3d

To: Disney executives From: Michelle Meyers, an aggravated mom Re: Your Hannah Montana shenanigans

Cut it out.

Are you intentionally trying to drive us parents crazy with what seems like the latest ploy to squeeze profit out of your youngest and most passionate consumers?

I'm referring to the Hannah Montana 3D concert movie, which you promoted last week as an exclusive seven-day theater release. The film subsequently broke online sales records, sold out in many venues, and sent parents into a frenzy amid concerns they might not get tickets for their excited young tweens. Some had to settle for … Read more

For the NVArt digital art challenge, co-sponsors Nvidia and the Society of Digital Artists asked artists to submit computer-generated images that could only exist in the imaginary realm (think liquid sculptures and slinking wicker cats). Organizers said they wanted artistically and technically outstanding images, but no fantasy creatures and game characters, as "these are too common in both digital and traditional fantasy art."

Indeed, contestants from around the world mined the deepest recesses of their imaginations to create highly unexpected and often stunning works that celebrate the boundless potential of digital artistry. For a look at the top … Read more

Ever wish you could recreate the effect of those neat multilens 3D cameras without having to buy the hardware? Lucky for you there's some cool 3D technology coming out of Stanford called Make3D. The service uses machine learning to go over your photograph and recreate depth and perspective in three dimensions.

Once photographs have gone through processing, you get a flyover that does a quick back and forth over the rendered scenery. You also get a 3D environment that you can walk though using the keyboard's arrow keys. Users can download both of these files to their desktops for later viewing.

I uploaded about half a dozen photographs earlier today and only got one to go through the seemingly stringent processing requirements. However, the results on a picture of a beach were fast and impressive. The technology is not quite perfect, but there's already a huge gallery of user-uploaded images that have been run through the process and come out the other side with an extra dimension that makes them wonderful to explore. You can view pictures on the gallery without having to sign-up. Just keep in mind, you've got to have Adobe's Shockwave player installed on your browser to get the 3D goodness.

A similar service from Freewebs called fotowoosh has been around since last April. Although, it doesn't have a clear front end for consumers to publish their own photos. Also worth mentioning is Microsoft Live Labs' Photosynth project, which creates a 3D environment using a matrix of photos.

Make3D is a project lead by Ashutosh Saxena, who is joined by Min Sun, and Sung Chung along with Stanford faculty member Professor Andrew Ng.

Here's a video of the tech in action. There are two more after the break.

… Read more

It's not just screaming little tweens who are buzzing about Disney's Hannah Montana 3D concert film, which open in theaters Friday for a one-week run.

Having already sold out during popular show times in certain markets, Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: The Best of Both Worlds Concert, is no doubt making online ticket sellers happy, too.

For example, Fandango.com, the largest online movie ticket seller, is likely to mark January as one the most--if not the most--trafficked month in its eight-year history. "Most of the traffic is due to Hannah Montana," said Fandango spokesman Harry … Read more

Having now seen U2 3D, I can confidently say the era of three-dimensional movie-making is upon us. The movie shows what 3D can be if done right, and more important, it shows it works with real humans, not just computer-generated subjects.

I saw Beowulf in 3D three times to compare the three major 3D display technologies, Imax, Dolby 3D, and Real D. That movie was a great proof-of-concept for the projection technology, but Beowulf itself was hardly a cinema classic.

In addition, with computer graphics, a filmmaker can exert complete control over the virtual cameras. But Beowulf whetted my appetite, … Read more

After months of hearing about it, I finally went to see the new film, U2 3D today, full of anticipation that for the first time in my life, I would be able to actually see the 3D effects in a film.

A little background: I have strabismus, better known to some as "lazy eye," a condition that, among other things, means that I don't have normal, binocular vision, like most people.

In daily life, this condition means very little. I can drive, hit a baseball, probably even fly a plane. I do see a little bit differently … Read more

PARK CITY, Utah--After the Saturday night premiere of U2 3D here at the Sundance Film Festival, the film's director called upon the excited indie filmmaking audience to follow her lead in embracing new 3D technology.

"3D is now open," Catherine Owens said, adding that if she--a sculptor and multimedia installation artist without a traditional film background--could make a film in 3D, so can they.

Business Week media columnist Jon Fine borrowed Owens' "3D is now open" line to set the tone for a panel discussion he moderated the following day, "In 3D: The Future … Read more

PARK CITY, Utah--Last night I saw U2 live in concert here at the local high school performing arts center...at least it felt that way.

Bono and I even had a moment--during "Sunday Bloody Sunday" he reached out his hand and almost touched me. He had to be singing to me, and not Robert Redford, Google's founders, or the rest of the Hollywood glitterati in my company. Right?

It wasn't actually a concert. Rather, I was attending a screening for the concert film U2 3D at the Sundance Film Festival. But same diff. It really felt … Read more

As if reality were too mundane for you, many of the vendors at this year's CES would like to sell you a chair that vibrates in synch with your home theater system, a ultra-thin Hi-Def TVs that defies reality in terms of fidelity, clarity and color and now, televisions that attempt to be 3-D. Not satisfied? How about high-definition cameras? While I can't show you a picture of what 3-D TV image looks like, it's nowhere as cool as you may think.