3-D Cover Experience: See How It Works

[RKSNomad]

Logitech must've had a huge spike in their webcam production after this.

[gallic24]

That is one fat bastard in that video. He looks like he was recently stung by a bee and swelled up.

[uwbadger98]

what is that dude's hair trying to run away from his face?

[gallic24]

Who is that fat dude???

[prisonR911]

I did that its pretty cool

[pininteractive]

awesome, great to see new stuff done in Adobe Director and Shockwave3D. Worked like a charm on OSX10.6

[grnsgottaM]

As I'd imagined. Safari is a no go as well. Moving on...

[grnsgottaM]

Wow, that was awesome. So awesome, my Vista x64 laptop crashed IE over and over. My XP desktop crashed IE and Firefox. I want to do it over and over! Maybe I'll go crash Safari now.

I'm feeling kind of left out now. Augmented reality is an awesome concept, but only if it works in the mainstream. Most poeple aren't going to wander around and try multiple approaches, to "augment" thier reality.

[brexxy21]

That's Sick!

[mackster92]

Can't get it to work. Software loads, then I a box saying " Internet Explorer has stopped working..." Any suggestions?

[nonamehero2]

dont use internet explorer

[jbell6793]

my computer keeps sayin i gotta restart it in order to complete the installation and ive restarted it twice and it still dont work...

[magicalobizuth]

Anyone get this to work on a Mac? I don't know how to get iSight to turn on other than using it in an application.

[shammond3]

Here's how I got it to work:

(1) Do NOT turn on the webcam (thanks ceyoung5717)

(2) Click the green "Launch 3-D Cover Experience" button

(3) Hold the magazine in front of the webcam, moving it around slowly. I did not have to blow into the webcam's speaker.

That's it. I probably spent around 30 minutes last night trying to get this to work. The key is NOT to turn on your webcam, which you would think would be mentioned in the instructions.

[peel432]

I don't get it. How do i turn the webcam off?

and how do i see the cover if the camera is off?

It's not working for me :(

[shammond3]

My webcam is always turned off. For me to turn it on (which you should not do for this to work), there's an icon on my desktop that I click.

How do you see the cover if the camera is off? For some reason after you go thru the steps above, the webcam will turn on when you hold the cover in front of it and shows it on your monitor. Doesn't make sense.

I just did it again a few minutes ago (6:15 pm here) and it worked perfectly.

[unlockedmindmedia]

This technology is not new. The Digimarc company started 'watermarking' images a few years ago. When the user held up a watermarked advertisement, the computer would open their website. While that did not work very well, the technology is still used to enhance copyright enforcement for watermarked images.

[InsanityOnABun]

Wow, that's pretty cool. Kinda makes me wish I had a webcam...well, not really. But still. Cool.

[Chizpurfle52595]

It works but you have to have good lighting in front of you. Neat trick.

[awesomeideas]

Best. Commercial. EVER!!! It almost makes me forget that a bunch of guys in some room in some advertising company came up with this!

[Runey00]

this works perfectly, I just tried it.... it lags a little bit but the augmented reality one is better on the GE Site

[vchri92]

this sucks i tried it and nothing happened.

[Cod4Paradox]

You need a webcam btw, dont send a hate reply

[wwwmiecz]

try doing this at 3.00 a.m. It worked for me

[PaperPopUpsPetrina]

The concept is awesome as are most Pop-Ups. GE really does bring 'good things' to life.

[timothyak47]

it's like that lego digital box

[WestX007]

I believe the term you guys are looking for is "Augmented Reality". It's kind of a hype right now. Search for it on google and you will find lots of other stuff. Via specialised toolkits like FLARtoolkit and Papervision 3D, Flash can do stuff like this.

[nilent]

This won't work an an "old" G4 PowerBook but it appears from the video that what we have is a program that uses the input to the camera to create a "3D" image on the display that corresponds to the position of the cover that's being held/moved in front of the camera; so we now have a simulated/digital interactive 3D image!

If my surmise is correct, then there is nothing 3D-ish coming from the actual cover; but there is a clever programming that anchors the screen image to the cover's movements.

[NoDetrel]

That's exactly right, it just looks cool on the screen. Your magazine does what magazines do best. Nothing.

[nilent]

Not quite "nothing"; it got us to pay attention to a GE marketing/PR program!

I can imagine this tech eventually being used to provide realtime "disguises" and animations to all manner of faces and images.

[MoonmanJR]

I cant get it to work. Any help ?

[ceyoung5717]

No don't open any video/camera softward the program automatically detects your camera... I made this mistake myself.

[lrosowsky]

HELP! If I just open PhotoBooth (on a Mac) will it work? Please help, affirmative or negative answers!

[KoreanPup]

no. it wont work with photobooth. just try it right now 0.o

[NoDetrel]

Nope, it doesn't work that way. Just go to the the site on the cover and launch the program from there.

[captainpiccard]

You are not very good at operating your computer machine are you?

[lrosowsky]

I believe that is a question. Are you not very good at reading wordy thingys?

[5ccurly]

This is SO cool! The technology is very innovative but of course that is what PopSci is known for- future forward thinking!

[BoostBMX]

They did this on the Assassin's creed II website a few months ago. It's pretty awesome

[AlcoholicCelery]

i need a webcam...........

[tygale]

this cover is Awesome! I only hope they do this on more covers. I guess the novelty of it will wear off eventually though.

[renatadevin]

i love popsci! Ive been a reader for over 2 years! Man I wish I had a webcam to do this

[BoogsterSU]

Me, too.

[Randallpw]

five years and i still love it, i also love makeazine (make magazine)

[jamesbondaygee]

if it were only a real hologram. That would be cool. It's just a picture on your computer....pretending to be a hologram.

[sg124]

That f-ing insane imagine a whole magazine like that?

[vakama380]

man, i hadn't even thought of that... possibilities :)

[ceyoung5717]

Cool new innovative technology!

[iheartscience1]

i don't get it. what's the point. if you don't have a webcam, this "technology" and "interactive" magazine does not come to life. and who reads popular science anyway?

[Iuciddreamer]

I read popular science. Popular Science is too cool for you. Because you are a silly face. =D.

[assymcgee1]

I read PopSci, im also a contributor to Instructables, to answer your question sciantists, and great professors read PopSci as well as us smart people, you don't read it because you aren't open to the scientific world, please for all of us, pick up a issue of PopSci in your doctor's office and actually "READ" it, you will be suprised that words are more powerful then shear images. ^^

[spin467]

Your "contribution" is much appreciated!

[assymcgee1]

thank you ^^

[PoundTeamDotCom]

LOL. And if I buy a car touted as the "fastest on earth" and find later that it was the fastest because they dropped it from a 747 ...?

It's not interactive without a webcam and software ...

It's cool, but it's not interactive. The software is interactive. (Keyboard, mouse, causes things to happen ...)

Better description: Interactive with a webcam and our software ...

Honest description: We built software that (in conjuction with a webcam) creates cool effects with this cover.

[spin467]

What's your point? It's a $5 magazine and

this is cooler than a normal magazine cover, which is what you would expect to get for your $5.

I just don't understand why people are complaining.

[PoundTeamDotCom]

OK ... so it's the sort of software that comes with webcams these days (the kind you can use to make it look like you're wearing headgear or have funny lips ...)? Would that mean we must have a webcam to "interact" with the cover? Which would mean it's not an "interactive cover" but a cover designed to be recognized by software on a site designed to work with a webcam. Now i'm confused.

[krazykipa]

Well by that logic you could say "A video game isn't truly interactive, it's just a combination of software and hardware that recognizes input from a controller.

But I digress