.:~R3v3ng3 blog~:.

Fotowoosh Will Turn Any Picture Into A 3D Image

2007-04-25T17:36:00.000+03:00

Fotowoosh, a new service from Maryland-based startup Freewebs, will turn any image (preferably an outdoor image) into a 3D model. They went live on Friday. Examples of what the service can do are above (along with the original 2D images. A video is here which shows more examples.

The 3D image is constructed in Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML) format, meaning you currently need a VRML reader to see it (future browsers will likely build this functionality in). In a week or so, the company say, users will be able to upload a picture and have a 3D animated image returned to them in a Flash widget that can be embedded on any website.

When you upload an image to Fotowoosh, their software tears it apart and distinguishes the sky, ground and vertical elements within the photo, then cuts and folds it into a 3D model:

Our system automatically constructs simple “pop-up” 3D models, like those one would find in a children’s book, out of a single outdoor image. The system labels each region of an outdoor image as ground, vertical, or sky. Line segments fitted to the ground-vertical boundary in the image and an estime of the horizon’s position provide the necessary information to determine where to “cut” and “fold” in the image. The model is then popped up, and the image is texture mapped onto the model.

This is the creation of Derek Hoiem, a PhD candidate in Robotics at Carnegie Mellon University, who’s now working with the company. Additional information on the intellectual property behind Fotowoosh is here and here (these links auto-download a pdf and a powerpoint document).

Microsoft is working on something related to this in their Live Labs group called Photosynth (more information here). The product will construct a 3D model based on lots of photos of the same thing or general area from different angles.

Freewebs raised $11 million in venture capital in August 2006 from Columbia Capital and Novak Biddle. The company’s main product is a website building tool that draws 18 million or so visitors per month. Shervin Pishevar, the company’s president, say that Fotowoosh will be a standalone service, and they’ll also integrate it with offerings from partners as well as the Freewebs service itself.

Yahoo makes deal with Gracenote

2007-04-25T17:26:00.000+03:00

Yahoo! Music and Gracenote® today announced a new licensing deal allowing Yahoo! Music to offer the largest catalog of legal, licensed song lyrics from Gracenote to Yahoo! Music's consumers. Beginning today, song lyrics for hundreds of thousands of songs from all five major publishers will be incorporated into Yahoo! Music through Gracenote's growing database. The agreement with Gracenote makes Yahoo! Music the first mass-market Web service to make licensed song lyrics available to consumers.Through the agreement, consumers can search for song lyrics from the Yahoo! Music Search bar, simply by entering even a partial lyric from the song. Consumers will have viewing access to lyrics from nearly 100 music publishers, including the top five: BMG Music Publishing, EMI Music Publishing, Sony/ATV Music Publishing, Universal Music Publishing Group, Warner/Chappell Music, and dozens of prominent independent publishers. The addition of a comprehensive lyrics library complements existing Yahoo! Music products and services such as radio, music videos and on-demand music offerings, while reaffirming Yahoo! Music's reputation for providing its consumers with the most innovative, robust and complete music experience on the Web."You mean Bob Dylan isn't actually saying 'The ants, my friend, are in a bowling pin?'" asks Ian Rogers, general manager of Yahoo! Music. "Finally, a free, legal and definitive way to settle a bet with the guy sitting next to you at the bar who is certain the Ramones' most famous anthem declares, 'I wanna piece of bacon.'"Gracenote began developing its Lyrics program more than two years ago, with the goal of building the first and most comprehensive database of legal, accurate song lyrics for consumers. The deal between Yahoo! Music and Gracenote is an important step toward enhancing the digital music experience of the consumer while protecting the legal and artistic rights of songwriters and music publishers.

Thunderbird 2

2007-04-22T17:07:00.000+03:00

Mozilla Corporation today released Thunderbird 2, its free, open source e-mail client for Windows, Mac, and Linux systems in 30 languages. The new release boasts improved security and a variety of new features. Chief among them is message tagging, the ability to label and categorize e-mail for easier searching and organization. In addition to default tags, users can create their own. Thunderbird 2 also features message history navigation, similar in concept to the browser history feature in Firefox. A new find-as-you-type feature winnows displayed messages on the fly, making searches faster. Thunderbird 2 also lets users save searches as folders. Re-executing that search becomes a matter of clicking on the saved search folder. Thunderbird 2 can be easily extended with a variety of free add-ons that are available from Mozilla.org, such as AdBlock Plus and the Lightning calendar.

Thunderbird’s main shortcoming at the moment is its lack of a stable Outlook-compatible calendar, a key to enterprise adoption. Mozilla is working on a calendar that works both without Thunderbird (Sunbird) and with it (Lightning), but it’s not quite ready yet. Nonetheless, Thunderbird is being used by a wide variety of organizations. Though Mozilla Corporation does not track downloads, making it harder to identify corporate users, a spokesperson for the organization pointed to a 2006 article which says some 45,000 French police planned to start using Thunderbird that year. I’m still loyal to Outlook Express - not because I would consider it the best, but simply because the strength of the habit.

Latest Ubuntu delivers on the promise of Open Source

2007-04-22T16:47:00.000+03:00

While millions consider whether to pay for Vista, the Ubuntu project releases its secure, high performance, free desktop and server editions.

For users wanting a secure, feature rich alternative to Microsoft Windows, Canonical Ltd., the commercial sponsor of Ubuntu, announced today the Thursday release of Ubuntu version 7.04.

Ubuntu is the award-winning Linux distribution for the desktop, laptop, thin client and server which brings together the best of open source software every 6 months. Ubuntu 7.04 desktop edition includes a ground-breaking Windows migration assistant, excellent wireless networking support and improved multimedia support.

Ubuntu 7.04 server edition adds support for hardware facilities that speed up the use of virtual machines as well as other improved hardware support, making it an excellent choice as a web, database, file and print server, the fastest growing area of Linux server use. Ubuntu’s already outstanding support for thin clients is boosted with advanced print and sound support.

“In the coming months, many individuals and businesses will be making the decision to upgrade their existing computer systems and their operating systems,” said Jane Silber, director of Operations, Canonical Ltd. “With added features to both the desktop and server editions, Ubuntu 7.04 is the most user-friendly version to date and is ideally suited to anyone who wants to make the switch to Linux and join the community of Ubuntu users. In fact, with this version of Ubuntu, it is easier than ever to move away from proprietary platforms.”

At the same time as Ubuntu, the project also will release new versions of Kubuntu and Edubuntu, specialized versions of Ubuntu which include the KDE desktop environment and educational applications, respectively.

Ubuntu Fully Supported

Used by businesses, home users, schools and governments around the world, upgrades to new releases will always be free of charge. Ubuntu 7.04 will be maintained for 18 months on both the desktop and on the server, and additional free support is available from the thriving Ubuntu community. For deployments which require additional service guarantees, full telephone and online support is commercially available globally from the professional support team at Canonical Ltd and service partners.

Check this out !!! Adobe Photoshop CS 3 Extended

2007-04-20T20:18:00.000+03:00

Finally Photoshop CS 3 is released, I'm so eager to get my hands on the full version because I knew Adobe did a very good job (I had the Beta Version and I read many articles related to the new improvements for CS 3). And as a bonus we can enjoy this Extended version which supports 3D and movie editing as an extra. Other features of Adobe Photoshop CS 3 Extended :

Edit 3D and motion-based images

Unique to Adobe® Photoshop® CS3 Extended: Perform 3D-model visualization and texture editing, and paint and clone over multiple video frames.

Analyze images with precision

Unique to Photoshop CS3 Extended: Take advantage of new measurement and counting tools and support for DICOM images and MATLAB processing routines.

Work more productively
- Get more done in less time with a streamlined interface and improvements to raw-image processing and asset management workflows.
Composite and edit with unrivaled power
- Experience unmatched creative freedom with nondestructive filters, more precise color correction, and breakthrough compositing capabilities.

Minimum system requirements:

Intel® Pentium® 4, Intel Centrino®, Intel Xeon®, or Intel Core™ Duo (or compatible) processor
Microsoft® Windows® XP with Service Pack 2 or Windows Vista
512MB of RAM
64MB of video RAM
1GB of available hard-disk space (additional free space required during installation)
1,024×768 monitor resolution with 16-bit video card

Homepage

Abobe CS 3

2007-04-20T19:02:00.000+03:00

Adobe released the new Creative Suite - the market-leading software package for high-end photographers, graphics- and web-designers. Adobe has created six different versions of Creative Suite 3.0. Each is aimed at specific customer groups, according to Caleb Belohlavek, Adobe CS group manager. The targeted groups are print and publication designers, web designers and video designers. They also created a monster suite that includes all the products.
Here's the list with the 6 packages

~Adobe Creative Suite CS3 Design Premium ($us.1599)
Adobe Photoshop CS3 extended
Adobe Illustrator CS3
Adobe inDesign CS3
Adobe Acrobat 8 Professional
Adobe Flash CS3 Professional
Adobe Dreamweaver CS3
Adobe Bridge CS3
Adobe Version Cue CS3
Adobe Device Central CS3
Adobe Stock Photos
Adobe Acrobat Connect

~Adobe Creative Suite CS3 Design Standard
Adobe Photoshop CS3
Adobe Illustrator CS3
Adobe inDesign CS3
Adobe Acrobat 8 Professional
Adobe Bridge CS3
Adobe Version Cue CS3
Adobe Device Central CS3
Adobe Stock Photos
Adobe Acrobat Connect

~Adobe Creative Suite CS3 Web Premium ($us.1599)
Adobe Photoshop CS3 extended
Adobe Illustrator CS3
Adobe Acrobat 8 Professional
Adobe Flash CS3 Professional
Adobe Dreamweaver CS3
Adobe Contribute CS3
Adobe Fireworks CS3
Adobe Bridge CS3
Adobe Version Cue CS3
Adobe Device Central CS3
Adobe Stock Photos
Adobe Acrobat Connect

~Adobe Creative Suite CS3 Web Standard
Adobe Flash CS3 Professional
Adobe Dreamweaver CS3
Adobe Contribute CS3
Adobe Fireworks CS3
Adobe After Effects CS3 Professional
Adobe Bridge CS3
Adobe Version Cue CS3
Adobe Device Central CS3
Adobe Stock Photos
Adobe Acrobat Connect

~Adobe Creative Suite CS3 Production Premium ($us.1199)
Adobe Photoshop CS3 extended
Adobe Illustrator CS3
Adobe Flash CS3 Professional
Adobe After Effects CS3 Professional
Adobe Premiere Pro CS3
Adobe SoundBooth CS3
Adobe Encore CS3
Adobe OnLocation
Adobe Ultra CS3
Adobe Bridge CS3
Adobe Device Central CS3
Adobe Dynamic Link
Adobe Stock Photos
Adobe Acrobat Connect

~Adobe Creative Suite CS3 Master Collection ($us.2499)
Adobe Photoshop CS3 extended
Adobe Photoshop CS3
Adobe Illustrator CS3
Adobe inDesign CS3
Adobe Acrobat 8 Professional
Adobe Flash CS3 Professional
Adobe Dreamweaver CS3
Adobe Contribute CS3
Adobe Fireworks CS3
Adobe After Effects CS3 Professional
Adobe Premiere Pro CS3
Adobe SoundBooth CS3
Adobe Encore CS3
Adobe OnLocation
Adobe Ultra CS3
Adobe Bridge CS3
Adobe Version Cue CS3
Adobe Device Central CS3
Adobe Dynamic Link
Adobe Stock Photos
Adobe Acrobat Connect