3d

Dolby literally to give you more 3D

The first time I bought into this this whole digital 3D thing was a 2006 showing of "Superman Returns" on an IMAX screen. In the scene, various objects floated around the screen and seemingly, right in front of my face. For me, this was the first time 3D had lived up to its promise.

If Dolby Laboratories has anything to say about it, it won't be the last. On Tuesday, the company announced that theater exhibitors will now be able to play Dolby 3D Digital Cinema content on screen sizes of up to 70 feet (42 feet … Read more

Olympus goes to space for 90th anniversary

Olympus was founded in 1919, which makes this year its 90th birthday. To celebrate this special occasion, the Japanese company is sending its cameras beyond the stratosphere into outer space.

Astronaut Koichi Wakata will take with him to the International Space Station the Olympus E-3 dSLR, with its 11-22mm F2.8-3.5 lens, ED 50-200mm F2.8-3.5 SWD telephoto optics, and peripherals such as a battery grip. Wakata will snap pictures of Earth from Kibo, a Japanese experimental module built within the ISS. As a new facility is being built near it, the view of Earth will soon be … Read more

Virtual-reality software to aid car customization

Many new car buyers face a similar dilemma: You want to customize a new car, but don't know if you'll like the maroon leather interior that looks great in the catalog but always seems too pimplike in person. Not wanting to make an expensive mistake, you go with the safe silver-and-black combo, just like everyone else.

Cater, a technology group funded by the European Commission, is working on software that could help shoppers customize with confidence.

Using virtual-reality technology, Cater is building a car customization application that helps customers picture more realistically, and spatially experience, what their configured … Read more

Tilt and roll to the goal

Manic Marble Free is a free preview of the first two levels in Manic Marble, a tilting rolling, 3D arcade game in which you guide a fast-moving marble through a narrow, winding path full of ramps and obstacles. The intuitive, motion-based interface will be familiar to fans of similar games, as you tilt your iPhone or iPod Touch forward or back to accelerate or brake, and then left and right to steer (which also shifts your camera angle correspondingly). You can pause games in progress and recalibrate the accelerometer settings, and beating the "par" time on a level … Read more

3D-based Captchas become reality

I wrote a blog about a new way of creating Captchas by using 3D images that Taylor Hayward, a blogger, came up with and thought it would be really cool when implemented. Now, 3D Captchas seem to have become a reality--however, not from Hayward.

Incidentally, the folks at YUNiTi.com, a social Web site, have been working on the same idea for a few weeks and have implemented the method on their Web site.

The site announced Wednesday that it has created a 3D Captcha method that is unbreakable by current computer technology, yet much easier for humans to identify. … Read more

Mozilla, graphics group seek to build 3D Web

Wish you could play Crysis in your Web browser? Two influential organizations are banding together to try to bring accelerated 3D graphics to the Web, a move that eventually could improve online games and other Web applications.

The Web is gradually becoming a better foundation for applications with splashy, sophisticated interfaces, but 3D graphics on the Web remain primitive. Now, though, Mozilla, the group behind the Firefox browser, and Khronos, the consortium that oversees the widely used OpenGL graphics interface technology, are trying to jointly create a standard for accelerated 3D graphics on the Web.

In response to a Mozilla … Read more

3D images: A human way to create Captchas

If you have registered a new e-mail account or tried to retrieve your, say, Gmail password, you'd be familiar with the use of Captchas, the challenge-response method to verify that the input is not generated by a computer. … Read more

Cowon D2+ review

If you still prefer your MP3 players with buttons and screens, I've got a full review posted on the latest touch-screen player from Cowon, the D2+.

The D2+ is currently available online, priced at $139 (8GB) and $179 (16GB), which can be had in either black or silver. My first-take from last Friday pretty well summed up my major criticisms (no support for AAC audio or H.264 video), but if you want some more nitty-gritty analysis, my full review of the Cowon D2+ is available over at CNET Reviews.

Buzz Out Loud 927: Get out of my floveal

Firefox is trying a new blank tab feature that gives you some links but leaves the focused middle area blank to go easy on the floveal area of your eye. We also are very excited about mind control peripherals for your computer. And Natali says pinche again. Which is always good.

Listen now: Download today's podcast EPISODE 927

YouTube to block UK music videos http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7933565.stm

Firefox, too, revamping new-tab behavior http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10191921-2.html

Amazon testing HD VOD on TiVo? http://i.gizmodo.com/5166326/amazon-hd-video-on-demand-now-beta-testing-on-select-tivo-devices

Venezuelan cell … Read more