Autodesk’s Photofly Can Turn An Image Into A 3D Model

Autodesk's Photofly 3D

Thursday, May 26, 2011, 22:33

Design software giant Autodesk has developed a new software that will help you design a three dimensional model of anything by just taking a few snaps from your digital camera or cell phone. This new product will be launched as free software next week and will allow you to get a 3D model of anything you want by using a set of images that you clicked and printing it with a 3D printer. This awesome software is named Photofly and it provides an accurate customized structure by overlapping photos. The 3D mesh created by the images is very sharp and highly detailed with precision and density of a laser scanner. The product was developed by a branch of the company called the Autodesk Labs which is headed by Brian Mathews.

The performance of this cool design tool is comparable to a laser scanner but there is a huge difference in the cost of the two. It is very affordable technique and even 40 images taken from the proper angles are sufficient to obtain a three dimensional model of a man’s face and neck with well defined expressions and details. An important point to note is that the software is currently available for the computers with Windows OS only. All the images for creating the model are uploaded to a cloud server where it is processed and the final output can be downloaded by the user. The resultant three dimensional version will appear as a naked wire-frame model of the captured scene or a version with realistic surface color and texture. The colored designs can be viewed in an iPad app but for sharing and editing, the underlying mesh ahs to be exported in standard 3D format.

If the photos are taken correctly, the model will have a spatial accuracy up to 99% and it is more than sufficient for professional designing. So the images can be physically recreated with the help of advanced printers and 3D printing services which have become cheaper in past few years. Machines like Makerbot and services such as Shapeways print these models in ceramics, plastics, and even metals.

This enhanced version of Photofly is the first of its kind consumer that provides such degree of accuracy. A few software and apps like Microsoft’s Photosynth had come before this but they produced far less detailed prints. Photofly has a very well defined algorithm that processes the images through a lot of steps. Initially, it determines the different positions from where each picture is taken. It uses the triangulation method based on the different views of certain distinctive features. After that, it goes through a more detailed triangulation function, generates a 3d surface for everything visible by using contrasting images. However, not many users have experienced it yet so it is not clear that whether its user friendly or not. The success of this software will pave the way for other such unique ideas and 2D images will be a thing of the past. It has got a number of applications in structural designing, recreating objects in archeology and paleontology, etc. It can be used to take a bunch of photos and very quickly design a 3D model to make the vital measurements needed to figure out what needs to be done to make any house or building greener and energy efficient.

Image Credit: Imaging Resource

Stating the Obvious for Geotagging

Geo-Tagged Photos Provide New Insight
by MATT BALL on MAY 25, 2011

 There are six or more cameras on the market today with built-in GPS, and geo-tagged pictures of road conditions, fire damage, logging activity, and storm damage document on-the-ground conditions. The benefit of photo data collection is that everyone can take a picture, and so that makes a broad number of personnel into data collectors.

Read more related Spatial Sustain posts:

• Is the geospatial data collection space still ripe for innovation?
• The Need for an Enhanced National Elevation Data Set
• Hearings on Privacy Implications of Location in Smartphones Underway
• High-Accuracy Handhelds Improve Operations

Smartphone Heart Monitor

Smartheart Turns Your Mobile Phone Into A Heart Monitor

from TechCrunch by Rip Empson

3 people liked this

 According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States. As this is the case, there are many of us in the U.S. — and across the globe — who have had heart disease or cardiac illnesses affect our lives in many unpleasant ways. Today, thanks to advances in modern technology, we are beginning to see services, devices, and applications that may one day prevent heart attacks and heart-related conditions (currently, 1 American has a heart attack every 34 seconds). SHL Telemedicine, which is bringing personalized health care to mobile, announced today at Disrupt NYC a new medical gadget called “smartheart”. Smartheart is a lightweight personal electrocardiogram (or ECG) that allows you to monitor your heart in realtime.
Using smartheart, within 30 seconds, any end user is able to record a hospital-grade ECG and transmit it to their doctor, cardiologist, or hospital to get a diagnosis in realtime. Those who’ve experienced electrocardiograms at a hospital or doctor’s office know that the process typically involves lying down on a bed, while doctors prod you with multiple sticky monitors, attaching them to different places on the chest. Smartheart, on the other hand, is lighter and sleeker than traditional ECGs, only involves one monitor, and can be strapped around the chest. Smartheart ECGs, as I was lucky enough to demonstrate onstage, can be made standing up.

The accompanying free app, which is available on iPhone, Android, and BlackBerry, connects to the ECG wirelessly, and displays, through a nifty interface, the level of battery power and connectivity. Once the device has been configured with the app, connection happens within seconds. Then, you’re free to begin taking your pulse, so to speak. In as little as 30 seconds, the app will display your results and give you the opportunity to email them directly to your physician. For those who find themselves in harrowing circumstances, the app will immediately identify an irregular or abnormal heart condition and send an alert to the user in realtime.
And the best thing? The device itself will cost $500. That’s less than the price of an iPhone, and generally speaking, the iPhone (itself) can’t save your life. Yet. Further data analysis, reports, and other medical advice will be made available on a subscription basis for what Smartheart VP Shay Leibovitz said will be a low price, “way under $20 a month”, he says.
Now, as someone who had heart surgery at a young age, I am without a doubt biased towards this kind of technology. But, to me, a free application and a lightweight, hospital-grade, and cheap device that can be used by anyone with a smartphone, from anwhere, is pretty cool. Really cool. Not only that, but the potential positive medical effects a device like this could have is dramatic. Considering that Leibovitz says that 50 percent of heart-related deaths happen before one can get to the hospital, preemptive monitoring and treatment can have some amazing life-saving potential.

Super High Speed MicroSD

Kingston puts out Class 10, 32GB microSDHC card

updated 07:15 pm EDT, Mon May 23, 2011

Kingstone card transfers data at 10 MB per second

Kingston Digital has added a 32GB Class 10 microSDHC card to its product lineup.
The 10MB per second minimum data transfer rate makes the card suited for higher
demand such as high-resolution photos or HD video capture from a smartphone,
when both the speed and the size are important. Class 10 is already common in
full-size SD cards but is still rare in the mobile world.

The card, available now, costs $153. This 32GB version joins Kingston's 4GB to 16GB
models that were introduced in March.

Read more: http://www.electronista.com/articles/11/05/23/kingstone.card.transfers.data.at.10.mb.per.second/#ixzz1NKL0YCUN

3D Printing Goes Prosumer?

Video: Check Out BlaBlabLabs’ 3D Body Scanner/Printer At TC Disrupt

by John Biggs on May 24, 2011
Tags: 3d printing, 3d scanner, disrupt, sonos, video

BlablabLab and 3D Systems (along with some help from Sonos) set up an amazing exhibit at Techcrunch Disrupt. Essentially, it’s a 3D scanner/printer that grabs a 3D copy of your body and then prints it out into a 3-inch high figurine. It is, in short, magical.

Two members of the BlablabLab group have manned the gear all day and they’ve scanned quite a few attendees, presenting them with a finished figurine in about 15 minutes. The system uses three Kinect sensors that creates a 3D cloud of points and then the pair cleans up the figurine and adds smoothing and webbing to keep small parts from breaking off. They tried to scan me but they ran out of plastic for my Vladimir Harkonnen-like rotundity.

Check out the video above for a closer look at the hardware and process.

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John Biggs is a Brooklyn-based writer. You can Tweet him here and email him at john at crunchgear dot com.

Long-duration Auto-Imaging

Minox captures wildlife

from (title unknown) by Paul Worthington

The DTC 500 from Minox captures outdoor photographs to “keep track of animal activities around the clock.”


The camera is an extremely helpful and reliable tool for the observation and management of game in any terrain, Minox adds, and with its short shutter lag of just 1 second — and a battery life of over 6 months — the DTC 500 “is a very reliable companion out in the reserve.”
The 8-megapixel camera has an infrared flash with a range of up to 15 meters that “delivers reliable shots, even in unfavorable light or in twilight,” the company says.
It’s housed in a weatherproof plastic body that measures 6 by 4.5 by 2.6 inches.
The $349 camera tags each image with not just date and time but temperature and moon phase.
More information is here.

Photoshop De-noising via Clever Processing

Controlling noise reduction

from (title unknown) by Paul Worthington

NoiseControl removes image noise and other artifacts, claims developer  The Plugin Site, while keeping image edges and details intact and at the same time applies sophisticated sharpening without amplifying noise.

It distinguishes details from noise by performing “thousands of clever calculation per pixel,” the Nuremberg, Germany-based company says.
The software also offers saturation and grain features for enhancing the image after denoising. It can also apply denoising with extreme settings to create painting-like effects.
In order to selectively adjusting the denoising for various image areas, NoiseControl allows you to alter the denoising parameters in shadows, midtones, highlights and nine color areas of the image. These selective adjustments can be performed with the help of sliders or by clicking on the appropriate image area with the eyedropper tool and dragging left or right.
The Photoshop-compatible plug-in for Windows is $50.