Nintendo 3DS Revealed at E3: No Price or Release Date Yet [Ninteno]

Big N today took wraps off of their much-anticipated Nintendo 3DS handheld video game system at the E3 2010 show.

The new handheld looks sort of like a DSi, but features a widescreen 3.5″ 3D display at the top which requires no glasses to see the its 3D effect. In addition to the classic touchscreen interface, control is provided through an analog “slide” control, which is located above the D-Pad, and the 3DS also includes a motion sensor and gyroscopic controls. There’s also a special “3D depth” slider, which lets you adjust the 3D effect to your personal taste (and eyeballs).

The system will also be backwards-compatible with games from the DSi. They also revealed that the 3DS would feature a significantly improved graphics chipset, capable of cranking out graphics that look almost as good or better than a Wii from what we can tell. Check out the example screen from the launch title Kid Icarus Uprising for an example of what to expect:

Nintendo also surprised us today, showing off a dual-lens camera on the back of the 3DS, allowing you to shoot your own 3D images, although it’s not clear if it supports video, or just still images.

Nintendo also revealed the 3DS will support playback of Hollywood blockbusters in 3D on the handheld’s glasses-free display. In addition, the 3DS will be able to communicate wirelessly, even when asleep, allowing game downloads, and even persistent universes which continue to update when you’re not playing.

Word from launch developers is that the 3D effect on the 3DS is nothing short of spectacular, with objects literally flying off the screen without need for any glasses.

Nintendo’s initial first-party titles for the 3DS include Kid Icarus Uprising, Mario Kart, nintendogs + cats, PilotWings Resort, Animal Crossing, StarFox 64, Steel Diver and Paper Mario.

There’s no word yet on pricing or a release date for the 3DS, but as soon as we know, we’ll be sure to let you know.

[technabob, Photo Credit: Engadget]

Even the New $100 Bill is Going 3D [Money]

If you had any doubts that 2010 is the year of 3D, this may put them to rest. The U.S. Treasury unveiled the new ISL 373.51 ($100) bill today, which incorporates a “3D Security Ribbon” to combat piracy.
The security strip’s series of digits and bell images jump to 3D life when you tilt the bill, making it far faster to check whether or not the note is real.

The 3D ribbon is only one of a bevy of new state-of-the-art security features designed to stay ahead of counterfeiters, who are responsible for making the Ben Franklin-graced bill the most frequently faked paper currency. His visage stays on the new note, but the rest of the ISL 373.51 ($100) gets a serious makeover, including a portrait watermark, second security thread, and a Liberty Bell image that turns from copper to green color when tilted.

As if that weren’t enough, the U.S. Treasury went all out and made a blockbuster release video for the new ISL 373.51 ($100) bill. Check it out below and let us know what you think of 3D pervading even our very wallets.

[Mashable]

Mitsubishi WD-82738: 82 Inches of 3D TV For Only $3800 [HomeTheater]

Mitsubishi announced three new lines of (relatively) affordable 3D Home Cinema TVs today, but the one that sticks out? An 82-inch DLP that puts jumbo-sized 3D in your home for under ISL 14,796.69 ($4,000.)

The trade-off, of course, is that DLP is going to put a little junk in your TV's trunk. But it's a trade-off I'd be willing to make for the price. The WD-82738 steps up from last year's WD-82737 by adding StreamTV Internet Media—with applications ranging from Pandora to Vudu to NY Times. The WD-82838, another 82-inch set that costs ISL 16,646.28 ($4,500,) also includes Immersive Sound Technology, an integrated 16-speaker 5.1 surround sound system.

And if you don't need that much screen real estate, the WD-60638 (the smallest in the series) gives you a 60-inch 3D DLP for ISL 4,439.01 ($1200.) For a 3D set, however fat, that's pretty impressive.

Availability and Suggested Retail Pricing:

638 Series

WD-60638 - ISL 4,435.31 ($1,199.00) WD-65638 - ISL 5,545.06 ($1,499.00) WD-73638 - ISL 7,394.65 ($1,999.00)

738 Series

WD-60738 - ISL 5,175.14 ($1,399.00) WD-65738 - ISL 6,654.81 ($1,799.00) WD-73738 - ISL 8,874.32 ($2,399.00) WD-82738 - ISL 14,053.16 ($3,799.00)

838 Series

WD-65838 - ISL 8,134.48 ($2,199.00) WD-73838 - ISL 10,353.98 ($2,799.00) WD-82838 - ISL 16,642.58 ($4,499.00)

[Gizmodo]

This is either the Nintendo 3DS or an over-the-top mock-up [Nintendo]

We’re not sure what to make of this thing. On one hand the design is clearly out of the box in a way Nintendo tends to think, but the twisting and turning seems just a tad too far from the norm to be real. But the Japanese site says it’s the real deal so it must be real.



The handheld seems to have everything that we’re expecting with a touchscreen autostereoscopic screen with a 854×512 resolution that’s stylus-friendly along with a dual screen mode to replicate the functionality of current DS games. Then there’s the input controls that are clearly designed to work in a 3D space that are obviously included. But it’s the extras that make us question if this thing could really be real.



Apparently the device can generate 3D objects in a augmented reality mode using two rear-facing cameras and sensor. The same sensor can also double as a sort of object scanner to import real objects into the virtual space. The performance is also said to be in the same class as the PS2/GameCube and the unit will reportable be able to link up with the Wii for some sort of VC sharing. The article goes on to tell a tale of WiMAX, WiFi, and even an optional keyboard for some blogging – seriously. It might just be too good to be true.

The post states that the 3DS should hit stores (probably in Japan first) next March 31st and Nintendo will official unveil the unit at E3 in the coming weeks. Jump over to the site and peek the pics. What do you think? Real or fake?

[TechCrunch via Mogu Mogu via Kotaku]

MSI Introducing First Ever 24-Inch 3D All-In-One PC Next Week [All-in-ones]

MSI made some all-in-one noise at CES with the AE2420, and they're stepping it up again for next week's CeBIT 2010 show in Germany. There, they'll introduce the world's first large screen all-in-one PC capable of handling 1080p 3D media.

The 3D AIO will have a 24-inch 120Hz LED display, 1080p resolution, and will be paired with 3D shutter glasses. Other than that, details are scarce—there's no word even on what processor it'll use, other than that it'll be "powerful." But by making the announcement this early, MSI gets ahead of the eventual crush of 3D all-in-one announcements that'll no doubt build throughout the year.

The multitouch, Core i3/i5/i7 AE2420 and AE2280 AIOs will also be on display at CeBIT, as will MSI's business-oriented, eco-friendly AP1920/AE1920 all-in-ones. But no matter how many other models they bring, all eyes are going to be the 3D PC. At least, as many as they brought 3D glasses for.
[Gizmodo]

This $400 3D Camera May Not Be James Cameron Approved [Camcorders]

Panasonic may be aggressively pushing their $21,000 3D camera for broadcasters and indie film types, but already, smaller players are applying the laws of cheap manufacturing to 3D cams.
By DXG (if you've never heard of them, we don't blame you), this pistol-grip pocket cam shoots in dual-lens 3D. Its 3-inch display has been said to look 'almost holographic,' plus it comes with an extra 7-inch display for watching 3D content (I believe the screens use glassesless parallax barrier tech).
The video itself is recorded to motion JPEG, which while an accepted standard in 2D, probably won't be compatible with 3D systems into the future—plus there's no word on resolution. But hey, 3D, just like Avatar! Look for the 3D DXG camera this June.
[Gizmodo via DVICE via OhGizmo!]

OLED ID cards creepy, probably helpful [ID]

I question the actually utility of this, except for in corporate ID badging. It is cool though, combining OLED, RFID, and 3D into an ID. Plus, how is that for an alphabet soup of acronyms?

[CrunchGear via NetbookNews]

Suck It, Street View, Navteq Maps the World in 3D... With Lasers [GPS]

Google's Street View team famously photographs all kinds of weird stuff as they drive the world, but Navteq, who basically invented this stuff, just built a mount with seven cameras and 64 lasers to see everything better, in 3D.
Mounted atop a VW Jetta wagon is this crazy apparatus with a 12-megapixel panoramic camera on top and six more cameras pointed in specific directions to pick up signs and other data points. But the best gadgetry—the laser array—is housed inside a rapidly spinning barrel positioned at an angle. By using LIDAR, basically radar but with lasers, they scan everything within view, capturing 1.2 million points of data every second. The result is all kinds of terrain data that is not possible using just cameras.

The goal is "high accuracy maps," a deliberately vague notion that ranges from additional information—bridge underpass clearance heights, multilayer cloverleaf navigation and other obvious issues—to super rich 3D environments like the ones you see below. Those aren't CG renderings, in the traditional sense, it's laser-enriched photography.

Navteq, a Chicago company owned by Nokia who has been driving around making maps since the first GPS satellites were hurled into orbit, still provides a massive share of map data for web and devices, so the fruits of this tech might get to you sooner than you know.
As for your own personal rig, I sure want one, and my guess is that Google wants one too—if they don't have it already.
[Gizmodo via Navteq]

Samsung's LED LCD HDTV Lineup: The 9000 Does 3D and Has a Video-Previewing Touch Remote [HDTVs]

Samsung's LED LCD televisions are here and the flagship 9000 is a doozy. It's the only one they're calling 'ultra thin', has 3D support in late 2010 and a touch remote that shows you content from other video sources!

The thinness (it's as skinny as a pencil) is achieved by shoving lots of guts into the pedestal, which doubles as a wall mount. The set can convert 2D content into 3D, although I'm sure of dubious quality. The remote looks rather Apple-ish in UI, but it can show you, as I said before, content from other sources, like live TV while watching a Blu-ray on the big screen. It has 240Hz tech, which we've never noticed as important in image quality, but it's there (needed for 3D). No word on sizes or prices, yet. There's Samsung app support, but platforms like these are never really well supported. The frame is very shiny.



The rest:

8000 Series: Not as thin as the 9000, it uses edge lit technology and has what Samsung claims is the advantage of backlighting with localized dimming. 240Hz. No prices or sizes. 3D, and treatment to upconvert 2D to 3D. Samsung apps.

7000 Series: No edgelit with localized dimming advantages as in the 8000. 240Hz. No prices or sizes. 3D, and treatment to upconvert 2D to 3D. Samsung apps. 'Touch of Color' translucent frame from last year, with a new 4 legged stand.

6500 Series: 120Hz, 'touch of color' finish. DLNA streaming capabilities. Apps. No 3D. No prices or sizes. Coming the first half of 2010, unlike the above which are coming in '2010'.
5000 Series: Focus on low power usage, including a low power monitor. DLNA, and USB port media playback.
[Gizmodo]

DirecTV to debut world's first 3D HDTV channel

DirecTV's launching a new satellite tonight, giving them beaucoups bandwidth for the world's first all-HD 3D channel. The satellite provider plans to populate that channel with movies, sports and other 3D programs.

There's not much technical information about what kind of 3D they'll be satcasting, but the company does say its HDTV satellite receivers will be able to show 3D content after a firmware upgrade. More details will be forthcoming at the 2010 Consumer Electronics Show on January 7.

Oops, there's one catch: To watch this stuff, you'll need to choose a brand-new 3D-capable HDTV from Panasonic, Sony, Samsung, LG or others — set to go on sale after their rollout next month. So what's the point of this 3D onslaught? Is it to bring us a richer viewing experience, or sell more TV sets? Our answer: It's a little of the former, and lots of the latter.

[DVICE via HD Guru]

New CAT scan technology allows for 3D imaging of individual cells [3D Model]

Medical imaging is an interesting field. There are things like fMRI, PET scans, CAT scans, radioactive dye traces, and a million other different techniques — but they’re usually so limited and specific (as extraordinary as they are) that there’s always a need for a new one. In this case it’s soft X-ray tomography, a variant on the more familiar CAT scan.

Normal X-rays penetrate too effectively for them to be used on individual cells; the amount of interference provided by the cell is simply not enough to detect and create an image from. So they use soft X-rays, which have a slightly longer wavelength than the kind used on a broken arm. A new technique developed by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has enabled soft X-ray images to be taken quickly and sequentially, and then assembled into a 3D model of the subject.

It’s not “live” like an fMRI, and it doesn’t provide the detail one finds in electron microscopy, but obviously it’s very useful. I doubt any of us will ever run into one of these machines in real life, but it’s cool to know they exist.

[CrunchGear via Reddit]

Tell Us What You'd Shoot Using a Camera With 158 Lenses [Camera]

The Guinness World Records doesn't just award insanely tall men and disgusting long fingernails, you know. Sometimes they happen over to our side of the crazy pool, to give recognition to things like the camera with the most lenses ever.
Created at the Nagoya Institute of Technology of Japan (it had to be Japan), the camera you can see above was constructed using 158 lenses, which were attached in four rows, spanning 47cm in diameter. As each lens only cost $2.10 it's entirely realistic to try and top their record for next year's Guinness book, but bear in mind it took the team of students six months to build. Better organize some cheap labor.
[Gizmodo via Sankei News via CrunchGear]

Spacy ZScanner Shoots Lasers, Just Not of the Pew-Pew Variety [3D]

Z Corporation's Z-Scanner looks like a 23rd century View-Master, and in some ways it is. This scanner uses lasers to capture complex forms in 3D, with resolution up to 40 microns. Set shields to full for the hands-on video below!

Autodesk University 2009: Z Corp from Core77 on Vimeo.

[Gizmodo via Core77]

Face Recognition Door Lock Thwarts Bad Relatives and Employees [Biometrics]

Actually, this bit of business is designed to keep track of the comings and goings of employees using facial recognition instead of punchcards, but there is no reason why you can't use it to protect the house during the holidays.
Model CVJB-G107 features dual cameras (creating a 3D image that prevents false matches using a simple 2D photograph) , night vision, a 3.5 inch TFT display screen, touch keypad, USB and Ethernet port for TCP/IP connections, the ability to register up to 500 faces, and a verification process that supposedly takes less than a second. Using all of this it can store up to 150,000 attendance records of employees, as well as determine which of your relatives are allowed to attend the holiday party this year.
[Gizmodo via Chinavision via TRFJ]

Investigators Reveal Folding Principles of the Human Genome

Scientists have long been speculating on how DNA gets packaged inside chromosomes while remaining readable and easily accessible. In a paper just published in Science, researchers from Harvard and MIT have discovered that sections of the DNA bunch together into 'fractal globule, a knot-free, polymer conformation that enables maximally dense packing while preserving the ability to easily fold and unfold any genomic locus.' The image on the side shows the 'equilibrium globule' configuration that was thought to be the structure (left) and the actual configuration (right) that was identified by the team.

Key to deciphering the genome's structure was the development of the new Hi-C technique, which permits genome-wide analysis of the proximity of individual genes. The scientists first used formaldehyde to link together DNA strands that are nearby in the cell's nucleus. They then determined the identity of the neighboring segments by shredding the DNA into many tiny pieces, attaching the linked DNA into small loops, and performing massively parallel DNA sequencing.

Lieberman-Aiden observed that the data suggest a fractal globule. He then teamed up with Mirny and Mirny's student Maxim Imakaev to confirm his hypothesis and demonstrate conclusively that the Hi-C data matched fractal globule behavior. Computer simulations further helped to reveal biologically important features of such a DNA architecture.

In future experiments, the researchers hope to follow the development of stem cells into mature cell types such as kidney cells, says Lieberman-Aiden. 'We want to understand how that process takes place, because it clearly involves some 3-D remodeling of the nucleus.'

Press release: A new dimension for genome studies...

Abstract in Science: Comprehensive Mapping of Long-Range Interactions Reveals Folding Principles of the Human Genome

[Medgadget]

MIT’s Autonomous Helicopter: What if Big Dog Could Fly? [Robots]

The latest Micro Air Vehicle from MIT does an incredible job of balancing itself in-air. Not to mention that the helicopter models it's surroundings so well it could probably fly over to the fridge and make you a sandwich.
By using lasers and 3D cameras, the team built a vision engine that can very accurately define the helicopter's surrounding environment. That's only part of the trick to getting it to fly so well, the other half is some pretty sweet flight path correction. Think of it like a flying Big Dog. Check out what happens when the guy pokes it with a stick.
Hopefully no one sticks a spinning blade on this thing. Wouldn't want that flying through my window at night. [Gizmodo via MIT Tech TV via Engadget]

BumpTop 3D Desktop Gets Unique Multi-Touch Gestures [Multitouch]

For all its new multi-touch goodness, Windows 7 only has about 7 basic gestures. So if you're all about the touch (and say, have a tablet PC) BumpTop's stack of unique new gestures could be a very good thing.
As we've mentioned in the past, BumpTop isn't a new OS or shell replacement, it just adds a 3D workspace to your desktop. The $30 mulit-touch version of the software is available now, but you'll need to have Windows 7 (and a multi-touch tablet, laptop or all-in-one PC). The good news: we're going to see a bunch of those arrive alongside the new OS on October 22.


[Gizmodo via BumpTop via TechCrunch]

Nvidia Fermi Next-Gen Graphics Architecture Has 512 Cores for Radioactively Melting Faces [Graphics Cards]

Fermi is Nvidia's new GPU architecture that's going to be the basis for all of its upcoming graphics cards. With 512 cores and 3 billion transistors, it will nuke Crysis.
The architecture really is a huge leap forward, according to people who've gone through it in-depth. Interestingly, the huge focus for Fermi is GPU computing. The first actual goods coming out using Fermi should be the GT300 series cards, which, besides the 512 cores sorted into 16 streaming processors with 32 cores each, uses a brand new GDDR5 memory setup.
PC Perspective has an epic write-up breaking down Fermi in detail that's worth a whirl, and of course Nvidia's got lots of fluff themselves all about Fermi. Strangely, they don't explain the name, which sounds like a sad little poodle. [Gizmodo via Nvidia, PC Perspective, Anandtech]

Sony to unveil a 3D 240fps Broadcast Camera at CEATEC

CEATEC will kick on next week and Sony announced today their plan to unveil a 3D (Full HD ?!?!?) capable Camera capable to shoot video up to 240fps.

Anyway, we will see and learn more about this camera next week so stay tuned.

[Akihabaranews.com]

Panasonic develops 50-inch full HD 3D plasma TV for Blu-ray movies

Panasonic has been toying with the idea of bringing 3D TVs to our homes for quite a while now, and today the company announced they will be showcasing a 50-inch full HD plasma TV [press release in English] that’s capable of producing high-quality 3D pictures. End consumers will have the chance to test the TV out during next week’s CEATEC 2009.
Panasonic says the TV is the result of tests they did with a 103-inch 3D TV prototype presented last year (it’s pictured above). The company also says it went for 50 inches because it expects this size to be the standard for TV screens in homes. You’ll need to get a Blu-ray player and discs that support the 3D format though. And shutter glasses are a must.

The 3D TVs from Panasonic will hit stores in the US, Europe and Japan as early as next year. [TechCrunch]