- Samia (our mouselike housemate) has just had her weekly treat of some cheese. Either she's just had babies, or she's got loads smaller! Eek! #
- "I may be a sorry case, but I don't write jokes in base 13…" – Douglas Adams #
- I've favourited a YouTube video — Nature by Numbers http://youtu.be/kkGeOWYOFoA?a #
- I really want to experiment with making some short films. Maybe I can borrow a 500D or a 7D with a couple of prime lenses for a day…hmmmm! #
- I've just discovered that I can tone down the anti-aliasing in Mac OS X! OMFG, the text is now just soo much clearer! Weird system commands! #
- The next statement is true. The previous statement is false. :D #
- "A googolplex is precisely as far from infinity as is the number one…" – Carl Sagan, Cosmos #
- A 150ms ping for a MMOFPS is hopeless! http://yfrog.com/jndjnhj #
- I've favourited a YouTube video — The T-Mobile Dance http://youtu.be/VQ3d3KigPQM?a #
- I've favourited a YouTube video — T-Mobile Josh's Band http://youtu.be/jzRF10wwdvo?a #
- I've favourited a YouTube video — Cadbury Eyebrows (official version) http://youtu.be/TVblWq3tDwY?a #
- I've favourited a YouTube video — Cadbury's Gorilla Advert Aug 31st 2007 http://youtu.be/TnzFRV1LwIo?a #
- I've favourited a YouTube video — ebay stop motion viral http://youtu.be/nP0cSnJDYWE?a #
- I've favourited a YouTube video — Evolution of Dance http://youtu.be/dMH0bHeiRNg?a #
- I've favourited a YouTube video — Pot Noodle Moussaka Rap http://youtu.be/wzB3ZlYinUQ?a #
- Appologies for all the tweets regarding my favourited YouTube videos! I forgot that it tweets every time! Sorry! :P #
- Useless fact of the day: The total number of registered Facebook users to date is the same as the total number of Internet users in 1999! :D #
- I've favourited a YouTube video — Dramatic Chipmunk http://youtu.be/a1Y73sPHKxw?a #
- My YouTube page has a copyright black mark because I uploaded a video of my sister dancing to Van Morrison! I didn't claim to write it! Grr! #
- The Mutley roadworks are causing utter chaos for the pubs. I haven't seen anyone working there for days! Someone should sue the council! Gr! #
- Mark Webber…
…what a cock! #
- Button, Webber and Eddie Jordan…you suck ass! Poor Vettel, Hammy and Schumi! Exciting race though. Hope Vettel gets better reliability! :D #
- @RealBillBailey – Watching you on QI and you are looking deceptively real for a pencil drawing! :P in reply to RealBillBailey #
Archive for March, 2010
Tweekly Updates for 2010-03-28
Sunday, March 28th, 2010My Twitterverse
Tuesday, March 23rd, 2010I am now deep into my IDAT312 project development, and I now have a 3D environment in which to work in. There is still a lot to do, but the basic space is working.
Current Twitter trends are imported into Flash using the Twitter API, and then an RSS parser does the job of matching up the more popular ones with descriptions from a different site. You can then click on a topic to navigate to it and eventually, read tweets concerning that topic.
More development to come…
Tweekly Updates for 2010-03-21
Sunday, March 21st, 2010- If Ferrari continue to be that good and Red Bull have reliability problems I'm going to be out of pocket, but if Lewis carries on I may win! #
- I find it laughable that so many monitors carry a 'Windows 7 Compatible' sticker on the front. IT'S A MONITOR!!! Why should I need drivers?! #
- I got 62% for the multiplayer Tetris game I made…THAT DIDN'T WORK…purely because it looked so damn good! (and noticed network issues) :/ #
- I uploaded a YouTube video — Rotating Cube http://youtu.be/ffHeLKWNshQ?a #
- I have a different static IP depending on what wireless network I am connected to. My iPhone and OS X know this. Does Windows 7? Yeah right! #
Creating my Glasses and Creating Success
Thursday, March 18th, 2010Finally, my bits and pieces from China have arrived! Recently, I have been doing all of my shopping on eBay, buying things from China. If you can stand the wait, then it pays off because it’s so much cheaper!
My next task is to try and assemble my bag o’ parts into a standalone pair of specs. Because I don’t have the knowledge and experience to create a face-tracking application, I have to use 4 IR LEDs on a pair of glasses whilst being ‘watched’ by a Wiimote. I have:
- 4x 3mm 940nM IR LEDs
- 1x 3mm red LED (as a power indicator)
- 1x SPDT PCB-mounted switch
- 1x 23AE battery and battery holder
- 1 pair of stylish black and orange glasses with non-indexed lenses
The positioning of the 4 IR LEDs is very important as they must be equidistant and must all lie along a single plane in order to allow me to triangulate the distance accurately.
As you can see from the photo, I have already attached the battery and battery holder to the glasses using cable ties. The next job is to mark out the positioning of the IR LEDs and the switch and solder the whole shabang together with a resistor in the mix to keep things dissipated correctly. Thanks to http://led.linear1.org/led.wiz, I am able to work out that I need a single 220Ω resistor.
In other news, I have now mixed my Wiimote patch and my 3D cube patch to create a cube that revolves with motion input from the Wiimote (apologies for the poor quality!):
So I am now well on my way to creating a usable, workable system…
Beaten To It…My 3DTV Experience
Wednesday, March 17th, 2010Well well well, I appear to have been beaten to it! I always said that 3DTV will never catch on because of:
- The stupid glasses that you have to wear whether you want to watch sport, films or even the adverts
- The lack of parallax in current systems for more than one viewer at a time
- The fact that the edge of the screen is still the edge
I recently visited the NEC in Birmingham for ‘Focus On Imaging’, an annual photographic showcase of the latest innovations in photography and digital imaging. As I walked past the Panasonic stand, I was offered to view their newest 3DTV, the appropriately-named TC-P50VT20.
I had to wear these stupid glasses that were both heavy and uncomfortable (and battery-powered!) to watch two 3-minute 3D films.
The image that the system gave was quite impressive, but if I moved ever so slightly to try and trigger parallax, the effect was ruined. After the films had shown and everyone had left, I took my chance to talk to the girl from Panasonic about the system. The method used was quite crude and I don’t think it will catch on. The screen would show alternating images for the right and then the left eye at 120Hz and each time, send out an infrared signal to the glasses, which would use LCD technology to cover the appropriate eye. This is just a LED/LCD version of one of the oldest 3D techniques.
I quizzed the girl on the lack of 3DTV standards and the response I got was: “We’re hoping to set the standard…” – WRONG! That’s not how standards are set! Go back 2 years and we can see 2 companies trying to ‘set the standard’ in the form of Blu-Ray and HD-DVD. Roll back 30 years and we see a similar story with Betamax and VHS. Now imagine the same scenario with more than 5 or 6 media giants trying to set the standard. Nothing good will happen and it will inevitably be the system with the most money to back it up winning, rather than the best or the most efficient.
One company that has solved 2 out of my 3 gripes (which is twice as much as any other company!) is Holografika, who have created a 3DTV that features parallax AND you don’t have to wear a pair of glasses to watch it. The price for this privilege? £26,265! The other downside? you have to have 4 video sources, typically 4x DVI-I or DVI-D signals.
The hardest problem to solve is the border problem. It really annoys me when 3DTVs are shown with things ‘coming out’ of them:
Until someone solves all 3 of these things, the 3DTV will never reach its full potential. We will all end up looking like complete idiots, sitting in our under-furnished white-walled homes wearing heavy, bulky glasses that cause headaches watching giraffes on a TV that ISN’T 3D…
I close my case…