From the department of redundancy department [Picture]

Be careful not to stare too long at this post else you may be caught here for a very, very long time.



You Will Never Get the Power Core [Halo-Themed Movie]

You Will Never Get the Power Core features real footage from Halo with some live action overlayed on top. The whole thing may look super cheesy, but boy is it hilarious. Check it out!

[Via [H]]



Apple Patents Glasses-Free 3D

The race to produce an effective form of 3D video that doesn’t require glasses is still very much on. But Apple has secured its place on the track.

The company has been awarded a patent in the US on one method which simply requires a special screen. In patent-speak:

A three-dimensional display system provides a projection screen having a predetermined angularly-responsive reflective surface function. Three-dimensional images are respectively modulated in coordination with the predetermined angularly-responsive reflective surface function to define a programmable mirror with a programmable deflection angle.

Put more clearly, the “autostereoscopic” system would involve a screen that isn’t purely flat, but rather features a ripple texture. This would allow two different sets of pixels to be displayed, each of which would only be visible to one eye.

Exactly where on the screen the image is displayed would depend on the viewer’s location, which would be detected automatically by the system. Apple even believes it would be possible to repeat this process so that multiple 3D images could be created on the same display for multiple users.

As well as 3D television, Apple says the system could work for creating pseudo-holograph displays. It says that the relationship between the viewer and the screen means that as somebody walks in an arc, they would see the image “rotate” by a greater degree than their movement. That could even mean it would be possible to make what appeared to be a 360 degree hologram without the technical problems of building a cylindrical screen.

Of course, as many companies have discovered, turning an idea into reality is no easy task. Apple originally applied for the patent in 2006, and hasn’t yet released any products using the system.

Still, if it does ever get used, it won’t necessarily be in a TV or a magic iPad (mmm, ripply touchscreen…) Instead Apple notes it could be used in “medical diagnostics, flight simulation, air traffic control, battlefield simulation, weather diagnostics, entertainment, advertising, education, animation, virtual reality, robotics, biomechanical studies, scientific visualization, and so forth. “

OMG: Mega Shark Vs. Crocosaurus [Video]

A little more than year after Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus came out, here comes what I assume to be its super awesome OMG-worthy sequel: Mega Shark Vs. Crocosaurus. Enjoy!

[Via]

Dawn of The Ted [Video]

Teddies + zombies = Awesome! I’m not sure how we missed that when it came out for Halloween a few weeks ago, but you know what they say: better late than never! Enjoy!

Re-Engineering a Brain [Video]

In the quest to map the brain, many scientists have attempted the incredibly daunting task of recording the activity of each neuron. Gero Miesenboeck works backward — manipulating specific neurons to figure out exactly what they do, through a series of stunning experiments that reengineer the way fruit flies perceive light.

Officials Turn Down Hologram World Cup

A Japanese bid to bring the football World Cup to stadiums around the world via holograms has been rejected.

Soccer’s governing body FIFA today announced that the 2022 finals will take place in Qatar. Japan was one of the bids for that tournament that reached the final vote.

As part of a presentation to voters, Junji Ogura, who led the Japanese bid, promised that matches would be relayed live from the original stadium to arenas worldwide. Each game would be filmed with 200 cameras, with the resulting images beamed onto special 3D holographic screens on the pitch in each arena.

While Howard Stringer, the chairman of Sony, said the proposal was “not science fiction — it’s science fact”, other technology experts seemed sceptical such a system could be ready within 12 years. The most common take is that the concept itself would work, but without 3D glasses it would be difficult to set up suitable viewing positions for thousands of spectators. Even if that were possible, it would require crowd members to remain in one position and not move their heads, something that would be tricky enough for 90 minutes but would be almost impossible once you add in excited reactions to events in the game.

Another Japanese proposal was to give fans handheld devices that allowed them to talk to other spectators around the world using automated translation. That’s another idea where the principle seems feasible, but the sheer logistics of dealing with millions of people might be trickier.

The winning Qatar bid isn’t quite so futuristic, but has some appeal to engineering geeks. Given the climate in the region, the idea is to build “carbon-neutral” stadia that are powered via solar panels, with some of the electricity used for much needed air conditioning.

Meanwhile, because the small country won’t need 12 large capacity stadia after the tournament, it plans to build modular arenas. After the event, the upper tiers will be removed, disassembled, and shipped to developing nations where they will be reformed as single-tier stadia.