Enhanced photogrammetry

Mark Christiansen posted a great video and background info on high-res photogrammetry applied to enhance video resolution and exposure (as shown above), as well as object touch-ups and removal. It would be great to see these sort of advances in further versions of Photoshop's Vanishing Point tool, along with camera mapping and other 3D features.

You can view additional examples of photogrammetry used today at Studio Daily on Zodiac, Paul Devebec's site (PDF), RealViz, and DV Garage's Brain Dump Series: Photogrammetry.

Max2AE plugin

If you're interested in Autodesk 3D Studio, you might want to check out Alan Shisko's post -- and video tutorial -- about the 2.0 version of Boomerlabs' Max2AE plugin that integrates 3dsMax cameras, lights and layers with AE.

Gates: NOT Fake Steve Jobs

Engadget has the scoop on Steve Jobs and Bill Gates sharing a stage; 7-part video at Wall Street Journal:



Update: the talk is now on iTunes too.

Silverlight, meet Google Gears

There may be no end to Microsoft's ambition, to borrow a phrase from the BBC, and that includes the future of the web. Or Internet 2 if you will. I'm not really sure how Silverlight is different from JavaFX, Ajax, and Flash/Apollo, but content controls would have to be developed on Windows even if Windows servers are not required.

As John Dowdell notes (see also his links): "MS servers are one thing, but it's likely more important MS eventually ends up as the advertising channel, and gains personalization data for that app's audience -- a server they can sell today; a service they can sell tomorrow."

Of course there's no assurance that Google is different! They weren't able to get the neocon Dan Senor from the Carlyle Group for communications, but they did get someone from the Council on Foreign Relations/The Gap. Success will probably only be achieved by promoting actual market economies and democratic politics rather than in the approaches on which the American elites rely (listen to Chalmers Johnson). Anyway it looks like Google Gears (Scoble video) might help get Adobe aligned, as the counter-assault on MS Office readies.

Microsoft Surface≠Minority Report

flashpoint (Ian Kennedy's blog on social media marketing) mentioned the Popular Mechanics video of Microsoft's Multitouch in Microsoft Surface, Minority Report realized.


Update: Last month Microsoft researcher Eric Horvitz demonstrated technologies (CNET video) that use hand gestures to manipulate data and a box that beams to turn any surface into a display.

Nordine: the voice of 'Kiki'

Toolfarm posted "Warp 11 with Kiki," a Video Toaster infomercial which showcases NAB legend Kiki Stockhammer. But the mysterious part for me was the narrator. It was Ken Nordine, the still kicking Beat word jazz guy who did a record with Jerry Garcia, David Grisman, and Tom Waits in the 90's.

Murch's music of the spheres

One page on Walter Murch always seems to pop up in Google, this time when I was trying to find the name of his choice content management, the PIX System.

It's The Heliocentric Pantheon: An Interview with Walter Murch, on the Building Blog of all places. This interview discusses Murch's observations on the similarities between the Pantheon, the ratio of planetary orbits, and musical scales. Obscure but cool.

There's much more of Murch out there at Murch film at SFIF, Fog City Mavericks, Transom.org, FilmSound.org, Freshdv, SF Cutters, and Walter Murch Fan Site.