I’ve been working with some Active Appearance Models again. Here are a few in-progress samples of automatic face fitting and rebuilding on faces that were not in the training set for the AAM. Recognize any faces?

It was a good year for NAB 2010, in its usual Vegas home. 3-D everywhere, of course, with the explosion of this past year. Panasonic, in particular, had some very nice devices — active shuttered displays and a prosumerish size 3-D camera. Operating while watching a 3-D display is definitely fun. I’m still not sure that this will ever completely replace 2-D displays, users encumbered by wearing glasses, but the quality of the new devices convinced me more of the potential.
The new Arri Alexa was on display along with many other fun things. Lots of 3-D post support as well. Very nice stuff from the Foundry and other companies.
The RedUser event was impressive again, as well. There’s a nice post here showing some of what was on display. The Epic looks and feels great. It will be amazing to use. It feels about like holding a Pentax 67 and is very manageable, opening a lot of possibilities. Demo reels, particularly with the low-light response of the new Mysterium-X, looked spectacular. No exact dates, but Epic and Scarlet should be coming out over summer and fall.

Although the price will not likely be quite as competitive as RED’s offerings, and it seems to be 1080p rather than 4k, this camera has some real advantages shooting directly to ProRes.

As a side note, Arri has a lot of nice information on both its systems and digital cinema cameras (that aren’t too full of propaganda) on its downloads page.

Here’s an interesting read that is on the money. Although, I do disagree about a few things. For instance, I think the iPad actually has a lot of advantages over a Mac or “PC” for email and web browsing; with the touch-interface and nice layout of the mail app, it allows a certain speed and elegance for tearing through the mass droves of useless email that stuff the inbox. And it makes for a very pleasant experience reading the emails that are useful or fun. (Also, while iPad-specific design certainly rules, a few iPhone-only apps are still quite useful and speedy until better replacements are made).

Mag+ live with Popular Science+ from Bonnier on Vimeo.

Although a commercial website, this site is well done and informative. It presents the farce of labeling that the FDA approved concerning trans fats, particularly hydrogenated foods. No doubt the result of lobbying, and of course, all of the big food companies are taking advantage of the loophole to save costs at the expense of their consumers.

Craig Mod has written a very informative essay concerning wrapping content of the iPad and some of the issues surrounding content and the container.