Using an airplane to take pictures of the ground and then translate the images into maps was first reported as being done by the French photographer and balloonist Gaspard-Félix Tournachon, in 1858 over Paris. Aerial photography 1918 (source National Geo-Spatial) During World War 1, the English (and the Germans) used aerial reconnaissance extensively and during that time, in 1912, Frederick … Read more
Nomoko, based in Zurich, Switzerland, has developed a 3D capture system based on their proprietary 1,500 MP camera and software. The company’s goal is to create large-scale 3D models, which function as digital twins with the real world. They have been creating models of large areas and cities, and after testing in Germany and Switzerland, Nomoko has released their product … Read more
It has turned into the summer of mobile workstation refreshes — and new products — for Lenovo. In June, the company launched an upgrade of its core 15-in model, the ThinkPad P52, and the introduction of a 52s. And most recently at August Siggraph, the company released a 17-inch refresh, the ThinkPad P72, along with a new (the fourth) addition … Read more
Threadripper has played a significant role in helping AMD redefine itself in the CPU market. The original Threadripper spawned from the first round of Zen generation parts in 2017, pushed the core count up to 16―more cores than the gaming or professional computing segments had seen to date. Threadripper pushed the core count up so dramatically, it forced Intel to … Read more
Now that the heavily invested and reviewed Magic Leap developers kit is getting released, I think it’s an opportune time to talk about future computing and put some of the industry developments in perspective. It was only a few short years ago that the world went nuts when Oculus got acquired by Facebook for $2 billion dollars ($3 billion all … Read more
It’s been roughly two decades since workstation OEMs were building new models on their own schedules. Back in the 90’s, vertically integrated industry pioneers like SGI, HP, Sun, IBM, and DEC produced everything, from the chassis and operating systems to the CPU and GPU chips inside. They introduced new workstations whenever they were able to deliver all the key components … Read more
Taking its place alongside the competition: The new console from Zhongshan Subor was exhibited at the China Joy gamer show. Photos from AnandTech show the new console displayed alongside the PS4. (Source: AMD) AMD’s latest semi-custom design was announced at China Joy in Shanghai when Chinese hardware manufacturer Zhongshan Subor unveiled a new console based on a new AMD processor. … Read more
Workstation users buy workstations and/or workstation accessories and peripherals for two main reasons: reliability and performance. Price is usually a low consideration because the relative cost of the hardware to the labor cost of the user and the application costs is quite small, especially over time. But reliability is critical, for all the above reasons. At Siggraph 2018 in Vancouver, … Read more
Sony recently announced the IMX586 stacked CMOS image sensor for smartphone cameras featuring 48 effective megapixels[1], and claiming to be the industry’s highest pixel count. The new product achieved a world-first (according to Sony research) ultra-compact pixel size of 0.8 μm The IMX586 is surprisingly tiny given its megapixel count. (Source: Sony) onto a 1/2-type (8.0 mm diagonal) unit, thereby … Read more
You may have been noticing some pretty cool videos out there demonstrating fast rendering, image reconstruction, facial recognition, and so much more. A great benefit of relatively recent breakthroughs of machine learning is that the rate of advances is accelerating. Machines are becoming able to take advantage of what they already know and get smarter. This was a focus at … Read more
The latest release of the new version of production renderer RenderMan was announced by Pixar Animation Studios. Version number 22 comes on the 30th anniversary of the company’s founding. The new version, RenderMan 22, brings in new features that speed up workflows for industry professionals. In particular, Pixar’s Live Rendering delivers continuous photorealism right in the applications. With always-on live … Read more
The recent release of Unreal Engine focuses on multi-platform support, and promises improved character development, for more lifelike characters. The game creation engine, Unreal Engine 4.20, introduces Niagara particle engine for VFX, a new Depth of Field (DoF) system; and in addition to the improvements to character development, Epic has improved the environment editor, making it easier for developers to … Read more
