Category Archives: Hardware

Hardware & Gadgets

iPAD + iOS 4.2

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Since it’s Thanksgiving Day, and I have just updated my iPAD to iOS 4.2, this seemed like a good time to let my thoughts out…

The new iOS 4.2 is like a “wish list” comes true for many power users (no doubt due to some demand/pressure from the business sector). The Apple website claimed that installing iOS 4.2 is like getting a new iPAD, with the addition of AirPrint, better Mail management, Folder, Multitasking, dictionary, even an iPAD locator.

One wish remained: Flash, and it is one that even Father Christmas is not able to grant. ;-) However, if you are one of the geeks (like me), you would already know that there are ways to overcome the limitation through RealVNC, TeamViewer, SplashtopRemote, and the now-you-see-it-now-you-don’t SkyFire video browser). Yet another demonstration of “if there is will, there is a way!”  The main idea behind these work-around is that you can use a faster desktop/laptop to view a Flash presentation, while simultaneously “screen dump” it (both video and audio) over to an iPAD through wireless network connection. The synchronicity depends large on the speed of your WiFi connection. So, if both machine are on the same network, it could be nearly flawless — according to this account, it is possible to run two Flash movies side-by-side without degradation.

So why do I care about iPAD? You probably know that I am not really an Apple lover, right? (I purchased Apple machines only to turn them into PCs, Yikes!) Well, I am an instructional technologists who have decided to make emerging technology my business. And I see iPAD holds a key (big one) in changing not only the way I work and teach, but also the way the next-generation of teachers teach… if I can help it.

The iPAD help me make the cross over to change my Instructional Authoring Tool class to an iPAD-compatible instructional design showcase. I explained the reasoning behind making website compatible with iPAD… and demand my students to think hard about how they can turn their web site into an iPAD compatible one…. through the introduction of big “finger touchable” buttons, specific table size (to reduce white space around the border), lots of nice graphics, Youtube video, HTML5…. the list goes on. The class will soon have its showcase, and I am already seeing some fantastic website. Like the “Learning to Draw” Website by Kalonde, and the Mineral Website by Mark. You may not notice the “big deal” when visiting their site using a laptop/desktop, but they really shine when you access it using an iPAD.

And this is the reason why I am utterly shock about the HP Slate (supposed Tablet killer)!

Once it’s on… A Windows 7 desktop. Not a touch-optimized Windows 7 desktop, just the same user interface that a desktop PC user would encounter, just now with touch capabilities. This can’t actually be the case, could it? Surely, every tech gadget maker now understands that the software is as important as the hardware. I mean, so you’re Microsoft — does the meeting go something like this?

“We need to get Windows on a touchscreen. Like, now.”

“O.K., but 10-inch touchscreens require a different kind of organization and navigation than desktops. Do you want me to optimize the O.S. for touch?”

“Nah, just make it touchable and people can figure out what to do. Throw in a pop-up keyboard and some swipey-screen action. And don’t worry if the screen is really slow to respond to scrolling and is sort of inaccurate about where you’re touching. I’m going to get a cafe latte.”

This is why I think—hope—that what we’re seeing here isn’t quite ready for prime time. Because if H.P. thinks it is? Oh boy.

Hello! Whatever happened to Touch Optimization?? Does HP not hire any instructional designer who specialize in usability testing? (May be they should send someone over to take my course!) 8-O

Happy Thanksgiving!

In C.S. Lewis’ book, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Father Christmas arrives when the Witch’s magical hold over Narnia begins to break. He gives Peter, Susan and Lucy gifts, which ultimately will help them defeat the White Witch. Mrs Beaver is given a better sewing machine and Mr. Beaver gets his dam completed.

Military Training: 3D simulator

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In this article, CBS journalist David Martin reports:

Retired Army Sergeant Mark Covey runs what is undoubtedly the most high stakes video gaming center in the world. The videos are posted on a classified web site where soldiers bound for Iraq and Afghanistan practice against the latest enemy tactics. That’s just the beginning of what the Army has in mind: 3D battlefield simulations.

“This is next step in the serious gaming for training and that is to take a soldier and put him in the environment,” Covey said. “So in this case you know we’re in a humvee.”

The aim is to download the 3D simulations into a warehouse big enough to hold an entire platoon of soldiers learning to clear a village wherever the next war might be.

“We can rapidly change. We can go from an Afghan village to an Iraqi village to perhaps somewhere in the Philippines,” Covey said. “You’re only limited by your imagination.”

Military Training: 3D Simulator (Note the 3D glasses)

In the video segment, Sergeant Vane told Martin that since “3D monitors are prevalent in retail market…” with the 3D glasses, one can call up any file format (does he mean the 3D files?) and display in this type of “CAVE” to allow soldiers to get a feel of what it is like to be in the training environments (whether it is a Hum-V, a battle field, or a village…)

You can witness for yourself, how Martin flinched in real time (with sound effects), as he thought he was about to bump into the roof of a vehicle, or slam into a doorway… Of course, none of what he “saw” is real, but his reaction was very, very real! (This type of reactions argued for 3D simulation, hands down!)

A longer CBS coverage is also available on the YouTube:

Year of 3D-Entertainment

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New Alienware 3D-ready monitor

The 2010 CES has just ended, and already, it appeared that this is the year for 3D TV. All manner of 3D glasses and technology were being showcased.

  1. New 3D TVs line up from Sony, Panasonic,….
  2. New Blu-Ray 3D software players from Cyberlink and ArcSoft.
  3. More 3D games line-up: Avatar: The Game, Batman: Arkham Asylum, Dark Void, Just Cause 2, Need for Speed: Shift, Resident Evil 5, Dirt 2…
  4. A new Blu-Ray 3D spec for your new PS3! Finally, with 3D movie playback capability (see report and photo here). You don’t even have to buy a new PS3 as Sony is committed to a forward-compatible firmware update for existing PS3 (link).
  5. Alienware announced a new 23″, 120Hz monitor (1920×1080) that works with nVidia’s 3D vision glasses. The new OptX AW2310 is priced at $599 (online price) and will probably go for $550 (street price) when it become available. (link)
  6. Not forgetting that iZ3D is already selling 120Hz monitors that will allow you to view 3D games/movies with any video cards with dual-output. Comes with cool shades, too!
  7. ATI supporting 3D! Mobo maker MSI has already posted a beta version of Catalyst 10.1 on their web site (as reported by Guru3D). You can download XP, Vista and Windows 7 (32/64bit) drivers from the previous link). The new Catalyst driver will allow 3rd-party manufacturers (such as IZ3D) to use their 3D solution with 120 Hz screens. The new driver will officially support Bit Cauldron glasses (see #8).
  8. Instead of using the nVidia style (IR controlled) 3D active-shutter glasses, the Bit Cauldron’s glasses are wirelessly controlled passive-shutter glasses. The wireless signal is supposed to be more stable than IR and can support more glasses with a single emitter. You also don’t have to worry if having a Nintendo Wii in the same room will interfere with the IR signals. (see YouTube CES coverage here).
  9. NVidia supporting surround game! Interestingly, Nvidia announced that they too are going to support surround gaming, with their 3D Vision Surround technology. (see the first report here). Will ATI and Nvidia now compete for the same 3D, (multi-monitor) surround gaming market, or converge?
  10. How about YouTube 3D? Soon to come to a desktop near you, playable with a new 3D-capable Flash Player, and viewable with NVIDIA 3D Vision glasses…

You Tube 3D: Join the secret testing!

But for me, the best news of all is the remaking of Star Wars (George Lucas) and the Lord of the Ring (Peter Jackson) in glorious 3D!!!

3D-Ready DLP

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In order to create the 3D-MUVE I had envisioned for the V-Lab, I needed a way to generate a 3D world. (Disclaimer: the idea was formed in Oct 2008, WAY before I watched James Cameron’s Avatar in 3D.)

Now, the Alienware with the ATI Radeon 5870 (Eyefinity) may have been set up for “surround gaming”, but unfortunately, the high-end Radeon will not do 3D it is now possible to do 3D using the ATI Radeon cards with iZ3D’s driver! I had originally thought that a PC with an NVida card that is hooked up to any large screen would do it, but to my dismay, it was not so. I was hoping to get the new Samsung LED TV at 240 Hz, but (shocking) they are not 3D ready! There used to be two manufacturers who produce 3D-ready DLPs (i.e. Samsung and Mitsubishi), but it appeared that Samsung has dropped out of the race. So Misubitshi is now the only manufacturer that is making 3D ready DLPs. [The new 3D ready TV doesn't use cyan-red color separation to show the left-right image, instead they made use of polarization technology (as in the case of JC's Avatar). Rear-projected DLPs are different because they convert the left right stream into a checker-board patterns (white-on, black-off) to project the correct image to each of the two eyes.] (More on “3D ready TV/DLP” in this article.)

Answer: The 3D glasses from Avatar will not work with nVidia’s 3D kit. Those glasses will work with 3D projectors that use polarization technology. :-(

Answer 2: Added on Feb 3, 2010: iZ3D & ATI Radeon will be the answer! :-)

Anyhow, I had to order a GeForce GTX 285 for the Alienware computer, in order to turn it (from a surround game machine) into a 3D MUVE generator. The card arrived yesterday, and I couldn’t wait to try it.

After installing the needed software drivers and connecting the hardware (like the image shown below), I was instructed to turn on the 3D glasses and put it on. What I viewed next was several 3D photos, but (wow!) that initial effect was totally mind-blowing! You totally need to see it in order to believe it.

Connecting: PC » 3D Vision kit » DLP

Connecting: PC » 3D Vision kit » DLP

Note the 3D glasses emitter port in the diagram? Most of the time, they are simply labeled as “3D Sync Out” behind the DLP. And yes, a DLP with this 3-pin port is 3D ready. A DLP  without it is not a 3D ready DLP.

3D Sync Out port

3D Sync Out por

Since viewing 3D photo is working fine, I then fire up NWN2 to see how well it fare under the 3D settings. Unfortunately, even though I can “sense” the 3D-ness of the NWN2 game world, the 3D effect was no way near as spectacular as the 3D photos. [Perhaps I should have checked nVidia's list of "approved" 3D-games first? NWN2 was not listed as compatible at all.]

Since I ran out of time today, I will be back tomorrow to report on Resident Evil 5 — which is one of two 3D ready games currently available on the market. (The second one being Batman: Arkham Asylum).

Apart from the 3D readiness, I noticed two oddities.

  1. the PC screen was cut off by the DLP. (I lost about 1-2 inches of screen real estate all around)
  2. there is no sound output through the DLP (I am connecting it from PC to DLP using HDMI)

There are some suggestions on how to fix them on the Web and in the product manual. Perhaps I will work on it tomorrow and report a fix. (Stay tuned.)

P.S.: Came across the 3D Vision Blog which discusses 3D gaming. There is even a write-up and AVISynth plugin for converting 2D movies to 3D. Hmm…. interesting!

Digital 3D Movie

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Fan Made Poster of AVATAR

Fan Made Poster of AVATAR

I was hoping to watch Avatar in IMAX glory, but since the nearest IMAX is 5 hours away, I must settle for Digital 3D.

Like many people who reviewed it, the story is similar to Dances with Wolves, and The Last Mohican. Also, as my wife commented, there are glimpses of Pocahontas, and Star Wars in it. (Is it just me? Or did you see World of Warcraft in there as well? Especially the florescence night world on Pandora?)

[Side thoughts: If you watched carefully, you will noticed that many of the 3D scenes (with in-your-face objects) are filmed in such a way as to maximize the 3D effects. So watching the same scene as 2D will be kind of meaningless. And just in case you are sucked in by the "it took James Cameron 10 years to film this because the technology has just caught up..." Don't be fooled.

Depending on who you talked to, it's not so much the 3D technology that has improved (as some would say the 3D technology has not changed much within the last 6-10 years...) but the CGI technology to be able create a (3D) CGI world that looks both real and believable. (A technology that George Lucas "pioneered" in his Star Wars III, refined by Peter Jackson in LoTR trilogy, and now 3D-ize by Cameron.) It is mostly the software-side that's been improved due to faster processors.

Anyhow, it is not the movie I want to comment here, but the Digital 3D technology. First of all, if you visit the offical website, you will notice RealD's logo. Now RealD is a 3D technology company not unlike NVidia. It looks like RealD is to movie world what NVidia is to the PC world.

Now, will Avatar be enough to create a demand for the 3D glasses technology? (I wonder.)

Even their CrystalEye 5 glasses looked like NVidia's 3D stereoscopic glasses. No, not the older, Anaglyph (Red-Cyan) glasses from the days of Jaws-3D (right image, below), but the newer, polarized glasses with liquid crystal display (left and middle image, below).

3D glasses

(left to right): RealD's CrystalEye5, NVidia's 3D-stereo & 3D vision (anaglyph) glasses

Curious: Will I be able to use the RealD glasses with my NVidia-based 3D generator?

Let’s try. (Will report later.)