Thursday, March 17, 2005

New Scientist reports on a piece of software by MDRobotics called instant Scene modeler (iSM), which automatically generates 3D reconstructions of scenes, using a few hundred frames from a pair of ordinary video cameras. The software uses David Lowe’s SIFT vision algorithm to quickly locate common features between sequential images, for use in the reconstruction; SIFT has also been useful for generatingpanoramas and object recognition. From SlashDot.org 6:41:23 AM

I saw a headline about a new product "Yahoo 360" -- but it has nothing to do with panoramas. Seems tacking "360" onto a name is the latest meme. Yahoo Does Blogs With Yahoo! 360 Service: "Yahoo! 360 allows people to easily share what matters most to them and keep connected with the people they know -- all in one convenient place." (Via Designtechnica Articles.) 6:40:38 AM

More on Kodak's 18.6 megapixel CCD: "Kodak has today issued a press release which reveals a little more information about the sensor used in Pentax's yet to be fully revealed 645 medium-format digital camera. The sensor is named the KAF-18000CE, it has 18.6 million total pixels producing an 18 million pixel final image. Pixel pitch is 9 x 9 um, no other specs are currently available but if we assume a 4:3 aspect ratio we can guess the total pixel size to be something like 4992 x 3744 which would make the active sensor area approximately..." (Via Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com).) 6:28:37 AM

Nikon D2Hs launch date and price: "Nikon has announced that its 4.1 megapixel professional D-SLR, the D2Hs, will be on sale worldwide from March 25. It will retail for around UKP 2,499.99 ($3,733). The D2Hs, which was announced just before PMA, offers a range of improvements over the D2H, including a burst rate of 8 fps up to 50 JPEG frames or 40 NEF shots. It has also borrowed some features from the D2X, including sYCC color space support, 3D Matrix Metering II and a higher resolution 2.5-inch LCD." (Via Digital Photography Review (dpreview.com).) 6:28:17 AM

The Equinox is almost here. Time for another international VR event! The period of shooting for Marketplace - A World Wide Panorama begins tomorrow, Thursday, March 17, and continues through Sunday, March 20. The theme is "marketplace", which offers manifold possibilities. It need not be a lively street market, it can be any of a million other places where goods change hands. Only the Photography needs to be done March 17-20. Submission of final panoramas will begin immediately after the shoot, on Monday, March 21. The url of the preparation server will be posted at that time. The deadline for submissions will be Wednesday, March 30, a week later. The final site will be announced and available to the public on Friday, April 1, 2005. We want your panorama to be part of it! The event is sponsored by the Geography Computing Facility at the University of California Berkeley. This site is hosted by The Geo-Images Project. This is a non-commercial project, done simply to create enthusiasm for VR photography, and provide an outlet for our collective creativity. 6:17:20 AM

Wired News: Photos Richer in 144 Megapixels: "Most consumers are already overjoyed with the photo quality of an 8-megapixel camera. But when it comes to the high resolution images a 144-megapixel camera brings, they can prepare to be astounded." (Via Wired.) 6:11:39 AM

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