TRON Coaster Ride – Shanghai Disneyland
This looks fantastic!
Dynamic projection mapping onto deforming non-rigid surface
Amazing work from the University of Tokyo. Dynamic projection mapping on non-rigid and self-occluding surfaces at 1000 fps and 3ms delay.
Projection mapping attracts attentions as an emerging technology to extend the real world. However, almost realized examples have been limited to static or quasi-static environments. This research aims at overcoming this limitation and realizes dynamic projection mapping in which dynamically changing real-world and virtual visual information are completely merged in the level of human visual perception. This high-speed dynamic projection mapping requires a high-speed projector enabling high-frame-rate and low-latency projection. In order to meet this demand, we have developed a high-speed projector “DynaFlash” that can project 8-bit images up to 1,000fps with 3ms delay.
Using these base technologies including DynaFlash and Deformable Dot Cluster Marker, we realize a new dynamic projection mapping onto deforming non-rigid surface. In this demonstration, by drawing the marker on the target with IR ink, we allow the marker to be invisible to human and enable robust sensing independently of the projected images. In our technology, both the projection and sensing are operated at a speed of 1,000 fps. Therefore, it is possible to keep the projection consistent with the deformation and extend the real world as if the projected image is printed or existed as an original (digital) texture on the target. Especially, focusing on new paradigms in the field of user interface and fashion, we have demonstrated dynamic projection mapping onto a deformed sheet of paper and T-shirt. Also we show that projection to multiple targets can be controlled flexibly by using multiple markers.
Mag-lev turntable
The first 45 seconds is gut-bustingly laughable, over the top, self-aggrandizing hyperbole – but it is certainly a cool looking invention.
The engineer in me wonders how they guarantee the exact RPM’s on this given the variable drag of the needle or movement of air currents (likely very solvable but I wonder about the latency). It also seems to me that bumping the table would produce the commiserate disturbance in the magnetic field which wouldn’t protect against bigger bumps – just tiny ones. Guess we’ll find out when it arrives, but I’ll always have a soft spot in my heart for the JA Michell Transcriptor Hydraulic Reference Turntable seen in Clockwork Orange and 2001. I’m pretty sure this will find its way into a sci-fi movie as well at some point.
Spot Fake Reviews
Machine learning has brought us many good things, and a good number of bad things. One of the bad things is spam, and more recently, fake product reviews. The good news is that now you can have your bots fight their bots.
Fakespot is a website that allows you to copy the URL for a product you are looking at and it will tell you how likely, and how many, of the reviews are fakes. It reviews the overall company and product provider, evaluates the reviews to see how many were likely machine generated, summaries the key positive and negative points mentioned most often, and generates an overall grade of the product+reviews. It’s turning out to be super handy, and super-revealing of how many reviews and sites are scammy.
Play Records with the new English 5 Pound Notes!
The new polymer five pound notes in England have a rather curious ability of being just about able to play vinyl records (with the aid of a contact microphone and small amplifier not shown on screen).
The ‘My Room Project’ lets you see people’s rooms all over the world
John Thackwray set up a website where people post pictures of their bedrooms from all over the world. Fantastic, and definitely worth a look.
Japanese Basketball Court Is LED Powered – And It’s Amazing
This week in Japan, a new pro basketball league is getting underway, and tonight’s game between Alvark Tokyo and the Ryukyu Golden Kings is being played on an LED court. It’s nuts.
Butler Café in Shibuya – With Western Men
There is a new Butler Café in Shibuya (website) – where men come to your table when you ring a bell and always answer with, “Yes my princess?”. While this idea isn’t completely new – there are maid cafes and hostess clubs for men, and host clubs for women. But the twist with this butler cafe in the Shibuya district of Tokyo, Japan? All the men are Western.
Fascinatingly, the female owner (Yuki Hirohata) of the club walked through Shibuya and asked over 200 women what they were looking for in a cafe. She said these women all wanted waiters that were male, good looking, treat them nice, but most importantly, were Westerners.
“Being gentlemanly in Japanese culture is embarrassing for Japanese men. Women are exhausted with the traditional rules of Japanese society. These guys are different than typical Japanese men – they make me feel special.”
Update: this appears to have permanently closed late 2018. Archive of the old website.
Butler Cafe: aicom shibuya blg 5F, 11-6 Udagawa-cho Bldg, Udagawacho, Shibuya-ku Tokyo
Arcades in Japan
This summed up my experience with Japanese arcades very well. He even includes the ‘Fear of Heights’ experience by Bandai-Namco that I’ve posted about before. But I can’t believe I missed the real cars in Odaiba. Guess I’ll need to make another trip.
Roman battle tactics
YouTuber Historia Civilis aptly showcases the evolution of Roman battle tactics. And while the content treads a simplistic (though nifty) overview, we can get the core idea behind the Roman military system and how its adaptability set it apart from most of the ‘stagnant’ armies of the ancient world. Definitely worth the watch.
http://www.realmofhistory.com/2016/05/10/animated-evolution-roman-battle-tactics/