Visual Studio 2008 released

A piece of news that will interest all developers, Microsoft has finally released Visual Studio 2008 as of yesterday (21/11/07).The latest version of the integrated development environment boasts over 250 new features and improvements. These include integrated support for unit testing, integrated performance profiling and analysis, Windows Vista UI support, enhanced database support and better interoperability between native and managed code.The software is available in a variety of versions, including Express Editions. New learning resources are available as well.

A few statistics (provided by Microsoft themselves mind you!),

- over one million professional developers used Visual Studio 2005
- 17 million downloads of Visual Studio Express
- 25 per cent of Visual Studio developers are using Visual Studio Team System

I have been eagerly awaiting for this release since the 2005 version has created many problems for PCs with Vista on them and the new 2008 version of Visual Studio is expected to solve all incompatibilities...

I will try and do future posts on this one with my own as well as other developer opinions on the new version of this popular development platform.

A round-up of 3D software, trial editions

For this post I thought I'd do a quick round up of some of the most popular 3D software out there that currently offer FREE trial versions for checking out.

1) Softimage’s free 30-day trial version of XSI 6.5 Essentials allows students and professionals to try all the core tools of its 3D modelling, character creation, animation and rendering package.
Try the 30-day trial of SoftimageXSI 6.5 here

2) The free 30-day trial version of Zbrush 3.1 is a full-featured version offering the sculpting and painting tool for students, teachers, artists and others just beginning their journey into Zbrush. Just submit some basic personal information and Pixologic will email you a link to the software.
Try the 30-day trial of Zbrush 3.1 here

3) A 30-day version of modo 301 is also available in a trial format for $25.00. Luxology has prepared an evaluation kit that is ideal for anyone who wants to take modo for a test drive. The ready-for-download package includes the modo in Focus series of eight introductory videos and a 100% feature complete version of modo 301.
Try the 30-day trial of modo 301 here

4) The Maya Personal Learning Edition is a free version of Autodesk’s software for non-commercial use. It gives 3D graphics and animation students, industry professionals, and those interested in breaking into the world of computer graphics an opportunity to explore almost every feature of Autodesk Maya Complete 8.5.
Try the 30-day trial of Maya here

5) Houdini Apprentice is a free, non-commercial edition of the Side Effects 3D software family. Just generate a key online to gain access to the full-featured shipping versions of Houdini Master, Houdini Select and Houdini Halo.The only minor differences are an output resolution of 640 X 480, a small watermark in the lower right hand corner of each render, and rendering limited to Houdini Mantra.A Starving Artist edition is available for $99.00 without a watermark that runs at HD resolution.
Try the trial version of Houdini here

6) The Autodesk 3ds Max trial version provides free access to the software for non-commercial use. To receive a free 30-day trial download, fill out and submit the online form.
Try the 30-day trial of 3ds Max here

7) Download a trial version of Electronic Rain’s Swift 3D package and you’ll be treated to all the features of this stand alone application, except its file export functionality, which is disabled. Rendered animations can, however, be previewed within the program.
Try the trial version of Swift 3D here

8) Download the Cinema 4D demo version online and explore Maxon’s powerful raytracing and animation tool. Scenes, movies, textures, preset libraries and browser catalogs can’t be saved in the demo version. Neither can references and layouts. Sketch and Toon won’t render images with a resolution greater than 640×480 pixels, and the NET Render module is not included either. BodyPaint 3D 3.5 is also available in demo form.
Try the trial version of Cinema 4D here

Developing 3D virtual cities direct from video

At the moment in the research world there is a lot of activity around ground based LiDAR data capture with a number of companies mounting rigs onto vans and driving around cities. While LiDAR per se does have a lot of potential, it also can't be denied that the data output is overwhelming and it is limited to high end hardware. Working from that angle, the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and University of Kentucky have been working on techniques to develop 3D Models direct from video, thus negating the need for a LiDAR rig. Although it is early days yet, the results are encouraging. The video below showcases a model created of the Capel Campus using the technique.

According to Jan-Micael Fraham, Research Assistant Professor on the project, the research aims at developing a system for automatic, geo-registered, real-time 3D reconstruction from video of urban scenes. From 2005-2007 the team developed a system that collects video streams, as well as GPS and inertia measurements in order to place the reconstructed models in geo-registered coordinates. It is designed using current state of the art real-time modules for all processing steps employing commodity graphics hardware and standard CPU's to achieve real-time performance.The second video embedded below provides an overview of the process and is extremely interesting.

The system extends existing algorithms to meet the robustness and variability necessary to operate out of the lab. To account for the large dynamic range of outdoor videos the processing pipeline estimates global camera gain changes in the feature tracking stage and efficiently compensates for these in stereo estimation without impacting the real-time performance. The required accuracy for many applications is achieved with a two-step stereo reconstruction process exploiting the redundancy across frames.

Check the UrbanScape website for more details, it is well worth a visit as this is one of the most interesting and genuinely innovative urban modelling projects coming from academia I have seen in months!

Sony PSP phone rumours

The development of a PSP phone has been doing the rounds as a rumour for a while now, but the idea of such a device has been given new life thanks to Sony Computer Entertainment co-chief operating officer Jim Ryan. Apparently, Mr. Ryan recently told the India Times that the "PlayStation is a proven success and so is Sony Ericsson," and that "convergence with the two arms working together is definitely plausible."

Of course, he did note that it could be quite some time before such a device would see the market, and that if indeed it did, it would likely resemble a handheld gaming system with a phone blended in and not vice-versa. That still is a an extremely interesting concept of a device that has been launched a few times in the past by other companies with no commercial luck, can Sony make it a success and give us a new mobile handset with great research capabilities? Time will tell.

CyberCity in liquidation

On an older post a few months ago on this very blog the CyberCity urban modelling solution was presented. CyberCity AG is the software company which is tied to this solution and, as of recently, this company appears to have (sadly) gone into liquidation. The news comes courtesy of MoneyHouse, which reports not only on the company's status but also on the fact that its website seems to have now gone offine and be inaccessible.

Undoubtedly it is a shame for a number of reasons to see such a popular and efficient solution (possibly) not being around anymore and hopefully not a trend in 3D urban modelling which will continue further.

Upcoming computer graphics-related conferences in 2008

Here's a few links of some interesting computer graphics conferences taking place in the first half of the next year. Note that most of them have their upcoming deadlines in the next few weeks/months!

8th International Symposium on SMART GRAPHICS (Rennes, France)

6th Symposium on Non-Photorealistic Animation and Rendering (NPAR) 2008 (Annecy, France)

EuroVis 2008 Joint Eurographics/IEEE-VGTC Symposium on Visualization (Eindhoven, The Netherlands)

CGI 2008 Computer Graphics International 2008 (Istanbul, Turkey)

SIGGRAPH 2008
35th International Conference and Exhibition on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques (LA, USA)

IV08
12th International Conference Information Visualisation (London, UK)

CGIV 08
5th International Conference Computer Graphics, Imaging and Visualization (Penang, Malaysia)

Seventh International Workshop on
Computer Graphics and Geometric Modeling CGGM'2008 (Krakow, Poland)

34th Graphics Interface 2008 (Ontario, Canada)

Laval Virtual 2008 International Virtual Reality Conference (Laval, France)

GPS in skiing

For all the avid skiers out there, just in case your iPod-equipped helmet, head-mounted camera and Bluetooth-enabled parka (and yes all these products exist out there, not making them up!) weren't enough to distract you from actually paying attention down the mile-long slope ahead, how's about fiddling with the Satski rather than focusing on that pizza wedge? This handheld GPS-equipped unit can give skiers, snowboarders and everyone else out there trying to make it down in one piece the ability to record position, altitude, speed and distance while on the mountain.

Moreover, you'll find options that enable you to avoid black runs, plot a course, listen to MP3s and play a few games while riding the lift. There's even links to emergency contacts in case that halfpipe trip goes terribly wrong and the built-in software lets users export data to Google Earth for future bragging purposes. This intriguing (and somewhat superfluous one might say!) device will be priced at an almost unfathomable £1,500 ($3,087) but those strapped for cash can supposedly rent it for around £28 ($58) per day at participating resorts. One issue not mentioned is of course gloves (I can't imagine it'd be very easy trying to negotiate with the device wearing a pair of those!) but still, interesting to see GPS-equipped units extend to sports activities like this one!

Console quality game graphics on mobiles?

Vollee, a new mobile gaming service provider startup, has just announced Vollee 1.0, a new service that offers high-end games streamed over 3G networks. It’s confirmed Activision, Codemasters and Encore Software as initial partners. Vollee’s patent-pending VolleeX engine underpins the concept. It enables moving, re-sizing or replacing any object within the original video game without access to source code, ensuring that the game play is maximised for mobile. The service is in trials now internationally with major carriers and will be launched in North America next year. “We will use always-connected 3G networks to take mobile games to the next level, much in the same way the pervasiveness of broadband has taken PC games to new heights and success,” said Martin Dunsby, president and CEO.

Essentially, the company has tools that can take games and convert them so they can run on Vollee-enhanced phones without messing around with the game’s source code. A thin software client resides on a phone for that to happen. For instance, the company claims they can make a racing game run faster by taking out the clouds in the sky in the game’s background. In other words, it can substitute simpler graphics that don’t take as much processing power without sacrificing quality too much.

It certainly is a very interesting concept on providing quality graphics on mobiles and definitely an extremely innovative one. If it means seeing XBox 360 or PS3 like graphics for mobiles then I am all for it! We should be somewhat reserved about it however since all we have to go with at the moment is a press release (not even a live demo), Vollee is being very cagey about specific technical details so only time can show how this might pan out.

For more information check http://www.vollee.com/.

Virtual worlds a threat to values?

Oscar-winning film-maker Lord Puttnam gave the opening keynote speech at the Virtual Worlds Forum held in London from 23-26 October. In his speech Lord Puttnam voiced fears about the many game worlds that have sprung up which tie access to the virtual world to the purchase of a toy. Webkinz, Funkeys, BarbieGirls, TyGirlz and many others are all virtual worlds created and run by toy makers. "Are we absolutely sure that this is the very best we can offer young people?" he asked. "Do we really want them to think of themselves as not much more than consumers?". He said: "Might we not prefer to build worlds that encourage those same values and skills we wish them to exercise in the real world?". "The challenge ahead is this - to ensure that virtual worlds are increasingly places that offer real meaning to their lives and in the real world to learn from the sense of community and collaboration that's been experienced in virtual worlds," he said.

My personal opinion on this demonizing of virtual worlds as a researcher involved in the creation and evaluation of these worlds? While there are always potential pitfalls when corporate financial interest gets involved in new technologies, particularly immersive ones, it can't be denied that sometimes it helps to keep perspective on things. It is extremely debatable that virtual gaming and socialising is to blame for anything and this is really at heart an incredibly dated argument taking us back to the 60s when people feared that the television (which let's not forget was considered an immersive technology back then, very much like virtual worlds are now) would demoralise and ruin values in young people.

For more information on the Virtual Worlds Forum check http://virtualworldsforum.com/

LOCUS project presented at Location And Timing event

A few days ago (10/10/07) I was present at a full day event called "Flagship Projects Open Day" at the National Physical Laboratory, Teddington, UK. This full-day event, organised by the Location And Timing, Knowledge And Transfer Network presented three major research projects which reached their conclusion including: SPACE, LOCUS and AutoBAHN. I have been involved with LOCUS for the last two years running by generating all the 3D urban content used for it but also by doing consultancy on various real-time computer graphics issues and was thus called upon (along with the rest of the team) to do a short presentation on the project's workpackage I was associated with.

LOCUS is an EPSRC Location and Timing KTN research project, started in 2004 in the department of Information Science at City University. The main focus of the research is to enhance Location Based Services (LBS) by extending the current map-based approach. To satisfy these goals, LOCUS currently implements two innovative interfaces for mobile devices like PDAs and 3G phones.

LOCUS aims in enhancing Location Based Services (LBS) by extending the current map-based approach to offer an augmented reality (AR) interface and to develop routing tools based on the data mining of previous journey experiences. The main research is focused around the cognitive needs of the user for navigational information and self-localisation; the system integration of PVT data with 2D and 3D representations with minimum latency; the spatio-temporal knowledge discovery for user routing behaviour; the accurate and stable registration of the 3D AR model with real objects in real-time and the processing and integration of visualised geographic information with other LBS.

You can download my part of the presentation at the event from here.

For more information on the LOCUS project check http://www.locus.org.uk/.

Samsung Q1UMPCM01 Ultra Mobile PC (UMPC)

I've done a few posts already on a number of different UMPCs (Ultra Mobile PCs) but I've never actually been tempted to buy one despite finding the technology fascinating (a device with the computational power of a laptop which is essentially PDA-size is a notion with immense research possibilities). Samsung's Q1UMPCM01 has just changed that.

Retailing at slightly over 600 pounds (with most UMPCs still near the couple of thousand quid mark) the device is perfectly suited to use the Microsoft Windows XP Tablet Operating system, featuring built-in wireless networking and Bluetooth connectivity. Sporting a Celeron M processor, an Intel 915GMS Express Video Chipset and a 7 inch display plus also a 40GB Hard Disk, the Samsung Q1UMPCM01 has plenty of storage space for digital media, documents and software, not to mention applications not normally found or associated with mobile devices.

Cellphone use in-flight finally possible in EU flights?

It's been a long-time fervent hope of EU citizens to be able to use a mobile handset while on their flight of choice and it seems that with EU regulators finally recently recommending that member states approve a plan to allow in-flight cellphone use, we'll soon be well on our way to rival American travellers in that area!

Although previous studies have shown cell radios may interfere with in-flight nav systems, the new plan involves mounting a satellite-linked "pico cell" in the passenger compartment, which will allow pilots and flight crew to selectively enable cell services like voice and SMS. The system only supports 2G connections, but if successful, can be at some point upgraded to 3G. Rollout is dependent on both individual countries and airlines approving the technology, but hopefully it'll be sooner rather than later.

What is even more exciting are the prospects this could potentially open up since in-flight mobile use is an entirely new market with both applications and research in this area severely lacking at the moment...

Microsoft research in device pairing: The Martini Synch

For anyone involved with research in mobile devices here's a very interesting paper, called The Martini Synch, coming from Microsoft researchers and presenting an innovative way of device pairing.

According to them; "device pairing is a significant problem for a large class of increasingly popular resource-constrained wireless protocols such as BlueTooth. The objective of pairing is to establish a secure wireless communication channel between two specific devices without a public-key infrastructure, a secure near-field communication channel, or electrical contact. We use a surprising user-device interaction as a solution to this problem. By adding an accelerometer, a device can sense its motion in a Cartesian space relative to the inertial space. The idea is to have two devices in a fixed, relative position to each other. Then, the joint object is moved randomly in 3D for several seconds. The unique motion generates approximately the same distinct signal at the accelerometers. The difference between the signals in the two inertially conjoined sensors should be relatively small under normal motion induced manually. The objective is to derive a deterministic key at both sides with maximized entropy that will be used as a private key for symmetric encryption. Currently, our prototype produces between 10-15 bits of entropy per second of usual manual motion using off-the-shelf components."

It seems like an incredibly interesting idea and one that could potentially revolutionize mobile protocols and communications. Love 'em or hate 'em Microsoft today have an enormous impact on both blue-sky but also on more hands-on, application-oriented research (in SIGGRAPH 2005 one in six papers accepted came from their labs!) and this is just another piece of work that proves that.

The full paper can be dowloaded at http://research.microsoft.com/research/pubs/view.aspx?tr_id=1366.

Computer Graphics And Imaging 2008 conference

I've recently had a full paper accepted for the upcoming 10th International Computer Graphics And Imaging (CGIM) 2008 conference, this year to take place at Innsbruck (pictured below!), Austria between the 13th and the 15th of February next year. The conference, organised by IASTED (International Association of Science and Technology for Development) includes sessions on computer graphics, visualization, image processing, animation and human computer interaction.

The paper submitted and accepted for publication is titled Virtual City Maker And Virtual Navigator: A Modelling And Visualisation Solution For The Creation And Display Of Mobile 3D Virtual Cities. See you there for the talk on it and also perhaps a spot of skiing as well! I will post a full report with a selection of some of the most interesting (IMO) papers after the conference.

For more info on CGIM 2008 check the following link http://www.iasted.org/conferences/cfp-600.html.

SketchUp & 3D Studio Max real-world render

An interesting project I recently read about on SketchUp's official blog (at http://sketchupdate.blogspot.com/2007/09/go-big-or-go-home.html) on using the Google app in combination with 3D Studio Max to create a ... real world render! Quite an impressive little project really and one that shows the potential of both apps.

SketchUp user named Andrija Posarić from Zagreb, Croatia explains:

"A couple of weeks ago I got a pretty interesting challenge in my firm. An historic building in the strict center of Zagreb was renovating, and when they put (that big thing around the building, to prevent bricks falling on the pedestrians;-) (excuse my bad English;-) around the building, it becomes most expensive place for putting the commercial ;-)Ok, since I work in the biggest corporation in Eastern Europe, we had to put some kind of a commercial up there. The idea was to take a high-resolution picture of the building, and implement our logo on it. The problem was there was no such picture, and work on the building already started, so we couldn't go there and take the new photo.Ok. "Can you make a photo-real rendering of this building, based on the partially-accurate blueprints?" my boss asked? I said, "No, I cannot ;-)". "What is the time note (deadline)?" 3 days.Ok, It would not be the problem to do the photo-real rendering of a normal resolution, but, maaaan, this is a 30 x 10 meters + 20 x 10 meters rendering. I did some calculation, and I came up with 12,000 x 4,500 pixel resolution. It took me 10 hours of modeling, 2 hours of texturing, and 20 hours of rendering to complete this giant job. The size of the TIFF was 390 MB, the size of the JPEG was 39 MB... yeah, huge pics ;-)".

GPS and social networking: Where are we now?

With social networks such as MySpace and Facebook catching on, anxious techie socialites are now looking for a new way to interact with their friends utilising technological advances. The new fashion? GPS social networking where you can not only communicate with an acquaintance but also track their real-world position too so that a meeting in person can be arranged.

Social networking websites, including, most notably, the likes of Bliin, Trackut and Kakiloc have managed to take the whole concept of social networking one step further. The way they work at the moment is by getting users to subscribe to the service by downloading a small application, which, once activated, enables them to track the location of other social networkers in real time and see whether they are nearby or not.

The obvious dangers of this aside (security being the key word here, despite reassurances from people running these websites, it is obvious to me how many pitfalls revealing a person's constantly updated location to the rest of the world can be!) there seem to be many opportunities with this since most users already using the aforementioned applications are looking for ways to further enhance them. While I wouldn't go as far as suggesting enrolling to one of these services, they are definitely trend-setters for a new market opening up.

Check the following links for more information;

http://www.bliin.com/

http://www.trackut.com/

http://www.kakiloc.com/

Wi-Fi T-shirt anyone?

Difficult to believe but mobile networking has prompted people to go at extreme lengths in regards to their fashion sense these days. It seems that ThinkGeek has just developed a new T-shirt for all of those people simply too lazy to open up a laptop to see whether a hotspot is around...

The glowing bars on the front of the shirt dynamically change as the surrounding Wi-Fi signal strength fluctuates, showing signal strength for 802.11b or 802.11g. While I somehow would like to believe that I would not be seen dead in a T-shirt like this, perhaps it is of some use (or indeed source of amusement!) for others. Probably!

You can purchase this T-shirt at the following link, http://www.thinkgeek.com/tshirts/generic/991e/.

Microsoft researchers patent new user interface for mobiles

Microsoft researchers recently presented a new patent which I personally found it very interesting since it was one in the area of user interfaces for mobile devices. The patent is titled "Extensible Filtered Lists for Mobile Device User Interface," and its documentation describes the details for improving the way mobile users interact with the data on their individual devices.

It looks like this novel application focuses on arranging information in groups or lists, each of which can include multiple items that provide access to data or tasks from multiple applications. Essentially, these customizable lists (pictured on both pics on this post) would allow users to quickly access relevant content such as commonly used data or tasks.

Furthermore, it was noted that the items could also be dynamically updated based upon changes in the underlying data or services provided by software applications.

It all sounds very interesting and it would be extremely interesting to see these changes on the traditional Windows Mobile interface implemented in a commercial version of Microsoft's operating system.

Invited poster publication at Location And Timing event

A few days ago (10/10/07) I presented an invited poster publication of some of my work-in-progress research on automatic 3D modelling at an event called "Flagship Projects Open Day" at the National Physical Laboratory, Teddington, UK. This full-day event, organised by the Location And Timing, Knowledge And Transfer Network presented three major research projects which reached their conclusion including: SPACE, LOCUS (more on this on a later post as I was part of the presentation team for this too, an EPSRC-funded project on cutting-edge mobile technologies that recently reached its three-year conclusion) and AutoBAHN. The poster itself is pictured below.

All in all it was an extremely interesting day as all three projects (but also all the posters there too) were in the same general field and there was the opportunity to interface with other researchers and also gain feedback on all aspects of my work.

For more information on the Location And Timing, its agenda and activities plus information on past and future events check this link, http://ktn.globalwatchonline.com/epicentric_portal/site/lat/?mode=0.

Yet another combination of every day device & receiver; GPS and mouse

It never ceases to fascinate me just how much GPS receivers seem to be all the rage for innovative "combo" devices today. Deluo's latest manages to perform double duty as a mousing device while still maintaining a relatively small footprint. It has to be said that the MouseGPS isn't overtly attractive, but it does boast all the basics and includes a retractable USB cable for good measure.

In order to activitate the GPS itself users can just flip a switch on its underside and in case you're currently going without any type of mapping software, Deluo is also offering the $99.95 device up with Microsoft Streets and Trips 2008 for an extra $29.95, if desired.

So, following posts from below, after a GPS-equipped laptop, keyring(!) and now mouse what follows next? For more information on the device itself check http://www.deluogps.com/.