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Get Ready for 'The Hobbit'

By Michael Gowan, TechNewsDaily

Join Bilbo, Gandalf and the others in videos, books and games. Credit: Warner Bros. Entertainment

Bilbo Baggins and his fellow furry-footed hobbits return to movie theaters this week with director Peter Jackson's "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey," the first in a trilogy. But you don't need to wait until then to dive deep into Middle-earth and the fantasy world that author J.R.R. Tolkien created.

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With apps, games, ebooks and more, you can reacquaint yourself with Bilbo, Gandalf and Gollum in time for the movie's Dec. 14 release and continue the journey afterwards.

How to Get the Story

The story of the hobbit began as a children's book, "The Hobbit: There and Back Again," published in 1937. The movies are expected to stay true to the original story, so you can prepare yourself by reading an ebook version. You'll find it in a variety of formats to match your ereader of choice, including Amazon's Kindle. If you use iBooks for iOS devices, look for it in PDF or ePub formats. Or check out the enhanced version for Kindle, which adds illustrations and audio from Tolkien.

Understanding Tolkien's detailed fantasy world can require some effort. The free official iOS app for the movie includes background on the many characters in "The Hobbit" as well as a map of Middle-earth, the fictional world where Tolkien set the story.

If you prefer to listen to the tale, you can find multiple audiobook versions on the iTunes Store, Amazon and other audiobook sources. You can also listen for free on YouTube.

Options to Play Along

Indulge your inner hobbit and become a part of the action with games tied to the movie's release.

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For mobile gamers, Kabam's free, massively multiplayer strategy-action game "The Hobbit: Kingdoms of Middle-Earth," for iOS and Android, lets you destroy goblins as you build up a city.

If you want to dive deeper into the action, try Monolith Games recently released "Guardians of Middle-Earth," a multiple online battle arena (MOBA)-style game for PlayStation 3 and XBOX 360. In a MOBA-style game, you compete as a single character against online opponents in real time. You can wage epic battles playing as Gandalf, Sauron or other characters from Tolkien's books.

What Else to Watch

"The Hobbit" is the prelude to Tolkien's epic "Lord of the Rings" trilogy. You can stream Peter Jackson's movie adaptations of those tales from Amazon for $2 a movie or from iTunes for $4 each. If you're feeling nostalgic, you can buy a DVD (no Blu-ray) of Rankin/Bass's animated version of "The Hobbit" from 1977, but you won't find a digital version to stream.

In the new movie, Bilbo Baggins is played by Martin Freeman, who also stars as Dr. Watson in the new BBC series "Sherlock." You can check out Freeman's work by streaming the re-imagined Sherlock Holmes story on Amazon and Netflix, among other places.

DNEWS NUGGET: The Hobbit: 2 Versions, 2 Releases

You'll find plenty of behind-the-scenes videos on YouTube from Peter Jackson. He published videos throughout the process of filming and editing the movies.

Preparing You Eyes for High Frame Rate 3D

Director Peter Jackson shot "The Hobbit" in 3D at 48 frames per second, twice the frame rate of typical movies. High frame rate (HFR) films aim to better imitate the smooth motion we see in real life. But some people complain that it looks too real, like a TV newscast. "The Hobbit" will also appear in standard-frame-rate 2D and 3D, as well as IMAX and IMAX 3D.

Any way you prepare yourself, get ready for a spectacle of the big screen. Hobbits may be small, but these movies won't be.

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The Hobbit: 2 Versions, 2 Releases: DNews Nugget

"The Hobbit" to Screen in 48 Cinemas: The highly anticipated film, "The Hobbit," has two versions and while both will be released this Christmas, the special version will only be shown in 450 theaters -- as opposed to the 4,000 for a normal release of this magnitude, reports The Verge.

It is all rather technical, but in essence there will be two versions of "The Hobbit" in theaters this Christmas, one that looks like a normal movie, and one that looks more real than real. But what does that mean?

Well, Peter Jackson's prequel/follow-up to the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy was filmed in 4K and at 48 frames per second. The term "4K" alludes to the number of horizontal lines of picture on the screen; 4K has 4096 lines where HD has only 1920. When you take width into account this means 4K has SIX TIMES more picture than HD -- simply put it's SUPER clear (it's even bigger than IMAX). Add to this that most films are shot at 24 frames of picture per second (or fps), "The Hobbit" is filmed at 48 fps -- twice as many.

Why would you film it this way? Clarity. More frames mean less blur when things move.

This might not interest you at all, but to get to the brass tacks: both of these versions will be the same film, but one will be super clear. Do you care? Which would you like to see? Let us know in the comments below. via The Verge

Find a theater showing the 48 fps version.

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Star Wars Icons Made into Origami: DNews Nugget

Star Wars Icons Folded into Origami: Software engineer Martin Hunt, who lives in London, has found a way to fold Star Wars ships, droids and other characters into origami. He started when he was studying math at Southampton University. He has created 20 designs already, which you can see on his website, Starwarigami, and has planned a list of 83 more designs which will be coming from a galaxy far far away.

In October, Hunt showed some of his paper versions at the London MCM Expo and Comic Con, and currently he's seeking a publisher for a book. via Wired

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Credit: Martin Hunt

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James Bond Tech Still Beyond Our Reach

Fifty years ago this month, Dr. No premiered in theaters, the first installment of the James Bond series that would stretch 22 films to date with another installment, Skyfall, due to premiere this year.

The James Bond movies gave sixties audiences not only the vicarious thrill of following 007 through dangerous missions in exotic locales, but also a glimpse of the future through some of the technology used by Bond and the villains he pursued.

Despite the decades between the imagined Bond universe and the real world today, Bond and the supervillains he confronted still have the edge in terms of technology now available today.

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Homing Devices

In order for MI6 headquarters to keep tabs on 007's location, he has on several occasions had to carry some kind of homing device with tracking capability on his person.

In Thunderball, Bond brought with him a homing pill that activated when it was swallowed and emitted a frequency that could only be tracked with specialized equipment. Most recently in Casino Royale, Bond was implanted with a homing chip that not only tracked his whereabouts but also monitored his vitals.

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Although GPS tracking is virtually ubiquitous in cell phones today, a device the size of a small chip or a pill with GPS-tracking capabilities just doesn't exist yet. There is existing technology for implantable radio-frequency identification (RFID) chips, like the microchips implemented in animals. Those, however, are only passive RFID and require a specialized scanner in close proximity.

Space Base

The climatic scenes in Moonraker take place on the space station of supervillian industrialist Hugo Drax. The space station is large enough for Bond, Drax, Bond's squeeze Dr. Holly Goodhead, Jaws and an untold number of henchman, all floating in simulated gravity in suborbital spaceflight. It has to be big, after all, given Drax's play to essentially use the station as an arc while he poisons all of humanity. Despite its size, Drax even has a radar jammer capable of hiding his massive suborbital hideout.

Although the International Space Station might be the closest comparison to the space base from Moonraker, the 21st-century station is nowhere near Drax's base in terms of scale or capability.

If you're going to take on a villain in space, conventional weapons just won't do. That's why in Moonraker, Bond was armed with a handheld laser gun.

Laser weapons already exist in various forms. As Craig Freudenrich writing for HowStuffWorks.com explains, high-energy lasers and other weapons, such as the Airborne Laser and the PHaSR, have been tested for possible military applications. However, a handheld, laser-burst gun isn't yet available today.

Cigarette-sized rocket

Given how often Bond can get himself into a jam, he often needs a lot of firepower in a small package when he's backed into a corner.

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Laser handguns

In You Only Live Twice, Bond wielded a rocket concealed into a tiny cigarette. Despite its size, the rocket was accurate within 30 yards and proved to be a lethal projectile.

In reality, no rocket has yet been developed that has that much firepower in such a small package. Even in a more conventional design like the shape of a gun, as demonstrated here by what might be the world's smallest gun, a firing mechanism that size can't really generate the force necessary to create the kind of stopping power wielded by 007.

Satellite-based weaponry

As difficult as a small-scale weapon might be to duplicate, no one has come close to the space weaponry developed by Bond villians.

Diamonds Are Forever marked the first time such a device was employed in which the laser used diamonds to concentrate light into an accurate and widely destructive weapon. In Goldeneye, an orbital satellite produced shock waves that created an electromagnetic pulse in a target area to destroy any electronic devices on the ground.

Count this as one Bond device we're happy to see on screen, but not in real life.

Photo credit: Corbis Images

Anti-Islam Video Will Remain On YouTube

Yesterday a judge in California ruled against actress Cindy Lee Garcia's plea that YouTube take down footage from "Innocence of Muslims," the preposterously amateurish, nearly unwatchable hack-job of a film responsible for sparking a firestorm of violence and anti-U.S. protests in the Middle East.

Garcia, who starred in the film, requested that a Los Angeles County judge remove the film because she's received death threats, been fired from her job and been barred from seeing her grandchildren. Garcia said that she was hoodwinked into starring in the "hateful anti-Islamic production" and was originally under the impression she was starring in an adventure film about ancient Egyptians.

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Superior Court Judge Luis Lanvin ruled in favor of Google, owners of YouTube, who argued that movies are fictional, thus not entitling personal privacy to role-playing actors.

"[Were] Arnold Schwarzenegger's statements as a cyborg [in the movie 'Terminator'] factual statements about Arnold Schwarzenegger? Well, that's not correct," lawyer Timothy Alger told the court, according to NY Daily News.

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"Our laws encourage free speech, especially with matters of public concern. We don't allow people with private interests to trump that," he said. "No matter how we view the content, whether it's reprehensible or mocking, the fact is, it's a subject of wide debate on a topic of interest for people around the world."

According to the Los Angeles Times, Garcia's lawyer, Chris Armenta, argued that this case is "not a First Amendment issue. This is an invasion of privacy issue." Armenta has vowed to push forward until the video is removed.

The film's schlocky 14-minute YouTube trailer -- full of fake beards, atrocious acting not worthy of civic theater and special effects on par with those of a high school AV class -- sparked a wave of violent protest across Libya, Egypt, Tunisia and later spread to two dozen countries around the world.

The U.S. backlash that erupted possibly led to to the killing of U.S. ambassador J. Christopher Stevens along with approximately two dozen others in the last week. The death toll continues to rise. Today the New York Times reported that Pakistan's leading television station reported as many as 19 people were killed in cities across the country on Friday in a day of state-sanctioned protests.

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The White House asked YouTube and Google to review the film's footage to make sure it fell within the company's terms of service.

Google responded, saying the video "is clearly within our guidelines and so will stay on YouTube." However, the video has been blocked in Egypt, Libya, Indonesia, Malaysia and Saudi Arabia.

via Wired

Credit: YouTube screen grab

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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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Coming Soon: Glasses-Free 3-D Movie Theaters

In South Korea, a team of investigators thinks they have a way to show 3-D movies without glasses in commercial theaters.

3-D televisions are available now, and consumer electronics companies have been showing off some glasses-free technologies (as on the Nintendo 3DS). But generally, theaters use a two-projector polarized light system.

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Each projector displays an image, but the images are offset slightly. The projectors, meanwhile, are sending out light that is polarized. That means that at certain angles half the light is absorbed.

It's possible to see this effect with sunglasses; two polarized lenses. Put one in front of the other and start rotating it, and it's not possible to see through them when one is perpendicular to the other. In movie theaters, the 3-D glasses are polarized so that each eye only picks up one image at a time, giving the illusion of depth. Two projectors, though, can be cumbersome and expensive.

There are single projection methods, but those require even more moving parts, involving physical barriers akin to venetian blinds between the screen and the viewer. Called the parallax barrier method, the barriers limit which image the eye sees, creating a 3-D illusion.

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To fix this, the South Korean team, led by Byoungho Lee, professor at the School of Electrical Engineering at Seoul National University, used polarizers to stop the passage of light after it reflects off the screen rather than doing so at the projector.

The polarizer is a coating called called quarter-wave retarding film. It acts like the polarizers in two-projector systems, except instead of relying on two images, it splits up the single one coming off the screen to the eye. Basically, it moves the 3-D glasses to the screen, so the audience no longer has to wear them.

It will be a while before theaters use this, but it's been shown to work in at least two types of displays, and offers a path to cutting the costs (and the admission prices) of 3D movies.

via OpticsInfoBase, Optical Society

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Only Known Film of Mark Twain

Samuel Clemens, aka Mark Twain, was friends with Thomas Edison, who invented, among other things, filmmaking. So it shouldn't come as a surprise that Edison filmed his friend walking around in his signature white suit smoking a cigar. The clip, courtesy of the Internet Archive, was shot on Twain's Connecticut property a year before he died. Twain, an American author and humorist, died of a heart attack in 1910. via The Atlantic

Viacom and DirectTV’s Spat Hits All Viewers

 

Don’t you love it when a corporate spat between two media giants intervenes on your television-watching time? Yeah, me neither.

In case you haven’t noticed, Viacom and DirectTV have been trading blows over carriage fees, the amount of money DirectTV pays Viacom to air channels. Recently Viacom, who owns MTV, Comedy Central, Nickolodeon and 23 other channels, raised their fees by 30 percent, which amounts to $7.30 in additional fees annually per subscriber, or about $144 million a year for the 20 million or so of DirectTV’s users. DirectTV thought the fees were too much and as of Tuesday at 11:50 pm, they shut off all 26 Viacom channels, leaving only an alternate channel with a loop apology from DirectTV CEO Mike White.

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Both companies have been slinging mud at the other, posting commercials and banners at the bottom of screens touting their prospective messages. DirectTV has been referring their subscribers to the Web pages of Viacom’s channels to view their favorite shows online. In response, Viacom has taken down full, recent episodes of popular favorites including The Daily Show and Colbert Report. Viacom spokes person Carl Folta explained the decision to Gigaom, saying, “...hundreds of long-form episodes remain online, for free, but we have temporarily slimmed down our offerings as DirecTV markets them as an alternative to having our networks.”

This not only affects DirectTV customers, but also anyone else interested in viewing the removed episodes. Hulu.com will continue to show recent episodes posted online, so until then DirectTV users can get their fix there. Let’s hope this thing gets settled quickly.

via Gigaom

Credit: Viacom

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Trajectory of a Falling Batman: DNews Nuggets

Batman's Cape is Fatally Flawed: When is comes to comic books there is no end to commentary. We can pull apart, dissect, digest and conject to our hearts content, but when we enter the realm of comic book science, there's a whole new level of geekery.

According to students at the University of Leicester, Batman's flying cape (from the Christopher Nolan Batman reboot trilogy) would cause him to hit the ground at 50 mph. While he is athletic, this would likely cause fatal injuries.

According to PhysOrg, "If Batman jumped from a building 150 meters high, he could glide a distance of around 350 meters - but the problem arises as Batman's velocity increases during his descent. His velocity would initially rise to around 68 miles per hour, before reaching a steady 50 miles per hour as he gets down to ground level - a speed too fast for him to land safely." via PhysOrg

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