Tag: 3d
LG adds ARM technology to digital TV range – 3D on the way
LG’s 3D aspirations are one step closer today with the announcement that they’ve licensed multi-core processors for their digital TVs.
The Korean company now has access to both graphics and central processing units from ARM, the archeitecture of which is suited to improved multitasking, Adobe Flash acceleration, cleaner 1080p resolution and the kind of power to crunch the numbers necessary for 3DTV.
The chips will allow the sets full web interactivity including video-on-demand, e-commerce, social networking, voting and whatever other kinds of widgets you care to chuck at it plus, of course, the Flash favourites like YouTube and iPlayer straight to your big screen. And all of that without a set top box.
Normally associated with mobile phones, ARM will supply processors running at 1GHz and are looking to develop smarter technology to save even more power further down the line.
All in all, it’s a good move for LG, helping their panels take a step up in quality and begin to match the top players in the field. Look out for a similar move in exterior design some time soon.
Sony demo hand-held motion controller at E3
Sony has formally joined the battle of the motion controllers after unveiling their, as yet unnamed, hand-held motion controller at E3.
Made up of two handsets the new controller works with the existing PS3’s eye.
The “technology demo” showed the way in which a player becomes part of the in-game experience, appearing on-screen, with the controller replaced by a variety of implements, from a baseball bat, to a weird sort of light-sabre whip thing.
Richard Marks, head of development for Sony’s new motion controller said “The controller can be measured to sub-millimetre accuracy.”
And in three dimensions, so not only does it know how far your controllers are from each other, it knows how far they are from the screen, which will allow for some potentially very immersive 3D gameplay.
Kaz Hirai, Sony Computer Entertainment President, said: “With PlayStation 2, when we launched the EyeToy camera, we had already perfected the art of playing games just using your hands.”
“The motion controller we demoed today, it raises the bar in terms of accuracy in 3D. It’s all about the accuracy and tracking.”
The new controller is being muted for a Spring ’10 launch, though by then Project Natal will be everywhere. Sony have been quite sorely beaten to the punch on this one, and by Microsoft, stuffy old Microsoft – that’s got to hurt.
(Via BBC)
VIDEO: Circulafloor – intelligent floor for virtual reality use
Circulafloor is a set of four tiles that can intelligently position themselves so that you never fall off, but remain in one place. It’s an interesting idea, and not one that hasn’t come up before, though this one seems to have a long way to go before it’s ready for production.
Looks like you’ve got to walk really rather slowly for starters, and I wouldn’t trust it if I saw the thing first. You never know, though, if this ends up a little more practical, with more tiles, it could be a winner.
(via Dvice)
LG's new flagship multimedia handset – the "Arena" KM900
I’ll admit it’s been a while since I was excited about an LG handset, despite my love for the company’s TFT monitors. This phone might change all that, however – it’s the LG Arena KM900, newly announced in advance of its unveiling at MWC 2009.
The biggest feature of the phone is its use of 3D. It’s got a completely new UI which is based on cubes, providing a number of different home screens. A touchscreen allows you to navigate between them, but from the picture to the right, it looks clearly iPhone-influenced.
The Arena will also have HSDPA, Wi-Fi, and aGPS, but beyond that we don’t know anything more. We’ll be finding out full specs, and hopefully a release date, next week at MWC so stay tuned for that. If you want to be the first to hear, then you might like to follow @techdigestnews on Twitter. Just an idea.
(via Official LG Blog)
More on LG: Lucy plays backgammon on the LG KF300 | LG has ‘modular’ VX9600 Versa in the works
Sky develops 3D HDTV service for the masses
Sky has tried, tested and succeeded in developing a 3D HDTV system for the consumer home. They’re able to use the existing service infrastructure but unlike the Philip’s concept 3D screen, it does require viewers to use polarized glasses.
The satellite broadcasters used the system on episodes of Gladiators…
Odeon/UCI to expand digital and 3D cinemas across Europe
In case you hadn’t realised by now, analogue media is on its way out across the board, which is why Odeon and UCI Cinemas has announced that it plans to increase the number of DCI-compliant digital cinemas to 111 locations out of 200 across Europe.
As part of this upgrade, the number of 3D digital screens will be tripled, with a proud statistic that over 70% of Odeon/UCI cinemagoers will be within half-an-hour’s drive of a 3D screen. All digital cinemas will be kitted out with 2k digital projectors and servers…
Make, share, and buy 3D designs online with Shapeways
Shapeways is a lovely idea – it’s a website that lets you do 3D modelling online, without any of the tedious tweaking from three different angles that usually accompanies such modelling packages. You can design and share your creations, and Shapeways can produce and deliver any design within 10 working days.
I did a search, and there’s no goatses on the site just yet, which is a shame, but there are a number of lovely lamp surrounds, like the one pictured. These “light poems” require no modelling at all – you just put the text in, and it’ll create it for you. I’m making one right now that just says “poo” over and over again. Round and round. It’s beautiful.
Related posts: Thingiverse – share your digital designs for physical objects | HubDub launches in the UK – make money betting on the news
Vuzix announces widescreen virtual reality glasses
Following on from the VR920s, which I reviewed earlier in the year, Vuzix has just announced a pair of widescreen multimedia glasses – the AV310. Like the others, they sit on your nose, and position two dinky screens in front of your eyes, so it’s like having a massive screen further away. They’ve also announced an upgrade to the AV230XL – their entry level goggles – which upgrades them to OLED displays.
The AV310 is the first commercially available video headset available in widescreen 16:9 aspect ratio. It ships with a cable for connecting to your iPod or iPhone, as well as a variety of other devices with TV-Out functionality, including many recent MP3 players. The OLED displays on the AV230XL – and I got to see these myself – look phenomenal. Far brighter and more responsive than LCD displays. Very impressive.
AMD launches ATI Radeon HD 4550 and HD 4350, for fans of graphics on a budget
ATI’s been busy thinking up new ways to offer slightly different packages of graphics cards, and the result is two new “entry level” boards sitting in the 4000 range.
The HD 4550 is the star performer, offering an extremely impressive 512MB of DDR3 RAM for a US price of $59. The HD 4350 is the cheaper-still 256MB version, weighing it at $39. Both have HDMI outs, so are ideal if you’re after a cheap solution in the home cinema playback realm…
MIT develops 6D technology display that responds to surrounding light
It’s all go in the world of 3D and beyond. Not content with a 3D image cube and 3D LCD gCubik box, researchers have now come up with 6D imagery.
Scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) are developing a system which can not only show realistic images in three dimensions, but can also cast shadow and highlights depending upon the surrounding lighting…
