Found in newly released Just Cause 2.
[Thanks, Steve D.]
Category Archives: Technology
Adobe Photoshop CS5 is on the way, new Content-Aware feature works like magic
Photoshop Labs is showing off a magical new tool called Content-Aware. What it allows you to do is add, remove, move, or repair image elements in an extremely easy and fool-proof way. Up to this point, one way to clean up images by removing certain elements from it was to use to the Healing tool. Editing images this way can be nerve-racking, tedious, and time-consuming. Content Aware does away with all that. Watch the video above to witness the magic. The Photoshopper starts out with small edits, like removing lens flairs and tiny trees from an image. Then he moves onto bigger things like adding desert to a road and filling out a panoramic image with the click of a button. Very impressive stuff. Adobe Photoshop CS5 releases on April 12, and Adobe promises this feature in a “future version of Photoshop.” (Whether that means it will be included in CS5 or in an update has not been addressed.)
Trailer: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Stimulus Package
The first piece of downloadbale content for the world’s best-selling video game Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 will ship in the form of a map pack. It will include 5 maps–three new ones (Bailout, Storm, and Salvage) and two old ones from the original CoD: MW (Crash and Overgrown). The DLC will hit the Xbox 360 first on March 30 for a whopping $15 and will appear on the PSN and PCs later this year. But you know all this already! Check out the brand new teaser trailer for “Stimulus Package” above.
[Via Gametrailers]
Navigating a 13.3 gigapixel image, Minority Report style
Students at the University of Tromso in Norway have put together a ginormous interactive display wall. The 22-megapixel display utilizes 28 projectors to spit out a resolution of 7,168 x 3,072. It’s multitouch capabilities allow users to interact with the wall in a myriad of ways, Tom Cruise-style; gestures include hand swipes for panning and snapping fingers for zooming in. And all of this can be down without actually touching the wall. But how is that possible? A number of floor-mounted cameras pick up your gestures in 1D and a 30 node computer setup manages to group together the various perspectives to determine 2D location. In the demo video above, the wall outputs a 13.3 gigapixel highly detailed image of Trosmo. Check it out and be blown away be its awesome power.
[Via University of Trosmo; Engadget]
Interacting with a flexible display
Impress flexible display, designed by Silke Hilsing.
German designer Silke Hilsing created an interactive “flexible” display using Arduino and sensors. How does it work? Simple really: Sensors are sandwiched in-between layers of foam; when you touch the foam surface this triggers the sensors to turn on and communicate with an overhead projector which displays a beam of lights onto the surface from above. The surface can “feel” the level of intensity as you push down on it with your hand; the harder you push, more information (colors, light, text) is displayed. The motivation behind this concept? “…to remove the technical stiffness from touch screens, bring the technology closer to the user by making it more human.” Interesting…
[Via DesignBoom; Gizmodo; SilkeHilsing]
FoxTrot tickles the iPad’s funnybone
I cut out this comic from last Sunday’s paper. In it FoxTrot pokes fun at one of the iPad’s biggest downfalls.
[Via FoxTrot]
Nintendo slips out details of the successor to the DS — the 3DS
Hot off the heels of these latest rumors, Nintendo may or may not have slipped up in releasing a short but sweet press release about a forthcoming successor to the Nintendo DS handheld temporarily dubbed the Nintendo 3DS. That’s right, as in 3D. According to the press release found on Nintendo’s Japan website, the 3DS will allow games to be “enjoyed with 3D effects without the need for any special glasses.” Whether or not the 3D tech will work like this DSi Japanese game is yet to be known. It’s also important to note that it specifies the 3DS as the successor to the DS series (which includes the DS, DSi, DSi XL). The 3DS will be backwards-compatible with both DS and DSi games. Engadget scooped up further information; it looks like the 3DS will pump out 3D images using a parallax barrier LCD screen made by Sharp and Hitachi. The 3DS will pack dual screens, each sizing at 4 inches diagonally, 3D control sticks (these just might end up being analog nubs), vibration feedback, faster WiFi transfers, and improved battery life. We won’t have to wait much longer to hear the final word; Nintendo is expected to officially unveil the Nintendo DS successor this June at E3 2010.
Music video: Diane Birch – “Valentino” (Super cool augmented reality!)
Watch this music video for Diane Birch’s catchy tune “Valenino,” a single off her debut album Bible Belt. It features some old-school augmented reality tricks. It all looks easy at first glance, but there is much choreography that had to be memorized and performed to perfection in order to pull everything off. Just look after the break for a behind-the-scenes video that reveals all the magic and see what I mean.
[Via Gizmodo]
Continue reading Music video: Diane Birch — “Valentino” (Super cool augmented reality!)
The world’s fastest text messager sets new record in a Samsung commercial
Watch as 23-year-old Franklin Page sets the Guinness World Record for the fastest text message on a touchscreen mobile phone. The phone used is the Samsung Omnia II which is the first to feature Samsung’s new text entry technology called Swype. Page, a Swype intern, set the new record at 35.54 seconds, beating out the previous record of 40.91 seconds. He won the crown typing: “The razor-toothed piranhas of the genera Serrasalmus and Pygocentrus are the most ferocious freshwater fish in the world. In reality they seldom attack a human.” That’s the 160-character phrase Guinness uses for all text-messaging records. And the deed was captured on camera and made into an exciting commercial for Samsung.
[Via SeattleTimes; Gizmodo]
SkiFree is back! On the iPhone!
This itty bit of news has just made my week. Remember that game SkiFree that came preloaded on Windows 3.1? It was a very simple game; you used the arrow keys to direct the skier speck to the bottom of a hill, trying your best to not run into obstacles like trees and rocks. Today gameplay utilizes iPhone goodies like the built-in accelerometer for steering and the touchscreen for jumping. The developer promises a future update will add a new slalom mode, easter eggs from the original SkiFree, and the absent and totally necessary Snow Monster. That little basterd would always get me once I reached near the bottom of the hill! Download SkiFree here; it’s free!
[Via BusinessInsider; Gizmodo]
The Creepy La-La-La Guy gets an app
We all knew this was coming. The latest Internet meme is now featured in an app for the iPhone/iPod Touch. Edward Anatolevich Hill is ‘The Creepy La-La-La Guy’ you’ve seen belt out those lalala’s and get impersonated by the great Christoph Waltz. You can now bring the nightmare-inducing man to your iPhone with the Trololo app. In it Hill sings his tune over and over again as you try to unlock the following powers: Applause, Funny Hat, Tone Invasion, Lava, Earthquake, and Chicken Of Death. Normally priced at $1.99, the app is free today! So go on and download it. Or don’t.
First WP7S ad does the trick
Meet Anna, Miles, and Luca. They are the ficticious family Microsoft has decided to use in their first commercial spotlighting their brand new mobile OS. Windows Phone 7 Series is shown off in all its panoramic glory by way of enlarged heads up displays. Thought it’s nothing spectacular, Microsoft gets it right by featuring the OS’s most prominent features like the connected people hub, photo sharing, and Xbox Live. With WP7S devices due out this holiday season, let the marketing blitz begin.
[Via Engadget]