film

Thin-film solar to see bright days ahead

Solar cells made from thin-film technologies could make up about one-third of the fast-growing solar photovoltaic market by 2015, a research firm predicted.

NanoMarkets on Monday released a report that forecast a rapid uptake of thin-film photovoltaics with spending set to grow from $1 billion this year to $7.2 billion by 2015.

The researcher listed several advantages that thin-film photovoltaics offer over traditional solar cells, which are made out of crystalline silicon wafers.

Thin-film solar cells, which can be made from a range of materials, can be put onto flexible substrates, which means that manufacturers can build electricity-producing walls, … Read more

Secrets of 'The Bourne Ultimatum' car chase scenes

A small group of automotive journalists gathered recently in Southern California to watch an unusual sight: A fully functional Volkswagen Touareg that could be controlled without anyone in the driver's seat.

The custom-made SUV was part of a special showcase hosted by Volkswagen, where a select few got a glimpse at some of the stunt driving skills used in the making of The Bourne Ultimatum, the third and newest installment of the Bourne films. The movie's stunt team developed a special cockpit attached to the top of the Touareg, complete with a seat, steering wheel, and pedals that … Read more

In L.A., an audience for machinima

It's been a hectic week, but we didn't want that to deter us from recounting this cool event: Last Friday night Crave joined a standing-room-only crowd of geeks, artists, and filmmakers at Los Angeles' Machine Project art space for an overview and screening of machinima films. A compound of machine and cinema, machinima describes the art of making films out of video games. Bypassing both labor-intensive hand-drawn animation and computer-intensive digital animation, machinima artists instead use game engines as cheap animation tools, combining video sequences created within the game with original dialogue and soundtracks. The result is far … Read more

Gizmo technology report-- edible inkjetting

I'm on a lot of press-release mailing lists, and I get some pretty unusual press releases. Here's an excerpt from one that came in last week (the full text is here):

Press Release: FUJIFILM Dimatix Unit Announces Breakthrough in Decorating Chocolate Digitally; Plans Debut at IFT 2007 Food Expo in July

Lebanon, N.H., July 18, 2007 - Building on its growing success in commercial food decoration, the Dimatix Technology Integration unit (DTI) of FUJIFILM Dimatix, Inc. today announced it has developed a breakthrough technique that employs the latest digital jetting technology in decorating dark or light nonporous … Read more

Pirates nab Michael Moore's yet-to-be released doc

From all that we've heard about Michael Moore's soon-to-be released documentary indictment of the U.S. health care system, he clearly supports universal health care.

But does he support universal Web access to his film two weeks before its official release? Probably not, or at least his studio doesn't.

Advertising Age reported Friday that Moore's new film, Sicko, has been pirated and is widely available for free download on the Web at BitTorrent and peer-to-peer sites. Advertising Age reporter Claude Brodesser-Akner wrote that he easily downloaded a copy and watched it late Thursday night.

The breach … Read more

Promise of more efficient solar panels

There are two major problems with the current silicon panel technology used to generate electricity. For one, silicon is inefficient in converting solar energy. The thinner the silicon panel, the less efficient it becomes. Secondly, silicon panels make up about 45 percent of the total cost of current solar power installations. So thinner panels requiring less silicon would cut down on installation costs.

Now researchers in Australia say they've found a way to make silicon films, 1 to 2 microns thick, into more efficient energy converters. The trick is to impregnate the silicon film surface with small amounts of … Read more

Tribeca Film Festival slowly warms up to new media

Can you make a server sexy?

Short answer: No.

But you can still throw it a glitzy launch party.

Over the past week or so, I've been poking my head into various events at the Tribeca Film Festival in lower Manhattan, which runs through tomorrow. I've always thought of film festivals as sort of low-tech affairs, and in a lot of ways, it's true--at a screening of Edward Burns' new flick, Purple Violets, the producers apologized for the first reel being "too light," and at the premiere of Spider-Man 3 co-star James Franco's latest … Read more

AOL to offer free downloads of new film

Don't want to pay $10 to see the new John Travolta, Salma Hayek film Lonely Hearts? Just go to AOL's video portal beginning Friday and download a copy for free. The movie opened in theaters two weeks ago in New York and Los Angeles, and is distributed by Roadside Attractions and Samuel Goldwyn Films. A "limited supply" of downloads of the full-length feature will be available at AOL Video and a high-definition version will be for sale on ClickStar, a broadband entertainment venture founded by Revelations Entertainment, the production company co-headed by Morgan Freeman.

ClickStar and … Read more

Glasses that display their own subtitles

We've seen a fair number of gadgets designed to assist the hard of hearing, but they usually involve emergencies of one kind or another. (First things first, we suppose.) Few have been dedicated to everyday life, much less any form of entertainment.

That's why an invention by scientists at the University Carlos III of Mardrid caught our attention. It's a technology that projects subtitles onto eyeglass lenses in real time for deaf moviegoers. And as Pocket-lint points out, it could also find a broader market because they could be used by hearing people who want to view … Read more