LiveMove2 - Live Tracking with a Wii Controller in 3D Environments

3Dwalkthroughs.com is really impressed with the capabilities of an upgrade to a technology from the company that collaborated with Nintendo on the MotionPlus controller add-on.

The technology is called LiveMove2 and features almost instantaneous 1:1 tracking. You can check out the technology on a YouTube video which can be found here>>.

The video shows examples of advanced tracking movements such as the swinging of a sword and how the sword interacts with an alien being. It can even recognize movements such as throwing a lasso. This type of technology represents a huge opportunity for game developers.

We are personally excited about the potential LiveMove2 brings to the exer-gamer market. As many of you know, this is an area we are spending a lot of time researching for Fitspott.

Source: Gizmodo.com

ExitReality - Turning Social Networks into 3D Virtual Worlds with the click of a button

3Dwalkthroughs.com came across an interesting application that it plans on investigating further. The application is called ExitReality and allows every web page or social network to be viewed in 3D. People viewing the same web page or social networking page in ExitReality's application in 3D can meet, chat and connect as 3D avatars with 3D instant messenger.

Apparently the application was originally be used exclusively for social networking sites but it is expanding its target to all types of websites. One of the features of ExitReality is the user’s ability to decorate or customise their own web space with 3D objects.

Simple yet powerful drag-and-drop technology allows users to add 3D objects they find across the web and add them to their 3D web space. There is no need to copy and paste embedded html code. Users simply drag and drop the objects into their web space and save.

Source: ExitReality Website

I am very interested to see how many people consistently utilize this type of technology to spruce up their social networking experience. It sounds like an interesting concept and I believe a lot of people will try it, but whether or not they continue to use it that might be another thing. Perhaps Fitspott will serve as a good testing ground to find the answer to this question.

Creating 3D Walkthroughs, 3D Floor Plans and 3D Renderings for International Companies

3Dwalkthroughs.com has seen an increase in the number of inquiries we have be receiving from international companies. Whether it is companies in India, the UK, Dubai, Philippines etc., the number of inquiries are on the rise.

The interesting part of this phenomenon is that some of these inquiries are turning into actual projects. We used to accept the fact that many of the international companies were only contacting us to learn more about our process or use us for price shopping...this is starting to change.

We believe that the increase in the conversion of these inquiries into actual projects is a result of an increased overall demand for high quality 3D asets, unique ideas that are not being found with local companies and a desire to achieve a certain look and feel that is more associated with an American property.

While we are certainly not complaining about the influx of new 3D business, we are curious to see if the projects coming in from international properties continues to grow.

"Luke I am Your Father" 3D Style

3Dwalkthroughs.com just came across an article confirming the rumor that George Lucas would be re-releasing all 6 Star Wars movies in 3D. According to the article on Gizmodo.com the cost of converting a traditional 2D movie into 3D is between$50,000 and $100,000 per minute.

Converting the Star Wars franchise to 3D highlights the current movement of creating movies in a 3D format. In the next year 4 or 5 blockbuster 3D movies will be released by some of the biggest studios in the industry.

To prepare for the DVD release of these 3D movies many companies are working on the technology which will allow the same 3D movies to be viewed in home theaters. It will be interesting to see how audiences react to this upcoming onslaught of 3D movies.

Fitspott Friday Update (July 25, 2008)

3Dwalkthroughs.com and the rest of the Fitspott team are gearing up to hit the marketing circuit next week. Our graphic design team is putting the finishing touches on our initial marketing materials and we are ready to start telling the world many of the details of what we have planned.

Up until now we have been quite vague about the details but the time has come to spill the beans...well some of them anyway. We are still encouraging people to sign up for the beta launch and the numbers continue to climb.

We are not naive enough to believe that everything is going to be perfect when we first launch. We look forward to the feedback, good and bad, that will be derived from our intial beta group.

Next week we are also planning to launch a few press releases to various media outlets. We understand that it is hard for people to get terribly excited about Fitspott without being able to see what it is all about. As we start to release some of these details, we are confident the excitement will grow quite rapidly.

Shapeways - Cost Effective 3D Printing

3Dwalkthroughs.com has posted about 3D printing in the past but a company called Shapeways is ready to take it to the masses.

For the first time budding artists, architects, product designers and dabbling consumers alike can easily order their 3D designs as physical objects in an inspiring and affordable way. Whether it's creating a new utensil, the ultimate toy or a wacky piece of art, with Shapeways users can Do-It-Yourself (DIY) online. Using 3D printing (Rapid Manufacturing), Shapeways can produce almost any design users choose to upload.

Source: MarketWatch.com

Shapeways allows users to upload and modify designs. The system will even check if the design is capable of printing. Turnaround time for a printed object is about 10 days at an average price of between $50-$150. Another interesting component of Shapeways is that they are not just offering a cool service, they are building a community for 3D artists and developers to share ideas and design concepts.

Here is a link to the beta sign up of Shapeways.

Here is a link to the YouTube Video which demonstrates the whole process

3D Animation and MRI Safety

3Dwalkthroughs.com picked up and interesting story on prweb.com about the use of 3D animation to improve Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) quality and safety. According to the press release this week is MRI Safety Week, and commemorates a tragic accident in which a child was killed by a projectile in the MRI scanner in 2001.

Imagilys, a Belgian company specializing in neuroimaging, along with Dominique Fremond, a French computer graphist, have created a 3D animation movie that explains the basic MRI safety rules and, more generally, what to expect from an MRI examination.

Source: PRWeb.com

As someone that has undergone an MRI and almost started thrashing on the table like a fish out of water (almost), the 3D animation is certainly beneficial. The 3D animation follows a virtual patient from arrival to departure and effectively prepares a patient for what they can expect during the actual MRI.

Click here>> to see the movie on Patiencys's website.

3DInternet.com - Hyper-Reality

If you want to check out a company creating really innovative products in the 3D arena you should visit the website of 3DInternet.com. The company has been around for a while but they recently launched a new website which has some very impressive demos and a preview of their new hyper-reality technology.

The level of realism they have achieved with their 3D products are quite groundbreaking. Their 3D malls, 3D job fairs and 3D collaboration products are much closer to real life than any other competitive products we have seen. 3Dwalkthroughs.com was also impressed with their architectural 3D products.

About 3DInternet.com
3DInternet provides a broad range of services that range from 3D Interactive Training Simulators, 3D application simulations, Design & Marketing, Virtual Tours and Online Shopping. Current projects being developed using our hyper-reality technologies include 3D shopping, 3D job fairs and recruitment, 3D collaboration services and online conventions and meetings. Leading the way globally, we are focused on providing professional services to all sectors of the economy.

Image and Content Source: 3DInternet.com website

The July "This has absolutely nothing to do with 3D post"

While doing research for new camera technologies I came across a interesting new technology being offered by Polaroid. You remember Polaroid, the point, shoot and shake the negative camera.

The new technology is called The Polaroid PoGo™ and is an Instant Mobile Printer that uses ZINK™ or Zero Ink™ Printing Technology from ZINK Imaging. PoGo™ Instant Mobile Printer provides a new, innovative way to share digital photos directly from your camera cell phone or digital camera, instantly.

A few interesting features about this new technology include:

- 2x3" borderless color images in under a minute
- Prints without ink using ZINK™ Zero Ink™ Printing Technology from ZINK Imaging
- Connects to cellphones or digital cameras through blue tooth or USB

3Dwalkthroughs.com imagines the PoGo and Zink technology will soon be able to create much larger prints as well. You can learn a little more about this cool new technology and see a sample video of PoGo in action at this link.

Fitspott.com Friday Update (July 18th,2008)

Every Friday 3Dwalkthroughs.com likes to give an update on the progress of Fitspott. So here it is:

Things are moving at a very rapid pace. The Fitspott team is juggling a million different tasks to maintain our projected Mid-September launch date. In additon, our marketing team has been very busy coordinating the next steps of our marketing campaign.

In a response to the out of control schedule we have all been adhering to, Erin, one of our Co-Founders, has invented the newest type of palm pilot. (see pic above)It is called the Palm Pad.

Needless to say we are all looking forward to the day when we launch and the platform is bug free. Knowing the makeup of our team however, the minute we are bug free will be the minute we jump right back into the fire and start our phase 2 activity.

3D Floor Plans - Amenity/Club House Areas

3Dwalkthroughs.com took a quick trip to Maryland yesterday to do a property tour of a friends development project. The property is almost complete and is absolutely amazing. One of the highlights of the property is the sprawling amenity area which is loaded with cool features.

After the tour we visited the sales office and I had a chance to review some of their marketing materials. The printed give away was very impressive and did a good job at marketing the property. I was a little disppointed however at the big 2D Floor Plan on the wall which is being used to show the layout of the property to customers that were on-site.

As a result, we are taking it upon ourselves to create a highly detailed 3D Floor Plan that will much more effectively demonstrate the foot print of the amenity area and all that it has to offer...we will post it when we finish.

We have been introducing 3D floor plans to a lot of our clients and are amazed at how many people have not seen them before.

Google's Cities in 3D Program Rolls Out First Few Completed Cities

A few months ago 3Dwalkthroughs.com posted about Google's Cities in 3D program. The program encourages 3D models of cities to be developed and integrated into Google Earth.

Some of the benefits of the Cities in 3D program include:
Helping with public planning

Fostering economic development

Boosting tourism

Simplifying navigation and geographic analysis

Enhancing facilities management

Supporting security and crime prevention

Facilitating emergency management

The program was initially rolled out in March but today Google announced the rollout of the first group of completed cities. These cities include: Amherst, Mass., Jamestown, N.Y., Washington D.C., Greenville, S.C., McMinnville, Tenn., as well as the Metropolitan Government of Nashville & Davidson County, Tenn.

It will be interesting to see how quickly this spreads to the Western half of the country. We were impressed with the level of detail in the 3D models shown on the Youtube demo of their program.

Image Source: Mashable

Wanted - Unique 3D Marketing Ideas

3Dwalkthroughs.com has been experiencing somewhat of a strange phenonmenon over the last few months. We have received a large number of requests for 3D assets that are a little outside of the normal output of our 3D Floor Plans, 3D Renderings and 3D Walkthroughs.

The majority of these requests are based on the inclusion of an advanced level of interactive capabilities. Interestingly enough, many of these requests are for the creation of unique 3D assets that are not even meant to be web-based.

We are finding that there are a number of property marketing directors that want to encourage potential buyers to view their sales presentations in person as opposed to on the web. Their philosophy is that the sales presentation will create the initial interest, but their pitch after the presentation is more effective at closing the client, or at least taking them to a more serious level in terms of buying.

We believe this increase in requests for unique 3D assets is a reflection of the tough real estate market, and the need for marketing directors to think outside of the box to make their properties stand out.

Using 3D Renderings and 3D Floor Plans To Make Better Capital Improvement Decisions

3Dwalkthroughs.com had a meeting yesterday with a client of ours that has mult-family and commerical properties spread throughout the United States. A couple of months ago we created 3D Renderings and 3D Floor Plans for a commercial space that they were about to begin capital improvements on.

The purpose of creating the 3D assets prior to beginning the construction was so they could make better decisions regarding finishing details such as flooring, wall colors, layouts etc.

Interestingly enough, yesterday at our meeting the client reminded us of the project and mentioned that he recently visited the property now that the construction was completed. He could not get over how accurate the 3D assets were in relation to the actual property. He mentioned that he showed the 3D assets to many of the people that work in the building and they could not believe we created these before construction even started.

We are working to get some actual photos of the property so you can see how accurate the 3D assets are for yourselves.

Fitspott.com Friday Update (July 11, 2008)

3Dwalkthroughs.com is excited as this was a very productive week for the Fitspott team. Here is a quick run-down:

1) We launched our first newsletter this morning, announcing our, Win an Ipod Touch Contest. The newsletter has only been out for a few hours and we have already seen a tremendous response.

2) We upgraded our sign up page and added a little more detail about how Fitspott was conceived. You can check it out at Fitspott.com.

3) We are almost finished with the new look for the Fitspott blog. The new design should be launched in a few days.

The number of sign-ups for our beta launch continues to increase and we have entered into discussions with a few very interesting sponsors/partners.

Finally, today Apple launched their new iPhone. Our developers and creative team have also been busy working out the details of our Fitspott Apple App. Check back next week for another update.

Lively - Google's Entry into the 3D Virtual World Space

3Dwalkthroughs.com has come across multiple posts about Google's new 3D virtual world platform - Lively. Lively is a free service aimed at the PG-13 crowd. Unlike Second Life they are not allowing mature content to be posted on the site.

According to the posts we have read, Lively takes social networking and chatting to the next level. The site allows users to design their own avatar, pick out their clothing and accessories, pick a room or a place, and decorate that space with furniture and objects.

Source: associatedcontent.com

As soon as we get a few minutes we are definitely going to be downloading Lively and seeing all that it has to offer. It will be interesting to see how it stacks up to Second Life and the other existing 3D virtual world platforms.

Here is a link to a youtube video describing Lively.

Official Launch of the Fitspott Blog

3Dwalkthroughs.com is excited to announce the launch of the Fitspott blog. The Fitspott blog will chronicle many of the behind the scene adventures of the entire Fitspott team.

All the members of the Fitspott team will contribute to the blog which will help to promote an unbiased view into our start up company. While almost all of us have been involved in start-ups in one form or another, we all agree that Fitspott is the most exciting venture we have been involved with.

Have no fear though, we are working on a more unique design for the Fitspott blog. We just could not wait to start telling our story. New design coming soon.

GrassRootsCoaching.com - Using 3D Animation To Help Soccer Coaches

A member of the Fitspott team just came across an interesting website developed in the UK that utilizes 3D animation to help soccer coaches improve their abilities.

Grassrootscoaching.com has been developed and designed to provide a one stop shop for football coaches of all levels. The biggest problem facing most soccer coaches is how they can find the right kind of soccer training information to make soccer coaching sessions organized, safe, relevant to the age and ability of the players. Soccer training sessions also need to be a positive learning experience, varied, progressive and enjoyable.

Source: Grassrootscoaching.com website

The site offers 3D animations of many types of soccer drills, built into an interface that allows the viewer to change the viewpoint with the click of a mouse. Another interesting feature of the site is the Coaches Chalkboard. The chalkboard allows coaches to design various plays and strategies right on the site.

3Dwalkthroughs.com believes this technology can easily be applied to United States football...and I am talking about the NY Giants type of football by the way.

3D Technology To Increase The Accuracy of Breast Cancer Detection

3Dwalkthroughs.com came across a very encouraging development in 3D technology that can potentially be used to help with the early detection of breast cancer.

Scientists have developed a new type of mammogram that can increase the detection of breast cancer by 23 percent while reducing the incidence of false alarms by 46 percent.

The technology involves taking breast X-rays with special cameras and at multiple angles, and in some cases using a pair of 3D glasses to view. Researchers at the Mayo clining say they can now see behind dense tissue that would normally block potential problem areas.

Source: Engadget.com

Fitspott.com Friday Update (July 4th, 2008)

3Dwalkthroughs.com and the entire Fitspott.com team would like to wish all of our friends and family a happy and safe July 4th.

The Fitspott.com development team is continuing to work through the holiday in order to keep us on schedule for our Mid-September launch. So far development is progressing smoothly with a lot of new ideas being integrated along the way.

This Monday we will continue to roll out a few of our initial marketing efforts. Oh, and by the way did I mention that we added the word technology to our tagline. Fitspott...the spott where fitness, technology and life collide.

We encourage everyone to spread the word about signing up for our private beta launch. It takes literally 3-5 seconds to join and is totally free.

Made To Stick - A Great Read

I am reading a very thought provoking book called Made To Stick by Chip and Dan Heath. The book answers 2 important questions that can be extremely useful both in someone's business as well as personal life.
1) Why do some ideas thrive while others die?
2) How do we improve the chances of worthy ideas?

As we move closer to the launch of Fitspott.com and continue our growth of 3Dwalkthroughs.com, many of the ideas and concepts in the book will be put to use almost immediately.

The main concepts of the book are easily absorbed as the book utilizes really good examples to drive home its points. I would highly suggest this book to anyone that is launching a new business, looking to improve an existing business or to anyone presenting an idea that needs to be remembered.

Yoowalk - A Virtual Walkthrough of The Internet

3Dwalkthroughs.com just recently came across a pretty interesting French company called Yoowalk. Yoowalk is a no-download virtual world which lets you browse the web, connect with friends, and design your own space in a live 3D environment.

After registering on the site I was able to go in and personalize my avatar. Once I saved my avatars settings I did a little exploring. Yoowalk wiil essentially allow anyone to build a virtual version of their website using their do it yourself tools. That functionality is not availble yet as they are still in their beta stage.

Features of Yoowalk

Walk around the web
Yoowalk is a virtual representation of the world wide web. It is composed of categorized villages of 3D websites called walksites that you browse with a personalized avatar. Simply walk your avatar along the streets to explore the coolest versions of your favorite websites.

Interact with live web traffic
Once in Yoowalk, you will not only see other avatars browsing the web, but will be able to interact with them in real-time. Feel free to follow a crowd, ask for shopping advice, or publicly debate your opinion in the streets.

Congregate with friends
With the Yoowalk Messenger, you are able to chat, locate, and browse the web with your friends. You can also sign into additional Instant Messengers and invite these friends to meet you in Yoowalk. Because Yoowalk is free and requires no download, they can join you with a simple mouse click.

Personalize your own interactive room
Design and decorate your own 3D space with furniture, accessories, interactive applications, and your favorite web content. You can also upload personal music and photos to share with your friends. When you're done, invite them over to hang out and laugh at the latest pics from your crazy weekend.

Build a 3D version of your website
Site owners, editors, and bloggers! Want to create or tranform your website into an interactive 3D walksite? As a webmaster in Yoowalk, you will be able to build your community and interact live with your audience. To find out more, go to the Publishers section.

Source: Yoowalk website

3D Walkthrough Attracting Street Traffic

3Dwalkthroughs.com just recently finished a project for the new condo development project 38 High Rock, in Saratoga Springs, New York. We understand that the sales office located in downtown Saratoga will be opening very soon.

The project involved the creation of multiple 3D Renderings and a Custom 3D Walkthrough. Apparently the Walkthrough is already being looped non-stop on a big plasma TV facing the street. Our source on the ground is telling us the 3D presentation is grabbing a lot of peoples attention.

Important note to developers: If your project is focused on a local market, looping a 3D presentation in a highly trafficked area can be a very effective way of attracting ripe potential buyers.