Paper from Disney Research explores various visual effects which can be employed in video recording using a 3D depth camera:
Many compelling video processing effects can be achieved if per-pixel
depth information and 3D camera calibrations are known. However, the
success of such methods is highly dependent on the accuracy of this
“scene-space” information. We present a novel, sampling-based framework
for processing video that enables high-quality scene-space video effects
in the presence of inevitable errors in depth and camera pose
estimation …
… Our generic scene-space formulation is able to comprehensively describe a
multitude of video processing applications such as denoising,
deblurring, super resolution, object removal, computational shutter
functions, and other scene-space camera effects. We present results for
various casually captured, hand-held, moving, compressed, monocular
videos depicting challenging scenes recorded in uncontrolled
environments.
There currently is no embeddable video at time of posting, but a video you can watch can be found here
You can find out more about the work at Disney Research here
Check out this amazing photo tour of the studio of automaton-maker Thomas Kuntz. In the photos, we see his fantastic sculptures, extensive collection of horological machine tools, and various macabre collections.
From the article summary:
Each Automata is made in editions of 3 or 4 at most. They breathe,drink, smoke and move- all through clockwork that Thomas creates himself. Every piece from start to finish comes from his wonderfully dark and twisty mind.
Boris Anthony explains what makes the DeepDream / PuppySlug significantly interesting (why it isn’t about weird images nor can be reduced to being a graphical Photoshop-like filter):
How these images are generated is important. Not technically how, but conceptually how.
If
you ask a person a question, assuming they understood your question,
they will answer you based on their knowledge. More specifically, they
will formulate an answer to your question out of their Memory, the Situation the question was asked in, and what they believe may be Contextually Relevant in that Situation.
If
that person’s memory, knowledge and experience is 100% entirely made up
of photos of dogs (and places), and you ask them to describe this photo
of me:
The sword has a curved, single-edged blade with a rear groove, richly engraved with inscriptions in Arabic and geometrical decorations featuring silver inlays. The silver hilt is decorated with high-relieved floral motifs, while the horn grip scales feature their typical large ‘ears’.
Tech art piece by Saurabh Datta
employs robotics and computer vision to analyse Tinder profiles, outputing the results onto a Tumblr blog:
This piece is an “interpretation” over a belief that all those tasks
which doesn’t need human dexterity will eventually be delegated to
machines. And following up on the morphosis of AI and software bots,
really a question of agency remains blurry.
This is a bot, unlike a software bot which lives hidden in servers. Contrarily it is spacey in nature who analyses and tries to automate your tinder (in China we have Tan Tan) .
The bot analyses the pictures on the profile from the phones screen with
a camera, just like a human being with his eyes and then selects or
rejects with the two prongs like the humans do it with their fingers
(Not trying to hack around with tan tan’s API because humans don’t hack
API to like a person- generally. But there has been incidents). But no
where near it looks like a human.
You select your preferences like age, golden ratio, smile, glasses, ethnicity etc.
It takes those as conditions set by you and performs actions based on
the extracted information from the images of girls. It is intentionally
enabled not to learn but just to act.
Imagine a dragon at Antiques Roadshow, appraising its hoard
Imagine the dragon hoards monetarily worthless things like newspapers or old bones and the person appraising it getting more and more nervous about telling the dragon their stuff isnt worth anything
Imagine that the dragon knows this and just likes watching the person squirm.
The dragon actually hoards uncomfortable situations
Ebola is one of the most frightening viruses of modern times and the recent outbreak in West Africa sparked a worldwide effort to contain it. Though it is far from under control in much of the region, there is a glimmer of hope as the World Health Organization (WHO) has announced that in trials, a vaccine called VSV-EBOV has proven to be 100 percent effective in protecting individuals.
Incandescent bulbs, LEDs, and CFLs may soon have to budge up because a new lighting technology is in town – white lasers. Using nanotechnology to create a bespoke semiconducting material, a team of scientists at Arizona State University has developed a laser that can produce white light that is brighter and more efficient than LEDs.
When recently ogling some antique pocket knives at a local flea market, I noticed the inlaid shield in the handle. I remember thinking, “Given how many of these things were made, there’s no way they carved each one of these inlays by hand.” As it turns out, I was right! Before the CNC milling machine, before the electric rotary tool, and before the router, there was the parser drill.
Capable of drilling a hole in just about any shape (including ones with sharp corners), the parser drill is a perfect example of the quirky ingenuity of craftspeople from the past. It consists of four main pieces: the iron template, the parser, the breastplate, and the bow. While it sounds like a complicated setup, the tool allowed a variety of shapes to be routed out of wood, bone, or ivory with precise repeatability.
To use the parser, the leather strap of the bow is twisted around the wooden bobbin and the point on the back of the parser is inserted into the breastplate (which is fastened around the user’s midriff). Then the template is clamped to the material, and the cutting bits of the parser’s legs are inserted into the template. By leaning against the parser and moving the bow back and forth, the bits would spin around inside the template and cut into the material. Since the tip of the parser is split, the cutting bits spring against the inside edges of the template, carving the exact shape into the material.
Unfortunately, it seems that this tool has mostly passed out of use and is now more likely to be found in a museum than a workshop. Even if you did want one, it’s pretty unlikely that you’d even be able to find one for sale. Like many antique tools, though, it’s simple enough that you could make your own!
Thanks to jewelry-maker Peter McBride, the parser may have another life yet. On his website, he describes how he made his own parser drill from an old industrial hacksaw blade, and even shares his successes (and failures!) in using it. He also goes a step further and shares a method for punching the shapes to be inlayed out of metal, rather than cutting each one individually. With these methods for rapidly making both the metal inlay and the routed hole, you can imagine how the craftspeople of the past turned out consistent and beautiful work without a CNC machine or even a single powered tool.
If you’re doing your own research on parser drills, you should know that it also may be called a passer drill, two-legged parser, shielding parser, or a bifurcated bit drill. Probably ,the first place to start your research would be the WKFineTools article about the Forgotten Art of the Two-Legged Parser. The legendary Roy Underhill also used a parser drill in one episode of The Woodwright’s Shop.
Way back in like 2008 NYC Resistor was new and fresh. We were tearing it up on the internet blogs and building pneumatic stabbing robots. We also bought our most expensive tool to date ( at the time ). We pooled our meager wages and bought an epilog legend laser cutter ( 12×24 inch model ). This thing was THE BOMB. It made our projects better faster stronger as we listened to an endless loop of daft punk while building every bad idea that crossed our minds.
In fact, Makerbot was conceived upon it’s not so gently abused bed. The first of many prototypes leading to the cupcake 3d printer, and even the first few hundred production run cupcakes were cut out of wood on this laser cutter before Makerbot was thrown bodily from the space by angry hackers ( I joke sort of ). It is quite literally a piece of technology history. It harkens back to a dark time in our history in which every hackerspace was launching a 3d printing company. We apologize for that profusely.
We’ve got the rotation arm for it! Yours free of charge with purchase. It’s fully functional last it was turned on. Works with corel draw like a champ. Has hellaciously better drivers than any comparable chinese laser cutter / etcher. We have full documentation on laser settings for it. And we’ve replaced most of the components on it. We’ve also got some cool hackery docs on it here: Command Line Lasering
We upgraded to a bigger, strong, better, faster cutter this past winter. And now this laser cutter is just taking up space we don’t really have to spare. Also, it’s not being used. So we’d like for it to go to a good home who can make use of it. You’ll have to provide your own filtration system and other safety equipment. But otherwise this is a solid entry level laser cutter / etcher. And we’ve proven only a small part of it’s dazzling array of diverse capabilities.
