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Microsoft upgrades Paint 3D's drawing and magic select tools
Microsoft's Paint 3D was introduced as part of the Windows 10 Creators update last October. The company wants to make 3D modeling as easy and accessible as using a 2D drawing program. The free Windows 10 app gives you the power to create, share and print anything you can think of in three dimensions. Now, the Microsoft team has two new updates for Paint 3D, available now, that should improve the experience of 3d modeling.
MIT solves a major problem holding up glasses-free 3D TVs
A year ago, MIT scientists unveiled a new technology that delivered a 3D movie experience in theaters without the need for cumbersome glasses. Now they're working to bring that technology to your living room so that one day you can watch 3D films in your home theater without eyewear.
Samsung's extra-stretchable display can survive dents
Flexible displays are nothing new. However, most of them don't live up to the dreams of flexible tech -- they may only bend in a limited way. Samsung thinks it can do better. It just unveiled a 9.1-inch prototype OLED display that's stretchable in seemingly every way imaginable: you can bend, roll and even dent it (up to half an inch deep) knowing that it'll revert to its original form. The technology is still very young, but Samsung believes the stretchy screen will be useful for everything from wearables to in-car displays. Imagine a very thin smartwatch that can take some knocks without smashing into pieces.
3D stereoview 'VR' hellscapes from the 1860s
Not long after photography was born, someone figured out that showing each eye slightly shifted views of the same image makes you think you're seeing a three-dimensional scene. That idea gave birth to stereoscopic imagery, 3D movies and, eventually, VR. (Victorian stereoscopes even look like steampunk versions of modern VR headsets).
The Kolibree smart toothbrush uses AI to help you clean your mouth
Be honest, you probably don't brush your teeth quite as often or as thoroughly as your dentist recommends. But that's OK: With the Kolibree Ara AI-enabled smart toothbrush, you can keep up with your daily dental routine and know exactly where you've missed.
Sony Pictures will stream live VR with Nokia's Ozo camera
Nokia made some great smartphone cameras back in the day, but we certainly didn't expect that to lead to the Ozo, a $45,000, 360-degree 3D virtual reality camera. Now, the Finnish company will provide expertise and Ozo cameras to Sony Pictures, which will use them to create VR content. The studio will also take advantage of the Ozo Live VR broadcast capability "to transport fans to Sony Pictures events that they couldn't otherwise attend," the company wrote.
ICYMI: The NYPL's book train and better-bouncing 'bots
Today on In Case You Missed It: The New York Public Library will unveil a brand new "book train" at its Bryant Park branch that will ferry research materials up 11 floors from a subterranean storage vault to a newly refurbished reading room. Also, MIT's CSAIL lab has developed a 3d-printed, "tuneable" shock absorber that can protect anything from autonomous drones to cellular phones from violent impacts. Finally, we bring you the mesmerizing aerial ballet that is the world indoor skydiving championships. As always, please share any interesting tech or science videos you find by using the #ICYMI hashtag on Twitter for @mskerryd. try{document.getElementById("aol-cms-player-1").style.display="none";}catch(e){}
It takes two: A visual history of dual-camera mobile phones
With the recent launches of the iPhone 7 Plus and the LG V20, the dual-lens smartphone camera is once again a hot topic. Of course, many other companies will want to remind you that they were there first, except some have long since given up on the technology. So what happened? And why isn't this yet a standard feature on all flagship smartphones? For those intrigued, it's worth taking a trip seven years back in time.
Spherica creates nausea-free immersive video
Typically, 360-degree VR video comes in two varieties: static, wherein the camera remains motionless while the onscreen action unfolds around it, and vomit-inducing, where the camera moves but instigates severe motion sickness in the viewer. The San Francisco-based motion picture startup, Spherica, aims to create a third option: immersive VR video that can track, tilt and pan without making the audience lose their lunch.
'Jason Bourne' in 3D is making moviegoers in China nauseous
In China, where 80 percent of movie theaters built in the last 10 years have 3D projectors, movie studios often release "exclusive," three-dimensional adaptations of movies that won't actually see a 3D release stateside. While that can be lucrative for a studio's bottom line, the plan apparently backfired for Universal Picture's latest big budget action flick. Jason Bourne may be dumb about technology, but as The Hollywood Reporter explains, a 3D conversion of the film is actually leaving moviegoers feeling dizzy and nauseous, thanks to director Paul Greengrass' fast-paced, handheld camerawork.
Scientists create glasses-free 3D for the movie theater
Watching glasses-free 3D on a TV is no longer an outlandish concept, but that hasn't been true for movie theaters. How are you supposed to create the same parallax effect for everyone, whether they're up front or way in the back? Researchers at MIT CSAIL and Israel's Weizmann Institute for Science finally have a practical answer. Their Cinema 3D tech creates multiple parallax barriers in a single display, using lenses and mirrors to deliver a range of angles across the whole theater. And unlike previous attempts at large-scale glasses-free 3D, you don't have to take a hit to resolution.
Researcher proposes method for growing brain cells in 3D
A new method has been proposed that could allow scientists to develop a "3D brain-on-a-chip." Something which could offer researchers a new platform to develop a far better understanding of how brain cells react to medication in a real setting.
Valve tests Steam Controller customizations and 3D VR screenshots
When Valve announced that it had sold over half a million Steam Controllers, it also noted a new feature on the way called Activators. With Activators, gamers can customize each press of an input on the gamepad, with tweaks for haptic settings, or distinguish between a normal press, a long press or a double tap -- all on a single input. Now the feature is live for users in the Steam beta, to try out and see if there's another level of precision for controller customization.
$500 Lenovo Phab2 Pro is the first Google Tango phone
The second generation of Lenovo's Phab phones are here already, headlined by the first-ever Project Tango-equipped smartphone with sensors and cameras that can map its surroundings. The Phab2 Pro (check out our hands-on impressions right here) is special because it fulfills the promise of demos that Google's Advanced Technologies and Products (ATAP) division has been showing us for a few years. The phone's dual cameras create an "eye" that sees its surroundings in 3D with depth perception, while additional sensors monitor location and nearby objects 250,000 times per second.
Avegant's wearable cinema gets more game-friendly features
Avegant's wearable cinema is getting a software update that makes it an even more tempting purchase, especially for gamers. The new firmware adds plug-and-play 3D support, enabling you to enjoy 3D content on the PlayStation 4. In addition, the gear now works with any PC game that's compatible with NVIDIA's 3D Vision, and all units now get head tracking, which you can activate by holding the bottom left button in video mode. As Polygon explains, it's this latter feature that has the most potential, since users can control their PC's mouse pointer with their head.
Plug this dongle into your Android phone and it records 3D video
The latest Android phones continue to cram more camera tricks up their unibody sleeves, but what about your current smartphone that's barely a year old? That might be where the Eye-Plug comes in. Hidden inside a humble stand deep within Computex here in Taipei, the USB-C accessory plugs into your (currently Android-only) smartphone, adding another camera sensor to your phone for front- and rear-facing dual camera frivolity. (That's where you need that handy reversible connection.) I tested out a prototype, with full production set to begin later this year. 3D selfie videos could be a horrifying reality.
'Ready Player One' filmmakers want your 3D avatars
A bulk of Ready Player One takes place in a digital universe known as the OASIS, a utopian society filled with 3D models of people plugged into the MMO world. Steven Spielberg is directing the film adaptation of Ernest Cline's novel and he's looking to bulk out OASIS with 3D avatars from digital artists around the globe. Anyone with the right skills and determination can submit a 3D avatar via Talenthouse, and Spielberg and co. will choose at least five winners to place in the movie.
The HoloFlex is a flexible, glasses-free 3D display
Researchers at the Queen's University Human Media Lab in Ontario have developed what they claim is the "world's first holographic flexible smartphone" display. Dubbed the HoloFlex, the display uses an array of tiny lenses overlaid onto one flexible 1,920 x 1,080 HD OLED screen and allows multiple people to simultaneously view 3D images without the need for clunky glasses, complex projectors or individual head tracking.
ICYMI: Brightest X-ray laser, 3D printing cartilage and more
#fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-741239{display:none;} .cke_show_borders #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-741239, #postcontentcontainer #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-741239{width:570px;display:block;} try{document.getElementById("fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-741239").style.display="none";}catch(e){}Today on In Case You Missed It: Stanford's National Accelerator Laboratory is upgrading a laser beam to make it the brightest X-ray laser in the world, enabling all sorts of as-yet unseen science. Popular Chinese phone maker Xiaomi makes a ceramic-backed phone that appears to be near indestructible. And medical researchers are using patient-derived, stem-cell cartilage to repair joints by 3D-drawing them when doing surgery, rather than harvest existing cartilage from elsewhere on the body. We'd also like to share this video of the cutest little BB-8 cosplay artist. As always, please share any great tech or science videos you find by using the #ICYMI hashtag on Twitter for @mskerryd.
3D-printed (nearly) nude selfies are a thing
One thing that you sometimes see advertised is an erotic photoshoot for couples who want to remember their sexy days in their dotage. Now, thanks to the confluence of digital photography and 3D-printing, you can now go one better and immortalize yourself in three dimensions. British retailer Firebox is launching Nudee, a service that adds your head onto a 7.8-inch figurine that's wearing nothing but underwear. All you have to do is take two selfies: one face on and one in profile, as well as choosing a body type between slim, curvy or muscular. Then all you have to do is wait the 3-4 weeks it'll take for delivery.
