In order to make this first British movie character “Bendy Bus Prime”, the Paramount has teamed up with prop and model-making company Propshop. Made from more than 100 original bus parts, this unique made in the UK stands 13 feet tall and took over 650 man hours to get the present shape.
The Idea
Microsoft Surface fundamentally changes the way we deal with digital content on a computer.
Instead of working with a dull mouse and keyboard, which is not very intuitive to all users, we will be using our hands and fingers to operate the Microsoft Surface.
We can grab data with our hands, move it around by performing simple gestures, and this even with multiple persons simultaneously.
All computers only have a single input device which is the mouse. The surface on the other hand is a full multi-touch device, supporting up to 52 touch points (that are a lot of mouses).
The Outside
The Surface itself it built as a small table, where the plate itself is the multi touch device.
Because it looks so natural, it can easily be included in various surroundings.
The surface of the Surface, is a kind of matted glass material, feeling really soft to the fingers, and allowing fast movement.
The viewing angle and brilliancy of the screen is made so a lot of users can have a clean image, when surrounding the table.
The Inside
The inside of consists of 3 major parts:
In total, there are 5 camera’s monitoring the surface for movement tracking. The reason Microsoft uses 5 camera’s, is to solve field angle problems. Each camera monitors it’s own small area of the surface, resulting in better speed and resolution. It was also needed to get the table as low as it is now.
The camera’s themselves can read unlimited numbers of touch points on the surface. The limit of 52 is only set because of CPU processing limits.
The computer inside the Surface is a high-end machine, but runs on mainly conventional components. It is powered by a Core 2 Duo 2.13 Ghz CPU, and has 2GB of RAM.
The Operating System on the surface computer, is a standard non-modified Microsoft Windows Vista operating system. An extra layer is running on top of this windows vista, called the shell.
The read projection system, projects the computer’s image to the underside of the tabletop.
Communication
The Surface offer 3 ways of communication:
There are already sample application using the WiFi possibilities to automatically load content from a wireless device, if put on the Surface.
Development
To develop Surface application, there is a choice between Windows Presentation Foundation and XNA. Custom WPF control have been built to support the Surface specific interactivity.
The development can be done using the Microsoft Surface SDK, which integrates with Visual Studio 2008 and allows the developers to run a Surface Simulator to test the application locally on a windows vista machine.
Technical Specifications
Size: 108 x 69 x 54 CM
Weight: ca 90kg
Network:
I/O:
Display:
Computing System:
Google uses high-tech nap pods to keep employees energized
Playboy magazine is to pull the plug on its Portuguese edition after it ran a photo shoot featuring Jesus Christ among topless models.
The spread was ostensibly a tribute to Nobel Prize-winning author Jose Saramago’s The Gospel According to Jesus Christ, but Hugh Hefner’s headquarters have reacted with outrage.
The pictures show a long-haired, glowing Jesus watching two models in a lesbian clinch, standing next to a prostitute and looking over the shoulder of a woman reading a book.
Controversy: Playboy magazine has pulled the plug on its Portuguese edition after it ran a shoot featuring Jesus Christ among topless models
A final, heavily tattooed woman, appears to have died in his arms.
Theresa Hennessy, Playboy Enterprises vice president of public relations told the Mail Online: ‘We did not see or approve the cover and pictorial in the July issue of Playboy Portugal.
‘It is a shocking breach of our standards and we would have not allowed it to be published if we had seen it in advance.
‘We are in the process of terminating our agreement with the Portuguese publisher.'
Saramago’s novel is a fictional re-telling of Christ’s life, depicting him as a flawed, human character.
It generated controversy among the Roman Catholic Church, who accused Saramago of depicting a ‘substantially anti-religious vision.’
However, other critics have praised it as a ‘deeply philosophical, provocative and compelling work.’
Spanish soccer fans saw their national team defy most predictions by beating Germany 1-0 in today’s semifinal match up. Little did they know, the Germans had already been defeated long before ever setting foot on the field.
For those unacquainted with the genius that is Paul the Psychic Octopus, he is a German national and undeniably the most clairvoyant cephalopod of our time. With a now overall record of 10 dead-on calls to 1 minor slip-up, Paul accurately predicted the outcome of all 5 of Germany’s world cup matches leading up to the game against Spain, so when he chose to eat the mussels from the box baring the Spanish flag over those from the German-marked one (don’t you dare question his methods) German fans everywhere knew Deutschland was kaput.
So what does the future hold for Paul? Assuming he can escape the wrath of his fellow countrymen, I think The Oracle of Oberhausen should explore his options in the world of finance. I know we could definitely use a stock picking octopus at my firm.
