depth

Lazy eye? Playing video games might help

Those with a condition commonly referred to as lazy eye may soon be assigned video game therapy, thanks to results of a new study published in the August issue of the journal PLoS Biology.

Participants in the UC Berkeley study who spent at least 40 hours playing off-the-shelf video games throughout the course of the study enjoyed better visual acuity and 3D depth perception scores than prior to playing the games. (Don't get too excited; these improvements have not been seen in people with normal vision.)

"This study is the first to show that video game play is … Read more

Managing display output colors in OS X

One of the features in earlier versions of OS X was that you could change the display color output (or bit depth) in the Displays system preferences. However, in recent versions of OS X Apple has removed this option. If you go to the Displays system preferences you can set the resolution, the brightness for internal and Apple-supplied displays, and rotation and refresh rate options. The colors are now set to be optimal for the display, which means they will default to the highest setting or go to the setting that a particular application requires.

While the color output feature … Read more

Get that miniature look in your images

TiltShift Generator combines blur and other depth-of-field effects to make objects in your photos seem miniature. To get the miniature effect, you'll ideally take photos from some distance, but even close-up shots can be put through TiltShift Generator with good-looking results.

TiltShift Generator does a great job of taking you through the process of creating tilt-shift images. The app automatically adds the tilt-shift effect, but you can also go through the process yourself. You start by either taking a photo with your iPhone camera or choosing an existing image from your library. From there you can adjust the blurred … Read more

Surround sound on the iPhone

3D Music Player Pro gives you some interesting options for enriching the sound of your music, and it does a pretty good job with only a few flaws. Upon launch, use the plus-sign button in the upper left to add a couple of songs from your music library and test the various effects. Once they're queued up, you can play a song and then touch the 3D Sound button to hear the basic audio enhancements in the app. We noticed a difference immediately in our testing, with the app adding a much fuller and warmer sound to our music.… Read more

Expressions are everything in L.A. Noire

Rockstar Games has earned an elite reputation for developing and publishing innovative and iconic video game software, most recently displayed by the success of the in-house developed Red Dead Redemption (which is also our pick for 2010's game of the year).

This spring, Rockstar Games is teaming up with Australian developer Team Bondi to bring us L.A. Noire, a thrilling crime drama that takes place in Los Angeles in the 1940s. Only since this past November has the gaming community been exposed to L.A. Noire's artistic styling, seen through a series of Hollywood-grade cinematic trailers.

Though the acting and performances appear top notch, the real star of the game has to be MotionScan technology. For the first time during in-game action, MotionScan gives characters shockingly realistic facial expressions, which in this case features Aaron Staton ("Mad Men"), John Nobile ("Fringe"), and many more. We spoke with Brendan McNamara, founder of Team Bondi, about how L.A. Noire's critical-thinking gameplay relies on this technology, and how implementing it went far beyond traditional motion capture. Little has been disclosed about how exactly L.A. Noire will play, and McNamara was able to provide some insight as to what gamers can expect.… Read more

Dacor Energy Star qualified Epicure fridge

Family-owned Dacor showed off its new line of appliances recently at the 2009 Kitchen/Bath Industry Show (KBIS) in Atlanta. Among the appliances on display was the Energy Star qualified Epicure 36-inch Freestanding French Door Cabinet-Depth Bottom Freezer Refrigerator. The refrigerator saves time and energy with a 20-percent energy efficient compressor, and is stated to use less energy than a 60-watt light bulb.

An easy-to-use control panel not only monitors the temperature of the freezer along with the refrigerator, but also offers some convenient options. Fast Ice automatically cools the freezer section for 24 hours, allowing for the included icemaker … Read more

New 3D display may soon ship, sans glasses

Minority Report's holographic images made 3D cool again, and still more impressive was 6th Day's highly interactive virtual girlfriend who could even unzip your pants. But until that day arrives, PureDepth's upcoming MLD (Multi-Layer Display) project looks like a start. Developed jointly with Samsung and rumored to launch soon, this joint effort will roll out a 46-inch MLD LCD display that consists of two or more layers of LCD panels sandwiched within a frame and sharing a common backlight. The result is images onscreen that have a 3D appearance. Better yet, there's no need to don … Read more

How deep is your field?

In photography, the idea of depth of field, or the portion of a photograph that is in focus, isn't an easy one to grasp. Like almost everything else in the photographic world, it is possible to figure out what the depth of field of a given (or even hypothetical) photograph based on the size of the film or imaging sensor, focal length, aperture, and the distance to your subject. Given the number of factors involved though, the math gets a little complicated. Thankfully, the folks at ExpoImaging have created the ExpoAperture2 Depth of Field Guide to figure it all … Read more