Lovely stereoscopic images by T. Enami are "animated" for viewing without glasses.
Cheap trick but effective.
See them here.

Monkeys are freaked out by almost-but-not-quite-real depictions of themselves. That tendency is well documented in humans, but has never before been seen in another species.

To test their preference, researchers showed macaque monkeys real pictures, digital caricatures and realistic reconstructions of other monkey faces. To the latter, the macaques repeatedly averted their eyes.

“The visual behavior of the monkeys falls into the uncanny valley just the same as human visual behavior,” wrote Princeton University evolutionary biologists Shawn Steckinfinger and Asif Ghazanfar in a paper published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Complete story here, from Wired Science 10/13/09.

Full story here

from gawker.com.

That was then. Some unevenly cool examples have happened since, like the Google Gmail video released in August 2007, ostensibly made from 1,110 submissions, and most recently the Eternal Moonwalk tribute to Michael Jackson.

Here's the coolest, released this month:

and the story behind it, which came out yesterday. Kevin Kelly writes "More proof that the hive can make art, when directed."

from the real NY Times:

In an elaborate hoax, pranksters distributed hundreds or possibly thousands of free copies of a spoof edition of The New York Times on Wednesday morning at busy subway stations around the city, including Grand Central Terminal, Washington and Union Squares, the 14th and 23rd Street stations along Eighth Avenue, and Pacific Street in Brooklyn, among others.

It's actually 1.2 million copies, this being yet another brilliant and elaborate hoax by the Yes Men.

Deadline for submission is 31 October 2008 and notification of recipients will be 30 November 2008.

The commissions must be completed by June 2009, for inclusion in “80+1: A Journey Around the World,” an 80(+1) day event in the Linz Main Square and the Ars Electronica Centre, 18 June - 6 September 2009, for Linz09, European Capital of Culture.

Full details can be found here.

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.

"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 - - ->

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.

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

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.

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!

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

"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.