Via digitalurban
We have always been big fans of augmented reality here at digital urban, simply because it is so easy to set up yet a very impressive and powerful visualisation technique. As such the ability to export direct from sketchup.google via the new plugin ARplug-in from the Development Lab of Inglobe Technologies, into a physical space has huge potential - see the movie below:
→ No CommentsTags: 3D models·ARplug-in·SketchUp
Canon EOS 5D MKII
I’ve had a chance to get a hold of the 5D MKII on several occasions - seven to be specific (2 of those nights were spent shooting the first film, Reverie.) I’ve felt compelled to try to create something with it each time I’ve had the camera in my hands. And I will admit this camera has brought me back the closest to the feeling I had at the age of 15 when I had my first camera and a few rolls of Tri-X to burn through. Simply put - it’s so much fun and pure.
You’ll see some footage shot with Tilt-shift lenses from the air - my first time with video - as well as one of the last shots of the series that was shot with a full motion picture Steadicam rig. All of the footage was shot with several different prototypes of theCanon EOS 5D MKII that I was allowed to borrow at different intervals - cut in Final Cut Studio, and graded in Color. I’m still in the middle of post-productions with almost every one of these shoots - busier shooting than editing to be honest. But I thought I’d share some of this footage as most of your are likely to receive your production 5DMKIIs sometime this week (those that put their names down first of course.)
→ No CommentsTags: art·design·Technology
Terrafugia’s Transition driving airplane
Via popsci.com
The team at Terrafugia is about to fulfill the fantasy of every driverpilot: a consumer vehicle that can take to the highways and the skies. All they have to do is finish the first one.
The Transition is not a flying car. The vehicle, set to go on sale next year, will cruise smoothly on the road and through the sky. It will have four wheels, Formula One–style suspension, and a pair of 10-foot-wide wings that fold up when it switches from air to asphalt. And when the engineers at Terrafugia in Woburn, Massachusetts, let me sit inside their just-finished proof-of-concept vehicle and grab the steering wheel, it’s easy to imagine piloting this thing up and out of traffic, into the open skies.
→ No CommentsTags: airplane·design
It may sound like something out of a James Bond movie, but the U.S. military’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is putting out the call for researchers to come up with a design for a submersible aircraft.
Yup, you read it right. DARPA, a research branch of the U.S. Department of Defense, is looking for someone to prove that a vehicle can be built that will fly, as well as maneuver underwater.
The call for research went out earlier this month, and initial proposals are due by 4 p.m. EST on Dec. 1.
→ No CommentsTags: DARPA·design·Technology
Via fanwing
Designs to establish a means of integral lift and thrust using a horizontal-axis wing rotor are recorded back as far as the late 19th century. Some of the experiments started to take off but did not sustain flight. The FanWing new blown-wing solution offers both basic proof of concept and a steady trajectory of improved and controlled flight performance.
The aircraft has a cross-flow fan along the span of each wing. The fan pulls the air in at the front and then expels it over the wing’s trailing edge. In transferring the work of the engine to the rotor, which spans the whole wing, the FanWing accelerates a large volume of air and achieves unusually high lift-efficiency.
The FanWing showed proof of concept in the form of actual flights before theoretical validation, academic research or explanation. The FanWing is an invention by trial and error and though certainly employing a methodology with good precedent in the history of innovation it is in no way within the normal paradigm of academic and conventional aircraft development. There is nevertheless a steady accumulation of tests and supporting documentation.
→ 1 CommentTags: design·Technology·uav
→ No CommentsTags: NASA·Technology
I have created the ultimate flying machine ever build by human hands. I call it the AutoSkyBot it’s a VTOHLJATT- Vertical Takeoff Hover Landing Jet Arial Terrestrial Transport. Consumer uses are Air Taxi Cab, Air Ambulance, Multi-role Fire Department fire suppression vehicle, SKY crane, Skyscraper construction Platform, Skyscraper rescue vehicle, Skyscraper external fire suppression system, Selective Logging, Shipping Container Automated Delivery Vehicle. Power line maintenance. Handicapped, elderly, special needs vehicle.
→ No CommentsTags: design·NASA
Via defense-update
A project for the construction of two new aircraft carriers was launched with the signature of contracts worth around £3 billion, between the British Ministry of Defence (MoD), the newly-formed UK maritime Joint Venture, BVT Surface Fleet, and the Aircraft Carrier Alliance, assigned for the unprecedented job. The contract was signed onboard the Royal Fleet Flagship HMS Ark Royal, one of the Royal Navy’s existing aircraft carriers.
→ 1 CommentTags: aircraft·carrier
The 2008 E3 Media & Business Summit
Via gamespot
Just over two weeks ago, the 2008 E3 Media & Business Summit closed its doors. But while reaction to the 4,000-person event has been decidedly mixed, attendees could agree that many fine games were on display–either behind closed doors or on the scaled-down show floor.
Today, the cream of the games press honored the top of the crop by doling out the 10th annual Game Critics Awards: Best of E3 2008 honors. This year, the Best of Show prize went to Fallout 3, Bethesda Softworks’ upcoming update of the classic postapocalyptic role-playing game series. Due out this fall, Fallout 3 also won Best RPG at the event, beating such opponents Lionhead’s Fable 2 and BioWare’s Dragon Age: Origins.
→ No CommentsTags: design·Games·summit
Via smart-machines
Seattle PI informs us of a new multi-touch display from Microsoft that utilizes technology similar to the company’s Surface computer but instead of a flat screen it has a spherical one. The video below shows a Microsoft engineer demonstrating the Sphere computer and also discussing the motivation behind its design. I don’t see this being anything more than a gimmick mostly because the benefits of the Sphere computer as described in the video by Microsoft’s representative don’t add much value to this machine over traditional flat multi-touch displays. Of course, this is just my opinion and I could be wrong. However, I suspect that the Sphere would be a nice medium for teaching geography and possibly other subjects in grade school. Overall, considering that this is strictly a research project, it is very cool.
