Free-dimensional cinematography

We saw a glimpse of this with Bullet Time in the Matrix movies and with Microsoft's Photosynth, but now a company called Replay Technologies has come up with the next evolution in what they call Free Dimensional Video.

Our technology works by capturing reality not as just a two-dimensional representation, but as a true three-dimensional scene, comprised of three-dimensional “pixels” that faithfully represent the fine details of the scene. This information is stored as a freeD™ database, which can then be tapped to produce (render) any desired viewing angle from the detailed information.

This enables a far superior way of capturing reality, which allows breaking free from the constraints of where a physical camera with a particular lens had been placed, allowing a freedom of viewing which has endless possibilities.
 

Essentially, you can choose any camera angle in post and the software can recreate it even if there was no camera shooting from that vantage point.

You can see an example of this in the tennis replays in the video below.

Amazing, and also refreshing, for once, to see a video technology debut in sports broadcast coverage instead of pornography.

The instant-on computer

A long time ago, when I was at Amazon, someone asked Jeff Bezos during an employee meeting what he thought would be the single thing that would most transform Amazon's business.

Bezos replied, "An instant-on computer." He went on to explain that he meant a computer that when you hit a button would instantly be ready to use. Desktops and laptops in those days, and still even today, had a really long bootup process. Even when I try to wake my Macbook Pro from sleep, the delay is bothersome.

Bezos imagined that people with computers which were on with the snap of a finger would cause people to use them more frequently, and the more people were online, the more they'd shop from Amazon. It's like the oft-cited Google strategy of just getting more people online since it's likely they'd run across an ad from Google somewhere given its vast reach.

We now live in that age, though it's not the desktops and laptops but our tablets and smart phones that are the instant-on computers. Whether it's transformed Amazon's business, I can't say; they have plenty going for them. But it's certainly changed our usage of computers generally. I only ever turn off my iPad or iPhone if something has gone wrong and I need to reboot them or if I'm low on battery power and need to speed up recharging.

In this next age, anything that cannot turn on instantly and isn't connected to the internet at all times will feel deficient.

Juan Genoves

In the lobby of Daniel hangs a giant painting by Juan Genoves. I had not heard of Genoves until last weekend in NYC when I attended my niece's first birthday at Daniel, but I really liked his painting of a crowd of people seen from high overhead. The “crowd” is one of the recurring themes in his work.

Up close, his paintings have a 3D quality as the quantity of the paint used for each person in the crowd rises a bit off the canvas, reinforcing the depth created by each person's shadow.

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Charlotte turns 1

A few pics from my niece Charlotte's first birthday. She's half-Korean so she had a doljanchi, a Korean tradition celebrating a child's first birthday.

The highlight of the event was the part where Charlotte was placed on one end of a blanket with four objects on the other side: a spool of yarn, a paint brush, a pencil, and money. The first object she chose would tell her fortune: the yarn signified long life, the paint brush creativity, the pencil wisdom, and the money...money. 

Charlotte looked befuddled as everyone looked at her and urged her on, then she crawled over and put her hand on the money, at which point the room erupted in cheers which startled and confused her.

Obama to appear on Between Two Ferns

President Obama's appearance on Funny or Die's Between Two Ferns will post tomorrow morning at 7:30am.

Sure, Obama came of age in the dawn of the internet, but it still feels like he's leaned forward on social media more than the average President would have. I'll always think of him as our first intentionally viral President (Bush having been more “unintentionally” viral).