Michael Naimark

Filmmaker Michael Horn: "I shot everything on my junkie DV camera, did motion-tracking and comping in After Effects, and basic sound design in Final Cut." More in an interview in StarWarsBlog.

Motion tracking, which uses computer vision techniques to track objects in the image, has virtually replaced motion control, which uses expensive mechanical and robotic cameras, for many kinds of composite shots in the past few years. The implications for independent production, new interactive techniques, and general hacking are huge.

By way of Kevin Kelly's blog, in a post called The End of Video as Evidence of Anything, a must read.

Posted by at 5:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This undated photo provided by Daniela Rus shows research technician Roy Libeau steadying a cow wearing an early prototype of the "Ear-A-Round" device at the USDA's Jornada Experimental Range in Las Cruces, N.M. The device, created by researchers at the experimental range and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, can funnel voice commands and sounds directly into a cow's ear to guide them while out on the range. The device is part of a project to remotely command cattle using satellite and computer science technology. (AP Photo/Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Iuliu Vasilescu)

"It has the potential to give farmers a much finer control of pastures, finer management of where animals are and a better use of the land," said Rus, a robotics expert. "With this technology we can also find out what the animals do all day."

Full story from today's Boston Globe, continued - - ->

Continue reading "MIT researchers to herd headset-wearing cows from afar" »

Posted by at 10:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Leonardo DiCaprio to star in 'Atari'
Tale about the godfather of video game industry

By Borys Kit and Jay A. Fernandez
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/film/news/e3i1751753614c1db77744a34deae6cb78b
June 6, 2008, 09:19 PM
Leonardo DiCaprio has more fake IDs than Fletch.

The ubiquitous actor-producer has just become attached to star in "Atari," a pitch that writers Brian Hecker and Craig Sherman sold to Paramount on Friday about the godfather of the video game industry, Nolan Bushnell. DiCaprio's Appian Way shingle is producing the biopic, which the filmmakers hope will play with elements from "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" and "Tucker."

Bushnell was an engineering student, puzzle-lover and game enthusiast (chess, Go, early computer games) who went from fixing broken pinball machines to launching Atari Corp., a video game manufacturer, in the early '70s. Its first product was a little game called Pong that transfixed kids in suburban rec rooms across the country and led to hundreds of millions of dollars worth of video game sales. Within a few years, he sold the company to Warner Communications for $28 million.

Continue reading "Art Imitates Life" »

Posted by at 10:37 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

"Viewfinder: How to Seamlessly 'Flickrize' Google Earth"
progress report and video went online today.

Posted by at 2:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

March 1 — May 11, 2008
Williamson Gallery, Art Center College of Design, Pasadena
Opening reception: Friday, March 14, 6 to 10pm (coincides with ArtNight Pasadena)

Bernie's work, the surprise hit of the 2007 Ars Electronica Festival, ranks #1 on Google searches for interactive wood machines. -M

San Francisco artist Bernie Lubell makes interactive installations that focus on the intersection of science and the arts — but which at the same time are adamantly low-tech. His incredibly complex machine environments are made of wood, use no computers or video or motors and are entirely human-powered.

The use of wood and ancient technologies to examine 21st century issues adds a disarming historical perspective to Lubell's enterprise. The pieces are witty, friendly and personal even as they tackle serious issues such as the nature of consciousness or the origins of life.

More here.

Posted by at 7:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Fish "painting" in real time via live video camera and image processing

When the IMD Class of 2007 was in its second year, the students made a group project for the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach called Fishualization. The idea was to have visitors and fish "collaborate" on making visuals. A camera caught the fish swimming while visitors interacted with menu options using DDR-style foot switches. The resulting imagery was projected next to the fish tank. Fishualization was installed during the Aquarium's Ocean Tech Day and was a hit, particularly with young visitors.

Class of 2007 grad Doo-Yul (Doox) Park, the principle designer of the Fishualization software, will be installing "Fishualization 2008" for this year's Ocean Tech Day, Saturday March 8, tomorrow. We're all pleased and proud that Doox has continued with this innovative and lively experience. Check it out!

Posted by at 11:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

registered photo overlaid on 3D model of USC campus by Perry Hoberman, summer 2006

November 5 - Viewfinder (a new project in collaboration with ICT and a research award from Google)
Instructor: Professor Michael Naimark, with the Viewfinder team and a special guest from Google

Viewfinder is an easy-to-use way for a community of users to find the pose of their photographs with respect to Google Earth as well as to neighboring photographs. These photos can be then viewed as perfectly aligned overlays in front of Google Earth and can be used to help make better, faster models in Google SketchUp. Our approach is to combine state-of-the-art computer vision algorithms with a little bit of human help. We're specifying that pose finding in Viewfinder can be done by ten year olds. Our plan is to build a first-pass version in the next four months. Some background can be found here.

This workshop is working session to specify technology, design, schedule and milestone. We welcome student participation. Limited to 6 students. Please email me to sign up.

Monday November 5, 1:00-5:00pm, ZML

Posted by at 9:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

"The Nintendo Wii is many things—a motion-sensing video-game console, a retail success story, possibly even a cultural touchstone. What it isn’t, despite its players’ controller-waving antics and media hype about gamers finally getting off the couch, is an exercise machine. Until now. The Wii Fit, a soon-to-be-released suite of games that uses a $70 weight- and balance-sensing Balance Board, does everything from analyzing posture to revealing how bad you actually are at yoga. It turns fitness into a game, instead of a chore." - Popular Mechanics

See also the Nintendo video here. Hoola hoops is awesome.

Posted by at 1:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

If you want to see interactive art-as-activism at its finest, set up a Google Alert for Vivoleum RIGHT NOW.

Posted by at 8:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Wednesday Update: The Google v MS faceoff is about two fundamentally different approaches to place representation today. Google Street Views is using “movie maps” while MS Live Search is using 3D maps.

3D will win over 2D, if only because it compresses the massive redundancy of so many images which look so much alike, but not the day after tomorrow. There's plenty of room for creative hybrids. But for now, brace yourself for a lot of hype pitting one approach against the other.

Today Google is launching a new feature on Google Maps called Street View, by far the best of the MS/A9 style "moviemaps." Several cities are mapped so far, including NY and SF. Particularly nice are the graphic overlays, the dissolves from view to view (simulating forward/backward motion) and the cinematic "pans" when going through intersections (doable since everything was filmed panoramically).

Street View is integrated into Google Maps as a stand-alone feature and is entirely 2D, made up of thousands of panoramic 2D photos. Dimensionalizing 2D into 3D to seamlessly integrate into Google Earth presents several challenges.

An noteworthy feature, which may present additional challenges, is here:

UPDATE: Today Microsoft also announced an upgrade on its Live Search Maps of "photo-realistic 3-D imagery" of several cities including NY, "Superman" perspective not street level.

BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE: Today, EveryScape Inc., a Massachusetts-based startup which has been working in stealth mode, also announced photo-based street level mapping, which includes user participation.

Part of the madness is because Where 2.0 began today. But as of noon various blogs are reporting some but not all 3 announcements. Crazy!

Posted by at 12:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)