Below is a demonstration by Aaron Estrada of his panoramic Sky-Watcher/Papymerlin Panorama Robot. The system is based on a Sky-Watcher alt-azimuth non-goto telescope mover with a shutter release port built right in to the the head. The head is controlled wirelessly via a Papymerlin serial to bluetooth adapter module, all controlled via a Nokia N810 Internet Tablet (very neat):
Aaron states that the kit, all-in, is still less expensive than any other dedicated panorama robot on the market yet in many ways more flexible. For example, it can be programed to do custom shooting patterns, “gigapans” and even time-lapse. The software has a great GUI and integration on the N810. On top of it all, the Papywizard software is open source and written in Python, so if one has the chops they can hack it to customize it anyway they like.
You can see more of his panoramas here: 360cities.net/profile/hyperfocus, the majority of Aaron’s panoramas are usually produced with Virtual Sets and Image Based Lighting in mind. As a result, most of the his panoramas are available as floating point HDR images.
We like this a lot, especially the bluetooth link to the N810 and the results speak for themselves.
The architectural visualisation below details Times Avenue, Kuala Lumpur. It is an exclusive corporate building that brings work and lifestyle together for a perfect working environment (that’s marketing talk for you can live above the office).
The company behind the visualisation is metamosaic, a design studio setup in 2003 to focus on spatial visualization. We like the approach, the voice over is so calming and hypnotic we have just signed up for two flats, its going to be a long commute to work…
The architectural visualisation below details Times Avenue, Kuala Lumpur. It is an exclusive corporate building that brings work and lifestyle together for a perfect working environment (that’s marketing talk for you can live above the office).
The company behind the visualisation is metamosaic, a design studio setup in 2003 to focus on spatial visualization. We like the approach, the voice over is so calming and hypnotic we have just signed up for two flats, its going to be a long commute to work…
ICYou is a Swedish-based company with the business idea conceived out of the growing need for individuals to meet and socialize with others in virtual communities. Take a look at their demo trailer for their forthcoming Interactive City:
The question ‘do you want to buy for virtual or for real life’ is interesting. Shopping in virtual worlds has been talked about and demonstrated for many years, indeed back in our ActiveWorlds days in 1999 the next big thing was 3D supermarkets. Of course it turns out that buying real world goods in virtual worlds proved too difficult and simple web based browsing is simply more effective.
ICYou are asking people to ‘take part of the evolution and exceed limitations! In Interactive City – A virtual world of endless possibilities. Interactive City is now under construction. When complete it will be the world´s largest global city where anything can happen- And you can take part in its creation!‘
Personally we think it will be a few years yet before another virtual world system takes off on the scale of Second Life and the technology still has some way to go. Indeed the current offerings are not far off where things were in 1998, see our post Virtual Worlds Circa 1998, How Much has Changed?
ICYou see their Interactive City being linked via a mobile client (iPhone) representing as the first piece of a mobile communications revolution. In short, their allocation is descirbed as an interactive, instant messaging (IM) service in 3D with avatarsthat will change phone-to-phone communication forever.
We like virtual worlds a lot, don’t get us wrong, there is just something about the ‘dating’ section of the clip that makes us cringe. At least it was not full of dancing circa Second Life videos but in terms of mass appeal and changing phone-to-phone communication forever we would of thought systems such as Apple’s FaceTime are more of the way forward….
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