Smithsonian taps virtual world technology to take us to Blue Mars
By 2150, it might be possible to breathe air on Mars — that’s if humans are able to develop an atmosphere on the planet. That’s pretty far off. But by next year, you should be able to explore what life on Mars would be like in a virtual world that’s drawing a great deal of attention.
Today, several technology startups are teaming up with the Smithsonian Institution to promote a museum exhibit that illustrates the concept… Continue Reading
Big Stage Entertainment brings 3-D facial animations to the iPhone
Big Stage Entertainment is bringing 3-D facial modeling to the iPhone . . . sort of.
The Los Angeles company’s newest app (dubbed iStage) lets users snap photos of themselves with their iPhone cameras and convert those photos into three dimensional photo-realistic avatars. To avoid taxing the iPhone’s hardware during the process, the application uploads the pictures to Big Stage’s servers, where it performs the 3-D conversion. Once the conversion is complete, the server shoots back… Continue Reading
Big Stage Entertainment wants you to take your 3-D avatars from game to game
If you’re going to go to a lot of trouble to create a 3-D avatar, or virtual character, you might as well spread it around. That’s the point of Big Stage Entertainment’s PortableYou program.
The company uses a facial modeling system to render a faithful version of someone’s face by building a 3-D replica from three photos taken from slightly different angles. The photorealistic product can then be imported into video games, virtual worlds, mobile applications… Continue Reading