Nothing - it's just faster to use the scanners than for everyone to dig out their ID's. (Keeping the lines short is worth a lot of money to Disney) If you prefer to use an ID instead, you're welcome to do so.
I work for Disney World IT - here's the non "We're local news so let's see how sensationalist we can make this" story.
The scanners have been used for years (at least for the past six that I remember) for Annual Pass holders, for maybe two years for people who work there, and just recently was expanded to have everyone use it with the introduction of the "Magic Your Way" tickets. It's old technology, and simply looks at the top of fingers for hand geometry, then stores a hash with that unique ticket ID (which comes from the magnetic stripe on the card). The data is stored only until the ticket expires. Anyone who's actually seen the scanners in real life can confirm that there's simply a flat retro-reflective surface that you place your fingers on so the imager above can get a good view of the hand shape.
The system is used to prevent swapping of tickets between people, simply as a replacement for showing some sort of photo-id with your name on it. You don't have to use it - just ask to show a photo ID that matches the name on your ticket instead. The acceptable margin of error is turned very wide in order to keep the system running quickly - maybe 10 out of 100 people could pass as you.
The reason that this hit the news is because the system has been expanded (starting around January, I think) so that now everyone uses it. The reasoning behind this (pushed by finance) is that there's a real problem with people buying and selling multi-day tickets that have unused days on them on eBay and those discount ticket stalls you see in Kissimmee and on I-Drive. The only way to check how many days are left on a pass is to scan it on a reader attached to the Disney ticket system - which only exist on Disney property. People were getting ripped off, buying tickets that the seller swore had days on them, only to find that they've got a useless piece of paper.
Oh, and to those who worry that Disney would use this data to somehow track or follow or gather more data about folks - Disney's like any other big company. Different departments don't talk to each other enough and like to keep their dealings to themselves. I'm not sure ticketing, operations, IE, and finance could actually get their heads together enough to do something evil like everyone's ranting about. I've been in meetings with these folks, they know that if they were actually doing the "evil" things that everyone was ranting about, it wouldn't fly.
Indeed. And at first glance you think - "People who don't know any better or don't care deserve what's coming to them". Unfortunately, it's the mass population who leave their machines unpatched and continually infected that become pests to those who do know better, whether we're uninstalling the latest wormbot from friend and family's machines because they "run slow", we're sitting at MegaCo trying to deflect a DDOS from a horde of zombies, or batttling the flood of spam from the same massive horde.
Yeah, it sucks. Of course, you can't find a cluestick big enough to change all the end users - but what do you do? Do we need to take a page from the automotive field and mandate Internet licenses or Web Insurance? 'Tis a thought.
There's an exporter for Maya and 3ds Max models and animation, which makes it quite easy to do a world in Maya, then dump it straight into a realtime engine and add basic or complex interactivity. Scripting is done in python so it's easy do create and expand.
It's pretty versatile too - we've used it for motion-tracked virtual reality, dome projection, 3D polarized projection, desktop pets, and integrated things like MIDI, all sorts of physical interfaces, show control, etc...
# Dropping a rubber spider on guests' heads as they disembark and pass under the boathouse bridge (OK, I gotta take credit for this one... I Imagineered this prank in the Summer of '95. My most notable victim... Carrie Fisher of Star Wars fame)
# Fishing from the "catwalk" (center dock). The fishing line usually has a rubber fish or snake attached to it, waiting for a cast member to pull it up in a moment of glee with the entire boathouse audience watching.... one time somebody had put a broken "stroller parking" sign out on the catwalk with a stroller on it.
# Making jars of "baby piranha" to display in the dispatch office (Yep, I Imagineered this one, too. -- We'd bring in an aquarium fish net and scoop up those little minnows that live in the river, labeling the jar "baby piranha")
# Playing chess with a fellow cast member in the "luggage storage" part of the queue building.
# Playing dead on the infirmary bed upstairs in the queue building.
# re-routing the queue so the line goes in a circle, but never to the loading area (only works when there is only a few people in line)
DALLAS and MESA, Ariz. (PRNewswire) - DALLAS and MESA, Ariz., Sept. 13/PRNewswire/ -- Florida-based Wannado City(TM), the first indoor role-playing theme park for kids, is increasing children's safety throughout the 40 venues at its 140,000 square foot facility using SafeTzone's Real-Time Locating System. The technology, which combines passive and active radio frequency identification (RFID) tags and readers from Texas Instruments and RF Code, respectively, allows parents or other members of a group to identify the whereabouts of their family and friends at any time while inside the facility.
Wannado City, which held its grand opening on August 13, 2004 at the Sawgrass Mills Mall in Sunrise, Florida (near Fort Lauderdale), is a first-of- its-kind attraction in the United States. Designed to inspire children from ages 4 to 11, the indoor city allows kids to actively explore a world where they become doctors, dentists, firefighters, archaeologists, actors, television news reporters, chefs, judges, airplane pilots and a host of other professions. There is a small scale courtroom, circus, television studio, police station, bank, dance club, hospital, and even an airplane with a realistic flight simulator.
Included in the general admission fee, each visitor receives a WannaFinder(TM) plastic wristband, a hybrid wireless bracelet which combines a Texas Instruments 23mm passive, low frequency transponder and an RF Code Mantis(TM) series active RFID tag.
The WannaFinder wristband communicates information, including a person's location, via radio signals to a series of TI and RF Code readers and makes the information accessible through the many WannaFinder touch screen kiosks situated throughout the park. RF Code's TAVIS(TM) data management software collects and consolidates data from the active RFID tags, while SafeTzone's patented Real-Time Location Module draws associations among the passive and active data to identify and locate each member of a group. Groups can easily and securely access the real-time location of their members, on a map of the park, at any time of day in English or Spanish simply by scanning their WannaFinder wristbands at any kiosk. While the active tag communicates a person's location, the passive RF tag automatically identifies visitors as they approach the touch screen kiosks and scan their wristbands, linking them to onscreen icons marking the individual location of any member of their family or group within the park. The instant, real-time location of group members and amenities enables parents and guardians to know where their kids are, while at the same time empowering them to explore career roles with their young peers with unprecedented freedom and safety.
Wannado Entertainment, which plans to open new cities in the top 10 U.S. markets over the next several years, is the most recent company to incorporate the SafeTzone Location Services package into an entertainment park. Outdoor deployments of the SafeTzone solution include Paramount's Great America (Santa Clara, CA), Wild Rivers Water Park (Irvine, CA), Dollywood's Splash Country (Pigeon Forge, TN), Wet 'n Wild (Las Vegas, NV) and the soon to be opened Steamboat Springs Ski Resort (Steamboat Springs, CO).
For more information on TI's RFID technology solutions, please visit http://www.ti-rfid.com/ or call 1-888-937-6536 (North America) or 1-972-575-4364 (International). For more details regarding RF Code's data management software and active RFID solutions please visit http://www.rfcode.com/ or call 1-877-969-2828 (North America) or 1-480-325-4041 (International).
About Texas Instruments
Texas Instruments is the world's largest integrated manufacturer of radio frequency identification (RFID) transponders and reader systems. Capitalizing on its competencies in high-volume semiconductor manufacturing and microelectronics packaging, TI is a visionary leader and at the forefront
Some Clarifications - And More Info
on
Disney Goes Boom!
·
· Score: 4, Informative
Here's some additional info that the articles don't mention.
The WDI spokeswoman says "Disney isn't sure when its Central Florida theme parks could install or start testing the new fireworks launch system."
Actually, the air-launched fireworks are not completely new, but Disneyland is the first time they're using air for the whole (or majority of the) show. The first use was at Epcot down at Walt Disney World for the Illuminations: Reflections of Earth show - where the first "comet" effect that screams over the lagoon is air-launched from on top of one of the pavilion buildings. If you're walking in that area around 15 minutes before the show starts, they rope off the main pathway that passes under the launch area. You do hear a big fwoosh when it goes off. The last time this bit made Slashdot, some comments were debating the gas used - in this case they're compressing plain air.
The new Wishes fireworks show which has been playing since last Fall at the Magic Kingdom at WDW also planned to use the air launch, but the cost of the installation was too much and traditional fireworks have been used. Unlike WDW where there's a sizable land buffer between residences and the parks, Disneyland has large neighborhoods of people surrounding it, and they exert pressure on the local government to make things more difficult (and expensive) for Disneyland. Wishes also introduces the concept of firing shells from within the park off buildings in Fantasyland, which makes for some spectacular effects if you're watching from back in that area.
Also related, Disney is working with a top national lab on fireworks that look just like normal pyro, but burn with much less smoke. While some shows use the smoke the fireworks produce for great effect, eliminating it could be nice for others. Another technology that has been slowly introduced is the use of shells that contain a sacrificial computer chip that syncs its timing upon launch and fires an electronic fuse when up in the air to obtain much more precise ignition timing than could be accomplished conventionally.
Overall, there's some very cool tech going on, but whether Disney chooses to use it all over the place is more of a question of practicality than simply because they have it, so it's good to hear they're donating some of the tech.
They did. This story is a surprise to me, until today I knew that R&D was working with legal to license it *for profit*.
In Theory...
on
Directed Sound
·
· Score: 4, Informative
You could be standing right next to someone and they would hear nothing.
That's the idea, but in reality it works a tad different. Wherever the beam hits sort of becomes the apparent source of the sound. So if you aim it at someone, they'll hear it quite clearly - more so than everyone else - but the sound will now appear to be coming from them. Quieter, but still apparent.
I've got 2 of the HSS units right here, and though they're super-cool for messing with people, (See other posts) they've got some drawbacks.
1) There's no bass, treble only.
2) The units we have come with a rather noisy cooling fan.
3) They clip quite easily - you have to watch your volume levels.
4) They're not terribly reliable. I've seen them in a few labs I've worked in or with, and we all seem to have the same issues.
Overall a cool product, especially for the gee-whiz factory, but certainly not ready for practical use just yet.
After going through 5 SonyEricsson T68i's in 3.5 mo, only to have each successive one start refusing to make outgoing calls, and juggling many hours and dropped calls with AT&T customer service only willing to send me another T68i, I just decided to ditch AT&T and go to T-Mobile. I found a Nokia 3650 on Amazon for $250 w/ 2-$150 rebates - one from T-Mobile and the other from Amazon.
The new phone, and T-Mobile service have been perfect here in Pittsburgh, and I'm enjoying the nationwide unlimited GPRS with bluetooth from my iBook, but AT&T screwups still continue. Three weeks after I switched I receive a spankin' new T226 in the mail. Phone works much better than the T68i, but no bluetooth, and a crappy screen. But hey, free phone I'll never use.
Unfortunately I still had 5 mo on my contract. Canceling stiffs me with a $180 charge, so I called AT&T 6 weeks ago to switch to the $20 plan. (a $100 loss, cheaper than $180). Well, yesterday I get my bill and find out that they never processed my request. Call customer service and finally get a rep who tries to be helpful, but can't figure out why the logged plan switch wasn't carried out. Supposedly I'll be reimbursed, but I'm not holding my breath. The rep didn't seem surprised when I explained I'd switched because of all the previous cockups.
I could go on and on with AT&T screwup stories, but you get the idea. I think the biggest pain is that those still in contracts have few or no options other than biting the bullet and switching.
Every machine here in the lab. 3gz HT P4's with WinXP SP'd latest. All you have to do is press play and they instantaneously reboot.
Real Alternative with MP Classic works great, though.
As a previous poster noted, these are 6DOF devices. You can push, pull, and tilt them. Also, they have more buttons. The SpaceTraveler has 8, the SpaceBall has 12.
Linux
GLut-OpenGl-X. Glut v3 seems to support the Spaceball directly. Should try aeroplane demo.
Two quite different devices - I think
on
Two-Fisted Computing
·
· Score: 3, Informative
I've got a Powermate right here, and though it's a very cool and quite useful gadget, the SpaceTraveler seems to be in a different league.
I think it's a spinoff of the old SGI SpaceBall pointer devices, which allowed for multiple axis input - you can push, pull, and move it left and right. The powermate just turns left and right on a vertical axis and can be pressed as a button. Looking further at their other products, the SpaceBall 5000 looks a lot like the old SGI unit. The SpaceTraveler's just a smaller portable version.
Of course, they don't seem to mention how many axes of input the thing provides on the website, so I dunno.
Try Media Player Classic
on
Real's Reality
·
· Score: 3, Informative
Like all of the above, I too got fed up with anything Real has put out lately, for obvious reasons. That and it spontaneously reboots everyone's machines here in the lab.
Did some searching, found Media Player Classic(Article)- it's an open source clone of Windows Media Player before it got all colorful, space wasting, and less functional (WMP 8-9). Plus, with a bit more Google searching, I found Real codec packs for it as well. On the rare occasion I need to play Real content, I can.
Try Panda 3D(Sourceforge Page)- it's an open source game engine originally written at Disney's VR studio for DisneyQuest and Toontown Online. We're now co-developing it with the Disney team at the Entertainment Technology Center at CMU, and use it for a lot of internal projects.
The core is written in C++, but game programming is done in Python, which initializes the engine. Exporters exist for Max & Maya. Since your stuff runs in Python, it's simple to add extra functionality. Last semester we used it for the Building Virtual Worlds Class, and were able to add things like networking, computer vision, MIDI IO, and simple show control pretty trivially. One group now is using it to do realtime interactive stuff on a dome with 5 cameras stitched together in realtime.
I got my undergrad from UCF in Digital Media, just down the street from FullSail - heard some questionable things as well about the place. They do have kickin' facilities, though.
I'm a grad student now at the Entertainment Technology Center at Carnegie Mellon University. The program has people going into many industries, but the majority are into video games. We have graduates at Rockstar, EA, Maxis, Angel Studios, and a number of other companies. One guy was back from his co-op at Maxis and had to excuse himself from a party because Will Wright had called him on his cell. We took a trip to EA (among other companies like Pixar, Disney, etc) last month, where the Vice President and CTO each gave presentations to our group of 30 or so.
Unlike many vocational programs, we don't actually have any courses on video game programming directly, though we do offer official courses in Maya, Building Virtual Worlds, and Game Design. The game design course mainly focuses on board, dice, and card games.
Retro gaming is a popular side hobby, with one student teaching a course in Game Development for the 8-bit NES and the X-Arcade company at residence in our building. (We've got two MAME Arcade setups in the hall)
It's not uncommon to see students parked in front of the gaming setups we have on each floor (with all the major consoles) doing "research", only to go back and discuss what they learned for a few hours with their project team.
The program is pretty demanding and tough to get in, but it's a fun place. Gaming is not an easy industry, there's a lot of late hours, especially in "crunch" mode before a game ships, but it's pretty rewarding.
Perhaps not exactly the same, but it's already been done for $50.
Yeah, but if you RFTA, the difference is their device doesn't activate until the remote (which is intended to be kept with the owner) is arounf 15ft away from the laptop.
From the article: "The beauty of the electronic beast, according to Mitchell, is it allows the laptop owner to be mobile, which is, after all, the whole idea of laptops. There are few false alarms because of the deactivating device and the distance required between the laptop and its owner (about 15 feet) before the gizmo works.
"There are lots of systems out there that have just a thing that detects motion, so it blasts a siren just like the car alarms that no one listens to these days," said Mitchell."
I've been researching RFID quite a bit in the past few days - we're planning to use it for an application to greet visitors in our building. The problem is that so called "passsive" tags (without batteries, powered by RF from the antenna) have a maximum range of 1.5 to 2 meters - and that's with the big gate type antennas used for most store theft prevention.
Active RFID contains a battery and can be tracked much further away, from 6 to 100ft, but it's impractical b/c the tags are expensive ($10+) and somewhat large. Many automated toll collection systems use active RFID.
Also, not all RFID systems are compatible. So unless the guv'mnt decides to install those big gate antennas all over your local neighborhood, this whole passive RFID paranoia is mainly just FUD.
Slashdot Mirror
Autodesk acquires Alias?
Imagine for a moment, what would happen if Adobe decided to take over Macromedia. It's a silly, far-fetched idea.
Wha? Oh, nevermind.
The spacecraft has switched into a "safe mode", in which the instruments and some other systems are turned off.
Just CTRL-ALT-DEL and this time, don't hit F8. Windows will boot normally. Duh.
What is wrong with showing a photo id?
Nothing - it's just faster to use the scanners than for everyone to dig out their ID's. (Keeping the lines short is worth a lot of money to Disney) If you prefer to use an ID instead, you're welcome to do so.
I work for Disney World IT - here's the non "We're local news so let's see how sensationalist we can make this" story.
The scanners have been used for years (at least for the past six that I remember) for Annual Pass holders, for maybe two years for people who work there, and just recently was expanded to have everyone use it with the introduction of the "Magic Your Way" tickets. It's old technology, and simply looks at the top of fingers for hand geometry, then stores a hash with that unique ticket ID (which comes from the magnetic stripe on the card). The data is stored only until the ticket expires. Anyone who's actually seen the scanners in real life can confirm that there's simply a flat retro-reflective surface that you place your fingers on so the imager above can get a good view of the hand shape.
The system is used to prevent swapping of tickets between people, simply as a replacement for showing some sort of photo-id with your name on it. You don't have to use it - just ask to show a photo ID that matches the name on your ticket instead. The acceptable margin of error is turned very wide in order to keep the system running quickly - maybe 10 out of 100 people could pass as you.
The reason that this hit the news is because the system has been expanded (starting around January, I think) so that now everyone uses it. The reasoning behind this (pushed by finance) is that there's a real problem with people buying and selling multi-day tickets that have unused days on them on eBay and those discount ticket stalls you see in Kissimmee and on I-Drive. The only way to check how many days are left on a pass is to scan it on a reader attached to the Disney ticket system - which only exist on Disney property. People were getting ripped off, buying tickets that the seller swore had days on them, only to find that they've got a useless piece of paper.
Oh, and to those who worry that Disney would use this data to somehow track or follow or gather more data about folks - Disney's like any other big company. Different departments don't talk to each other enough and like to keep their dealings to themselves. I'm not sure ticketing, operations, IE, and finance could actually get their heads together enough to do something evil like everyone's ranting about. I've been in meetings with these folks, they know that if they were actually doing the "evil" things that everyone was ranting about, it wouldn't fly.
Indeed. And at first glance you think - "People who don't know any better or don't care deserve what's coming to them". Unfortunately, it's the mass population who leave their machines unpatched and continually infected that become pests to those who do know better, whether we're uninstalling the latest wormbot from friend and family's machines because they "run slow", we're sitting at MegaCo trying to deflect a DDOS from a horde of zombies, or batttling the flood of spam from the same massive horde.
Yeah, it sucks. Of course, you can't find a cluestick big enough to change all the end users - but what do you do? Do we need to take a page from the automotive field and mandate Internet licenses or Web Insurance? 'Tis a thought.
Developed originally by Disney VR Studio for Toontown Online, we use the Panda3D game engine at the Entertainment Technology Center at Carnegie Mellon University for our Building Virtual Worlds class. A lot of the projects result in machinima-like content.
There's an exporter for Maya and 3ds Max models and animation, which makes it quite easy to do a world in Maya, then dump it straight into a realtime engine and add basic or complex interactivity. Scripting is done in python so it's easy do create and expand.
It's pretty versatile too - we've used it for motion-tracked virtual reality, dome projection, 3D polarized projection, desktop pets, and integrated things like MIDI, all sorts of physical interfaces, show control, etc...
More spiels and jokes:
a nks.htm
http://www.themedattraction.com/jungle.htm
Famous Pranks
http://www.csua.berkeley.edu/~yoda/disneyland/jpr
# Dropping a rubber spider on guests' heads as they disembark and pass under the boathouse bridge (OK, I gotta take credit for this one... I Imagineered this prank in the Summer of '95. My most notable victim... Carrie Fisher of Star Wars fame)
# Fishing from the "catwalk" (center dock). The fishing line usually has a rubber fish or snake attached to it, waiting for a cast member to pull it up in a moment of glee with the entire boathouse audience watching.... one time somebody had put a broken "stroller parking" sign out on the catwalk with a stroller on it.
# Making jars of "baby piranha" to display in the dispatch office (Yep, I Imagineered this one, too. -- We'd bring in an aquarium fish net and scoop up those little minnows that live in the river, labeling the jar "baby piranha")
# Playing chess with a fellow cast member in the "luggage storage" part of the queue building.
# Playing dead on the infirmary bed upstairs in the queue building.
# re-routing the queue so the line goes in a circle, but never to the loading area (only works when there is only a few people in line)
DALLAS and MESA, Ariz. (PRNewswire) - DALLAS and MESA, Ariz., Sept. 13 /PRNewswire/ -- Florida-based Wannado City(TM), the first indoor role-playing theme park for kids, is increasing children's safety throughout the 40 venues at its 140,000 square foot facility using SafeTzone's Real-Time Locating System. The technology, which combines passive and active radio frequency identification (RFID) tags and readers from Texas Instruments and RF Code, respectively, allows parents or other members of a group to identify the whereabouts of their family and friends at any time while inside the facility.
Wannado City, which held its grand opening on August 13, 2004 at the Sawgrass Mills Mall in Sunrise, Florida (near Fort Lauderdale), is a first-of- its-kind attraction in the United States. Designed to inspire children from ages 4 to 11, the indoor city allows kids to actively explore a world where they become doctors, dentists, firefighters, archaeologists, actors, television news reporters, chefs, judges, airplane pilots and a host of other professions. There is a small scale courtroom, circus, television studio, police station, bank, dance club, hospital, and even an airplane with a realistic flight simulator.
Included in the general admission fee, each visitor receives a WannaFinder(TM) plastic wristband, a hybrid wireless bracelet which combines a Texas Instruments 23mm passive, low frequency transponder and an RF Code Mantis(TM) series active RFID tag.
The WannaFinder wristband communicates information, including a person's location, via radio signals to a series of TI and RF Code readers and makes the information accessible through the many WannaFinder touch screen kiosks situated throughout the park. RF Code's TAVIS(TM) data management software collects and consolidates data from the active RFID tags, while SafeTzone's patented Real-Time Location Module draws associations among the passive and active data to identify and locate each member of a group. Groups can easily and securely access the real-time location of their members, on a map of the park, at any time of day in English or Spanish simply by scanning their WannaFinder wristbands at any kiosk. While the active tag communicates a person's location, the passive RF tag automatically identifies visitors as they approach the touch screen kiosks and scan their wristbands, linking them to onscreen icons marking the individual location of any member of their family or group within the park. The instant, real-time location of group members and amenities enables parents and guardians to know where their kids are, while at the same time empowering them to explore career roles with their young peers with unprecedented freedom and safety.
Wannado Entertainment, which plans to open new cities in the top 10 U.S. markets over the next several years, is the most recent company to incorporate the SafeTzone Location Services package into an entertainment park. Outdoor deployments of the SafeTzone solution include Paramount's Great America (Santa Clara, CA), Wild Rivers Water Park (Irvine, CA), Dollywood's Splash Country (Pigeon Forge, TN), Wet 'n Wild (Las Vegas, NV) and the soon to be opened Steamboat Springs Ski Resort (Steamboat Springs, CO).
For more information on TI's RFID technology solutions, please visit http://www.ti-rfid.com/ or call 1-888-937-6536 (North America) or 1-972-575-4364 (International). For more details regarding RF Code's data management software and active RFID solutions please visit http://www.rfcode.com/ or call 1-877-969-2828 (North America) or 1-480-325-4041 (International).
About Texas Instruments
Texas Instruments is the world's largest integrated manufacturer of radio frequency identification (RFID) transponders and reader systems. Capitalizing on its competencies in high-volume semiconductor manufacturing and microelectronics packaging, TI is a visionary leader and at the forefront
Here's some additional info that the articles don't mention.
The WDI spokeswoman says "Disney isn't sure when its Central Florida theme parks could install or start testing the new fireworks launch system."
Actually, the air-launched fireworks are not completely new, but Disneyland is the first time they're using air for the whole (or majority of the) show. The first use was at Epcot down at Walt Disney World for the Illuminations: Reflections of Earth show - where the first "comet" effect that screams over the lagoon is air-launched from on top of one of the pavilion buildings. If you're walking in that area around 15 minutes before the show starts, they rope off the main pathway that passes under the launch area. You do hear a big fwoosh when it goes off. The last time this bit made Slashdot, some comments were debating the gas used - in this case they're compressing plain air.
The new Wishes fireworks show which has been playing since last Fall at the Magic Kingdom at WDW also planned to use the air launch, but the cost of the installation was too much and traditional fireworks have been used. Unlike WDW where there's a sizable land buffer between residences and the parks, Disneyland has large neighborhoods of people surrounding it, and they exert pressure on the local government to make things more difficult (and expensive) for Disneyland. Wishes also introduces the concept of firing shells from within the park off buildings in Fantasyland, which makes for some spectacular effects if you're watching from back in that area.
Also related, Disney is working with a top national lab on fireworks that look just like normal pyro, but burn with much less smoke. While some shows use the smoke the fireworks produce for great effect, eliminating it could be nice for others. Another technology that has been slowly introduced is the use of shells that contain a sacrificial computer chip that syncs its timing upon launch and fires an electronic fuse when up in the air to obtain much more precise ignition timing than could be accomplished conventionally.
Overall, there's some very cool tech going on, but whether Disney chooses to use it all over the place is more of a question of practicality than simply because they have it, so it's good to hear they're donating some of the tech.
They did. This story is a surprise to me, until today I knew that R&D was working with legal to license it *for profit*.
You could be standing right next to someone and they would hear nothing.
That's the idea, but in reality it works a tad different. Wherever the beam hits sort of becomes the apparent source of the sound. So if you aim it at someone, they'll hear it quite clearly - more so than everyone else - but the sound will now appear to be coming from them. Quieter, but still apparent.
I've got 2 of the HSS units right here, and though they're super-cool for messing with people, (See other posts) they've got some drawbacks.
1) There's no bass, treble only.
2) The units we have come with a rather noisy cooling fan.
3) They clip quite easily - you have to watch your volume levels.
4) They're not terribly reliable. I've seen them in a few labs I've worked in or with, and we all seem to have the same issues.
Overall a cool product, especially for the gee-whiz factory, but certainly not ready for practical use just yet.
(Rant Mode On)
After going through 5 SonyEricsson T68i's in 3.5 mo, only to have each successive one start refusing to make outgoing calls, and juggling many hours and dropped calls with AT&T customer service only willing to send me another T68i, I just decided to ditch AT&T and go to T-Mobile. I found a Nokia 3650 on Amazon for $250 w/ 2-$150 rebates - one from T-Mobile and the other from Amazon.
The new phone, and T-Mobile service have been perfect here in Pittsburgh, and I'm enjoying the nationwide unlimited GPRS with bluetooth from my iBook, but AT&T screwups still continue. Three weeks after I switched I receive a spankin' new T226 in the mail. Phone works much better than the T68i, but no bluetooth, and a crappy screen. But hey, free phone I'll never use.
Unfortunately I still had 5 mo on my contract. Canceling stiffs me with a $180 charge, so I called AT&T 6 weeks ago to switch to the $20 plan. (a $100 loss, cheaper than $180). Well, yesterday I get my bill and find out that they never processed my request. Call customer service and finally get a rep who tries to be helpful, but can't figure out why the logged plan switch wasn't carried out. Supposedly I'll be reimbursed, but I'm not holding my breath. The rep didn't seem surprised when I explained I'd switched because of all the previous cockups.
I could go on and on with AT&T screwup stories, but you get the idea. I think the biggest pain is that those still in contracts have few or no options other than biting the bullet and switching.
(Rant Mode Off)
registering component, building registry, etc... Reticulating splines....
Every machine here in the lab. 3gz HT P4's with WinXP SP'd latest. All you have to do is press play and they instantaneously reboot. Real Alternative with MP Classic works great, though.
As a previous poster noted, these are 6DOF devices. You can push, pull, and tilt them. Also, they have more buttons. The SpaceTraveler has 8, the SpaceBall has 12.
The company distributes a SDK.
For the older version of these devices, before they were spun off by Logitech - seems they're supported navitely by OpenGL.
From this page.
Linux GLut-OpenGl-X. Glut v3 seems to support the Spaceball directly. Should try aeroplane demo.
I've got a Powermate right here, and though it's a very cool and quite useful gadget, the SpaceTraveler seems to be in a different league.
I think it's a spinoff of the old SGI SpaceBall pointer devices, which allowed for multiple axis input - you can push, pull, and move it left and right. The powermate just turns left and right on a vertical axis and can be pressed as a button. Looking further at their other products, the SpaceBall 5000 looks a lot like the old SGI unit. The SpaceTraveler's just a smaller portable version.
Of course, they don't seem to mention how many axes of input the thing provides on the website, so I dunno.
WMP 6 was awesome.
Try Media Player Classic. Completely open source, looks just like WMP6. Plays Real formats too.
Like all of the above, I too got fed up with anything Real has put out lately, for obvious reasons. That and it spontaneously reboots everyone's machines here in the lab.
Did some searching, found Media Player Classic (Article)- it's an open source clone of Windows Media Player before it got all colorful, space wasting, and less functional (WMP 8-9). Plus, with a bit more Google searching, I found Real codec packs for it as well. On the rare occasion I need to play Real content, I can.
Try Panda 3D (Sourceforge Page)- it's an open source game engine originally written at Disney's VR studio for DisneyQuest and Toontown Online. We're now co-developing it with the Disney team at the Entertainment Technology Center at CMU, and use it for a lot of internal projects.
The core is written in C++, but game programming is done in Python, which initializes the engine. Exporters exist for Max & Maya. Since your stuff runs in Python, it's simple to add extra functionality. Last semester we used it for the Building Virtual Worlds Class, and were able to add things like networking, computer vision, MIDI IO, and simple show control pretty trivially. One group now is using it to do realtime interactive stuff on a dome with 5 cameras stitched together in realtime.
This semester, the project is adding in-engine video playback using Helix and integrating with the Eclipse IDE. It serves our needs pretty well.
I got my undergrad from UCF in Digital Media, just down the street from FullSail - heard some questionable things as well about the place. They do have kickin' facilities, though.
I'm a grad student now at the Entertainment Technology Center at Carnegie Mellon University. The program has people going into many industries, but the majority are into video games. We have graduates at Rockstar, EA, Maxis, Angel Studios, and a number of other companies. One guy was back from his co-op at Maxis and had to excuse himself from a party because Will Wright had called him on his cell. We took a trip to EA (among other companies like Pixar, Disney, etc) last month, where the Vice President and CTO each gave presentations to our group of 30 or so.
Unlike many vocational programs, we don't actually have any courses on video game programming directly, though we do offer official courses in Maya, Building Virtual Worlds, and Game Design. The game design course mainly focuses on board, dice, and card games.
Retro gaming is a popular side hobby, with one student teaching a course in Game Development for the 8-bit NES and the X-Arcade company at residence in our building. (We've got two MAME Arcade setups in the hall)
It's not uncommon to see students parked in front of the gaming setups we have on each floor (with all the major consoles) doing "research", only to go back and discuss what they learned for a few hours with their project team.
The program is pretty demanding and tough to get in, but it's a fun place. Gaming is not an easy industry, there's a lot of late hours, especially in "crunch" mode before a game ships, but it's pretty rewarding.
Microsoft has released the Xbox 2 SDK to select videogame developers, and they are using 'dual Apple Power Mac G5 systems
...and people discredit Macs if you're into gaming. Now they're a reference platform for Microsoft - wtf!?!
Perhaps not exactly the same, but it's already been done for $50.
Yeah, but if you RFTA, the difference is their device doesn't activate until the remote (which is intended to be kept with the owner) is arounf 15ft away from the laptop.
From the article:
"The beauty of the electronic beast, according to Mitchell, is it allows the laptop owner to be mobile, which is, after all, the whole idea of laptops. There are few false alarms because of the deactivating device and the distance required between the laptop and its owner (about 15 feet) before the gizmo works.
"There are lots of systems out there that have just a thing that detects motion, so it blasts a siren just like the car alarms that no one listens to these days," said Mitchell."
One of Google's main motivations was Don't be Evil
I've been researching RFID quite a bit in the past few days - we're planning to use it for an application to greet visitors in our building. The problem is that so called "passsive" tags (without batteries, powered by RF from the antenna) have a maximum range of 1.5 to 2 meters - and that's with the big gate type antennas used for most store theft prevention.
Active RFID contains a battery and can be tracked much further away, from 6 to 100ft, but it's impractical b/c the tags are expensive ($10+) and somewhat large. Many automated toll collection systems use active RFID.
Also, not all RFID systems are compatible. So unless the guv'mnt decides to install those big gate antennas all over your local neighborhood, this whole passive RFID paranoia is mainly just FUD.