NEWS : TECH (NFPC)

Sinful Robot: XXX Virtual Reality

If news of the impending apocalypse has you bummed that you won't get to sow your wild oats at Yub-Yum, Amsterdam's android sex club of the future, here's something else you're going to miss out on: Sinful Robot. Hyped as the "world's most immersive virtual reality erotic encounter," Sinful Robot, created by a California startup of the same name, is being designed for the forthcoming Oculus Rift virtual reality headset.

In what I imagine to be a cross between the Batsignal and the Mudflap girl, Sinful Robot put out a call for 3D programmers, artists and animators on Reddit, also known as the Gotham of the Internet.

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Among a lascivious list of, ahem, open positions at Sinful Robot is a 3D character artist. Applicants should be engorged with "expert knowledge of creating realistic female models" and have the ability to create orgasmic "organic models." For those with expert knowledge on the male anatomy, it's not yet clear where you measure up.

Reddit user Illusionweaver69, who claims to be Sinful Robot's co-founder Jeroen Van den Bosch, is giddy about what Oculus Rift and the future holds.

"I have been waiting for many years for technology to become immersive enough so it [can] trick your brain to accept the virtual reality as reality, but the Rift does really do that," he wrote. "So now we can finally make an erotic adventure game that will actually be exciting!"

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However, if the Earth does open up like a split piece of fruit on Friday, only to reveal a fiery chasm of magma and crumbling rock, here's a good soundtrack to usher in the end of days. "You Don't Know What's Going On," so take your best friend's hand, shrug, and leap into the great beyond.

via Gizmag

Credit: Sinful Robot

 

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Get a 3-D Model Of Your Unborn Child

Lots of expecting couples get ultrasounds of their babies, and even take the grainy black-and-white pictures home. Now a clinic in Japan is offering models of the fetus, using 3-D printing technology.

Fasotec, an engineering company and Parkside Hiroo Ladies clinic have teamed up to offer the service since July 30. The way it works is similar to an ultrasound, but in this case they use MRI scans. (X rays can be harmful to a developing fetus). The next step is a technology called Bio-Texture modeling, which converts the MRI data and into a 3-D image. A 3-D printer builds up the three-dimensional image using two different resins that produce two different colors. The result is a fetus represented in a creamy color surrounded by the mother's tissue, represented as transparent (see image above).

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The resolution of the image isn't perfect -- but the clinics say that many expectant mothers are delighted by the service, which costs 100,000 yen (about $1,200 at current exchange rates), not including the cost of the MRI.

For those who would like a less-pricey version, the company will start offering a 3-D model of the face of the fetus for half that price at 50,000 yen in December.

The technology is about more than providing mementos to mothers, though. Fasotec says the printer can output 3-D models of organs, as well, which could be used to train physicians. In fact, the fetus-printing idea was a spin-off the company is using to publicize the more general organ-imaging it does.

Image: Fasotec

Via DigInfo TV, Wired UK

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NYC Model Made from LEGOs: DNews Nugget

NYC Model Made from LEGOs: Motion designer and 3D artist JR Schmidt created a scale model of New York City using digitally rendered LEGO pieces. Schmidt used maps, satellite data and images to set the elevation and color of the blocks. You can buy the image from Society 6 as framed art, stationery cards, an iPhone case or an iPod skin.

via iO9 and Cargo Collective

 

 

 

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Nokia's New Map App

While Apple was getting slammed for its map app fiasco earlier this fall and Google snickered in the background, Nokia was quietly building mapping software of its own. This week, they launched an application called Here, a Web-based service that brings 3D imaging together with Navteq mapping capabilities.

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The app is already serving as the native mapping service in Windows Phone 8, and will also be available as a third party app for iOS and Android. On top of providing directions on its cleanly designed site, Here has 3D city views, live traffic data and the ability to create your own maps for certain cities. You can also "collect" destinations to visit later on, almost like a bookmark page for places you want to visit. These destinations can be viewed across all devices running the Here site or app, thanks to its Cloud capabilities. 

At an event in San Francisco on Tuesday, Nokia head of design for location and commerce Peter Skillman said that the iPhone version of the app will be available within a few weeks "on the off chance that there may be come iPhone users that want a different map." The iPhone version of Here will have features like voiced turn-by-turn directions for driving and walking and potentially won't guide you into the ocean or direct you to a road that doesn't exist.

via: Technology Review

Credit: Nokia

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3D Printer Turns You Into an Action Figure

Who here wants a super-realistic action figure of yourself, standing there on your desk with arms akimbo and a renegade sneer?

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On the very good chance you raised your hand, you might want to start pricing airfare to Japan. Why? Because in just over a week, a pop-up shop will open in Tokyo's Harajuku neighborhood that will feature a 3D-printing photo booth capable of printing out a miniature figurine of your likeness.

As part of an exhibition at the Eye of Gyre in Harajuku, Omote 3D Shashin Kanand will open on November 24. There, you can buy an impressively detailed doll of yourself, as long as you can handle standing still for 15 minutes while a technician scans your body.

You can choose from three sizes of figurines: 10 cm ($264), 15 cm ($402) and 20 cm ($528). Yes, they cost a lot, but it's a small price to pay for such exquisite detail.

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If you can't spring for airfare to Japan, maybe a trip to Spain falls more within your budget. If so, head to Madrid and take the Metro to the Gran Via stop. Near there you'll find the studio for ThreeDee-You, a photo sculpture company that also offers personalized figurine services.

via iO9

Credit: Omote3d

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Hexaflexagon Has More Sides Than You Think

In this video, Vi Hart demonstrates the geometrical model called a hexaflexagon. Its discovery is credited to Arthur H. Stone, a British student studying at Princeton. Stone showed the concept to his friends, among them Richard P. Feynman and they formed the Princeton Flexagon Committee. via iO9

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6,000 Light Bulbs Make Cloud Art

Earlier this month in Alberta, Canada, at the Nuit Blanche Calgary, an exhibit called CLOUD showed how even the simplest inventions still inspire awe and wonder. The art installation, which was set up in Olympic Plaza park,was made up of 6,000 light bulbs: 1,000 working and 5,000 burnt out.

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Hanging from the cloud were thousands of chains, each of them attached to a single bulb. Visitors stood underneath the cloud and pulled at the chains. The cloud would brighten and dim as this happened, and judging by the video, it was a beautiful sight to see. The incandescent bulbs for the interactive sculpture were collected through donations from local homes and businesses. In an email to Discovery News, Caitlind r.c. Brown, the designer of the CLOUD said that, "The idea was to create an informal collaboration between the community and the artists, reduce costs and experiment with the potential of items post-use."

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Brown described the arduous process of putting up the structure, saying it required "a small team of strong men and heavy machinery." After transporting the sculpture to the park, a base was build on-site, hoisted up with a fork lift and bolted in place. The CLOUD's parts all together weight over 1,500 pounds, and because of its asymmetrical shape, the weight was not evenly balanced. While this seems like a difficult task, Brown says the take down was even harder. Probably because the exhibit lasted from 7 p.m. to 3 a.m.

Check out the video below to see the CLOUD in action.

via DVICE

Credit: Caitlind r.c. Brown 

via DVICE

Credit: Caitlin r.c. Brown

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The History of Animation: Gotta-See Video

Animation has a long and interesting history. Since the advent of modern computer animation, even Walt Disney Studios, one of the stanchions of feature-length animation, has moved to animating solely with computers. Hand-drawn, stop-motion, go-motion, claymation and many other techniques have been used throughout human history. Even cave paintings were created with a sense of motion. This video is a brief, and incredibly thorough, telling of the art of animation. via Devour

Want to recommend a video? Tweet it to @Discovery_News with the hashtag #GottaSeeVideos.

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Animated Characters Printed in 3D

Avid gamers everywhere may soon be able to print action figures of their favorite game characters. Graphic experts and computer scientists from Harvard have created software that can turn any three-dimensional animation (think, Pixar) into a "fully articulated action figure,” according to a press release from the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.

According to the release, the software returns a virtual character to the real world, which means it has to abide by real world physical constraints. When animating characters from the game “Spore,” surface points are used to determine weight relationships and skeletal positioning. In the animated world, these figures lack joints and other body features that produce real-life movement. The software addressed this problem by identifying the best places on the image for joints, and then adjusted the character’s physical attributes. (i.e. a thin arm equals a smaller joint.)

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Skin textures were also optimized for 3D printing. The software analyzed the way light reflected off of the virtual skin and mapped it to a physical form.

Moritz Bacher, author of the study and a grad student in computer science, describes the use of this kind of software for animators, saying, “Right now, perhaps they can print a static scene, just a character in one stance, but they can’t see how it really moves. If you print one of these articulated figures, you can experiment with different stances and movements in a natural way, as with an artist’s mannequin."

Harvard has filed a patent application for the software and plans to commercialize it to either license it to an existing company or creating a start-up, with a focus on customized user-generated toys and enhancing animation.

Credit: Moritz Bacher

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App Tracks Campus Police in 3D

With attacks on universities and in public places becoming an almost weekly occurrence, finding ways to get police where they need to be, quickly, is vital. The University of North Carolina, Charlotte’s police department has been testing an app that maps out the university and tracks officers. The Effective Emergency Response Communication app aids officers during emergency situations by mapping the campus and keeping tabs on each other’s location through their iPod Touches.

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The iPod Touches are connected through a wireless Internet connection and interconnected through a command center. The command center serves as a base, tracking all officers and sending out 3D directions to the whereabouts of suspects or victims. The command center is just as mobile as the app itself. Last week, during training exercises, a command center was based on a computer in a police RV located outside of a library at the university. During the testing phase, UNC Police Chief Jeff Baker said, “We want as many platforms as possible to assist seeing and sending messages without radios.”

UNC worked closely with the Department of Homeland Security’s National Visualization and Analytics Center to develop the app, who hope to use its technology for the prevention and identification of potential attacks. The federal government will have full access to the app when it becomes functional, and will be able to sell it to the other university police programs.

The system was funded by the National Institute of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security.

via The Verge

Credit: Charlotte Observer

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