I’ve been trying desperately to determine why this technique for “reconstructing a scene from a different vantage point”:http://graphics.stanford.edu/papers/dual_photography/ is useful (as opposed to just a neat trick). It’s probably a great technique for use with live-action-plus-CG films, but I’m at a loss to find any other application.

Still, it reminds me of a discussion I had with Adam Houston a while back about using a regular wall as a mirror by reconstructing the paths of all the light rays hitting it. They aren’t quite doing that, but they can still see the back face of a playing card using a similar trick. (View the video at the bottom to see the trick in action.)

Oh, this is just too sad for words. The other day I noticed an ad for the new “GMC Sierra Hybrid Pickup”:http://www.gmc.com/sierra/hybrid_popup.jsp. I was surprised by the idea that US automakers were finally getting on the hybrid bandwagon. Turns out I shouldn’t have been.

Read on for the rant…
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I don’t have the right phone to get these neat Eddie Izzard ring tones but some of you might (Chris, I’m looking at you). For the rest of us, you can at least listen to them on the site above. Just press the buttons on the little phone picture.

While the Sparrow reminded me of a gigantic shnoz, this one reminds me of a fish (one of those tall, skinny ones, not a blowfish).

Would you want to do 150 MPH (top speed) in this thing? Or 0 to 60 in 4 seconds?

Amazingly, it is not easy to tip.

Honda is working on the “next generation ASIMO humanoid robot”:http://www.japancorp.net/Article.asp?Art_ID=9021, and their early progress is pretty exciting. ASIMO can run (if only at 3kph), shake hands (thanks to new sensors), avoid obstacles, and cock its head as though to ask, “Why do I only have a 1-hour battery?”

The Honda ASIMO site has “video clips of the research model”:http://world.honda.com/HDTV/ASIMO/ — pretty impressive stuff.