… Read More → "The software behind the “Best Visual Effects” Academy Award nominees"The five movies nominated for the “Best Visual Effects” Oscar have something fairly obvious in common: They all relied on special software to create the effects. Check out the various 3D tools from Autodesk that were used for each film.
via Time/Techland
Though not all art needs to be checked for forgery, it remains a problem in the art world that, until now, was combated mostly by art historians (and their studied but subjective knowledge). Now, ion beam accelerators allow scientists to take a crack at quelling art forgeries.
University of Notre Dame nuclear physicists Philippe Collon and Michael Wiescher have started using accelerated ion beams … Read More → "How nuclear physicists are changing the art world"
Last year, a pair of studies showed that heavy Facebook users have more grey matter in their brains and are subject to a condition known as Facebook Depression. A new study from Utah Valley University suggests heavy users of Facebook may also share another trait: low self-esteem.
Source, via Yahoo/Today in … Read More → "Study finds that Facebook users have low self-esteem"
The 10th SF MusicTech Summit is less than a month away. Held twice a year in San Francisco, the Summit is a connection point for the traditional music industry and the cutting edge of music technologists. Online music services, performing artists, instrument makers, music journalists, record labels big and small, and everyone in between come together to talk about the state of the art and business of music.
Read More → "The 10th San Francisco MusicTech Summit"
Whether you design software or physical products, the role of the designer is the same: to build a bridge between the user’s intent and the actual outcome of that intent.
The most successful designs are the ones that make the intermediary disappear, or be so unobtrusive or intuitive that we completely fail to notice it.
Think about the brilliance of the hammer as that “bridge& … Read More → "The future of user interface design: understanding context & behavior"
Exciting times, friends. While we’ve been cleaning up the proverbial ticker tape left behind by jubilant celebration over the recently-stalled antipiracy bills, the Pirate Bay – arguably the premier resource for pirating digital content – has already moved on to the next big thing.
The site has announced a new category called “Physibles” that houses digital files that can be downloaded and used in conjunction with 3D printers to print out actual, physical objects:
We believe that the next step … Read More → "Next frontier in piracy: downloading physical objects to your 3D printer"
Scientists who have developed a new way to create a type of radiation known as Terahertz (THz) or T-rays – the technology behind full-body security scanners – say their new, stronger and more efficient continuous wave T-rays could be used to make better medical scanning gadgets and may one day lead to innovations similar to the “tricorder” scanner used in Star Trek.
</ … Read More → "T-ray technology could lead to powerful sensors for robotic medical devices"
via Robotics Trends
Apple officially spent more cash on semiconductors in 2011 than any other company in the world, according to a new report from Gartner. The market research firm says that Apple’s semiconductor purchases saw “significant growth” in 2011—up almost 35 percent over 2010—similar to its growth numbers over the past five years. “As a result, Apple became the biggest customer of semiconductor chip vendors in 2011, climbing two places in the ranking, from third in 2010,” wrote Gartner.
The previous leader in … Read More → "Apple spent more cash on semiconductors in 2011 than any other company in the world"
These Antique Radio Dials are beautiful. They all are attempting to organize the same information in a way that makes physical sense for dial-based tuning while making it easy for users to understand. UI problems are rarely new, and it … Read More → "Check out this gallery of antique radio dials"
