in brain processing is how mind control works in 2004. The MindGames team at Media Lab Europe are inventing the future with a tight-roping Scottish monster.
I wanna walk the Mawg!
March 18, 2004
February 24, 2004
XML representations of AAF and MXF
A number of organisations are developing XML representations for AAF and MXF and it has become clear that a standard representation is required. BBC Research and Development have made their work in this area available to help in the development of a standard XML representation for AAF and MXF.
CinePaint Digital Film Library
The CinePaint Digital Film Library is the world's first online archive of cinema-grade imagery.
Cinepaintis an open source painting and image retouching program designed to work with 35mm film and other high resolution high dynamic range images.
February 19, 2004
Vocaloid - vocalist in a box
Vocaloid is licensing "singing synthesis" technology to various companies whereby you can do text-to-singing in one of three different voices (so far). The preset result, while as bland as you would expect from a purely digital device, is quite amazing. It's being marketed as a solution for instant backing vocals.
January 30, 2004
Hypertag
Point your phone or PDA at a sign and have content downloaded to your device. That's the idea behind Hypertag.
January 29, 2004
Face plant on playstation
Sony has signed a deal with Digimask to use their virtual head creator software on the PS2 in conjunction with the EyeToy. Take front and side shots of your head with the EyeToy and Digimask will construct a head.
December 14, 2003
Sweetcode like scalex
Sweetcode tracks innovative free software releases. One of the current entries is for scale2x - an algorithm for de-pixellating images used within microcomputer game emulators to improve the visuals.
November 28, 2003
The future of Sony
Sony's presentation of its PSX and PSP devices at E3 in July caused a stir, as reported by Gamespy. The PSX is a consumer electronics device that can play PS2 games, go online, burn DVDs and act as a storage device with a 120Gb hard drive.
The PSP is a handheld device that plays "Universal Media Disc" media, a format with supposed support from major film studios.
Sony's slides are available: http://www.gamespy.com/articles/june03/sony/screenshots.shtml
November 25, 2003
DVD live mixing with DVJ-X1
Addictive TV review a new Pioneer DVD player designed for live performances.
October 22, 2003
Big Screens Open Windows on World
Wired News: Big Screens Open Windows on World suggests a new opportunity for massive media content creators.
"a giant video-conferencing system that will be deployed in public spaces in London and Vienna next year, allowing people in the two cities to meet and talk eye-to-eye."
," said Felker. "There is currently no opportunity to see real three-dimensional, 360-degree images. My clients are very excited about it."
Felker said he's seen a demonstration of a prototype system, which wasn't as impressive
October 04, 2003
Steam
The upcoming release of Valve Software's Half-life 2 is driving gamers into a frenzy of anticipation. With considerably less hype, but perhaps destined to be even more of a milestone, Valve have already released a distributed file system, Steam, which claims to pioneer the much vaunted online distribution model. If there is any merit to their claims, this could be the first commercial sign of infrastructure for re-mixable film.
September 18, 2003
Face Transforming
The University of St. Andrews has a Face Transforming web site where you change the age, race and sex of a facial image in a photograph.
XBox update shuts out Linux
ZDNet UK - News - Xbox update shuts out Linux. Software vendor auto-update behavior is going under the civil liberties microscope. It's one thing for Apple to "update" iTunes to remove certain audio streaming server capabilitiesfrom the software. Another thing for Microsoft to deleted content on the XBox harddrive created via Linux. A (dis)trust network is at work again.
September 17, 2003
fm01
"fm01 will offer a total software environment for the semi-automated production, scripting and editing of endless cinema.
cliki: http://fm01.druh.co.uk
ap background: http://www.1010.co.uk
http://www.druh.co.uk/residencies.html
ap production fm01 transposes non-metaphoric systems and grammar theory (of computer languages, abstraction and data containers) to the realm of expanded cinema. a relational, nodal and active language of connection will be formulated to descend through levels of scene, shot and frame (stored and to be shot). visual and syntactical analysis software will form a large part of the fm01 engine.
fm01 is not totally automated and in parallel with ap03 (apOS) forms a mechanism of personal insertion into systematics. fm01 is not conceived as an engine for the manipulation of generic clips (an expanding database of all possible scenes categorised according to a huge number of elements and relations) but rather offers an enmeshing within script, data streams and environment. fm01 is a large-scale project which builds on previous ap research and process to push the envelope of what can be achieved in terms of computer languages and data visualisation; a re-thinking of hard-wired notions of input and output.
call for papers for symposium uk to follow
[ http://mynetworks.com/node/view/79 ]
September 04, 2003
Eyetoy review
First touch of the Eyetoy and its clear that this is a whole new experience. No setup time, 12 sample games ranging from the annoying to the exhilerating and a clean vision of how we finally get to integrate gamers and non-gamers.
"It was wicked"
"Best thing I've seen for a long time"
"You get to move!"
"All the dealers are getting it."
Coach potatoes will never be the same. OK that's a lie but there is definitely something to this latest peripheral that hasn't been obvious before on a PS2, or any console. The ability to step back completely. The next stage has to be the removal of the screen altogether. Give my eyes a chance to recover.
Even at low light levels, the EyeToy performs reasonably. With stronger light and clear contrast around the player the system responds noticeably more accurately to movement.
In by far the best minigame, Kung Fu, the player swipes at oncoming attackers from a number of directions. The game rewards the fastest possible movement of the player, never seeming to lose tracking capability, resulting in a rather powerful sense of having complete control over the virtual interface. To cap it all off, the player's image strobes and fades away towards the end of levels so that all is left onscreen are the attackers facing an invisible opponent. "A Matrix moment" as someone put it. The future of interactive media as I like it. Truly degradable controls that recede into the background as the user's skill increases.
Another review concentrating on the mini-games themselves
http://www.game-revolution.com/games/ps2/sim/eyetoy.htm
August 26, 2003
Common Sense Reasoning
The MIT OpenCourseWare site has a "Media Arts and Sciences" section with one relevent course to-date.
August 15, 2003
DI - manipulable music format
DI is a new media file format that is designed to allow users to manipulate audio. A London company, Digimpro, is releasing commercial tools this year.
August 14, 2003
Face Choreography using Python
Steve DiPaola is working on a python program that analyses multi-track MIDI to produce facial animation. Still very much a work in progress but worth tracking like his earlier efforts, such as The Sims FaceLift application.
July 29, 2003
Natural-motion tracking
I've recently started working with Julie Freeman on a NESTA-funded natural-motion tracking project. Julie is aiming to produce several installations that feature generative sound and visuals over the next two years.
Julie's family runs a commercial fishery and her intention is to create a permanent lakeside installation, Fishal Life.
July 28, 2003
FreeWRL release
Version 1.0 of the VRML/X3D open source browser FreeWRL has been released for Linux and OSX.
Teach 3D characters to walk
Teach a Character Studio biped to walk from first principles. A genetic algorithm for walking is written up in Darwin in a Box.
http://www.naturalmotion.com/pages/technology_hiw.htm has the videos.
July 07, 2003
Last.fm
Europrix Top Talent winner, Last.fm, gets a good write-up in Wired for its collabarative filtering mechanism, similar to the one in use on Amazon, that customises your playlist.
Open source SMIL from Real Networks release
Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language (SMIL) gets a boost with a recent announcement that Real Networks are releasing the code to their SMIL 2.0 implementation to the Helix open source media community.
"The industry needs a standardized media platform to enables applications development that doesn't require porting to support multiple media delivery and playback platforms."
July 03, 2003
HDRI
Tools and tutorials for HDRI (High Dynamic Range Images) are appearing.
HDR Shop by Paul Debevec (free for non-commercial use).
Splutterfish's 3DS Max plugin for OpenEXR (free)
V-Man consortium
The VMan - Autonomous characters project is an EC Framework 6 programme which "aims to develop an intuitive system allowing non-computer specialists to create, animate, control and interact with a new generation of 3D virtual characters: the V-Men. These autonomous characters are intended for use in interactive media such as games and virtual reality as well as for special effects in film and television.
The V-Man consortium is composed of six complementary organisations among the top-ranking ones in their respective fields of activity and based in five different European countries, thereby securing the dissemination and penetration of the project results across Europe."
June 06, 2003
Dyne:bolic Linux for PC and XBox
Now this is a cool freebie - Dyne:bolic make available a live bootable Linux CDROM for PC and XBox containing a bunch of GNU audio/visual tools for "media activists, artists and teachers". And it works! Download, burn and boot into Linux the easy way.
Personal highlights of the distribution: ye ole GIMP, HasciiCam (video to ascii converter), FreeJ, Blender and MuSE.
April 17, 2003
Don Brutzman interview on X3D
Don Brutzman is the chair of the X3D graphics specification. In this interview, recently circulated to the membership of the Web3D Consortium, he summarises the past and future of real-time 3D graphic for the web.
April 08, 2003
Sony TV will stream video from the Net
ZDNet reports that "the electronics division (of Sony) has fully embraced that the dominant delivery mechanism this decade will be broadband".
March 24, 2003
OpenEXR
ILM has released OpenEXR, an open source high dynamic-range image format, previously used internally on motion picture production work. The pixel format is also compatible with NVidia's CG format which suggests that there may be considerable hardware support for this in the future.
November 04, 2002
The Movie of your Dreams?
Whatever happened to the 'MindDrive' movie? In 1995 California based 'The Other 90% Technologies' announced an alliance with Miramax films that would enable film-goers to determine the outcome of movies using "the power of their minds."
The Other 90%'s MindDrive technology incorporates a large ring that users will slip on to their fingers. The ring acts as a sensor, receiving signals from the mind which are transmitted to the MindDrive and a computer. MindDrive then interprets those signals and allows viewers to alter the course of a film with a simple thought. an amazing idea, much reported by the press and looked forward to by sci-fi buffs, tecchies and movie lovers alike. So what happened to it?
The whole Minddrive thing came as a complete surprise to me when I came across it whilst researching something totally different. And loving the movies and new technology as I do I was amazed that I had never heard about it before. So with trembling fingers I proceeded to search the internet for up-to-date information on the movie project, and what did I find? Well, nothing that's what. At least, nothing postdating the initial reporting. I certainly don't remember a film being released which made use of this technology and there's nothing to be found on the Miramax or The Other90% sites. Mysterious....
There is a lot of information to be found on Minddrive gaming and virtual reality uses, but as for the application to film-making the page is blank. Does anybody know what went on?
Bad hair day
June 30, 2002
Jahshaka - open source platform
What's the word on Jahshaka? Seems like an open source project worth tracking...
The goal of the Jahshaka project is to produce a industrial strength editing, effects, and compositing system that works on uncompressed video and audio at any resolution in any colorspace.