Software: Roll20 Dungeons & Dragons Platform

Roll20 is a fully customizable virtual Dungeons & Dragons platform that allows you to organize and play through campaigns with your friends whether they’re close by, in another state, or on the other side of the world. As the Dungeon Master, you can add your own tokens, maps, character portraits, and background music, or choose from Roll20′s libraries. The DM and players can draw diagrams and roll dice directly on the virtual tabletop in real time, and Roll20 also supports video, voice, and text chat. The service is completely free, though some artwork and tokens can only be purchased through the Roll20 marketplace.

Tech: Live2D

Live2D - Interactive 3D animation of 2D images

Live2D, developed by Cybernoids, is the world’s first drawing technology to enable 3D rendering of 2D images. This technology supports a variety of portable consoles and smartphones, and Live2D is already being utilized for games that take advantage of the unique characteristics of hand drawn artwork.

“In 3D, the unique attractions of 2D art like Osamu Tezuka’s can’t be rendered properly. But with Live2D, we’ve worked to enable smooth 3D motion using entirely the original 2D drawings. So, this system makes the graphics appear exactly as the creator intended.”

“When the face turns sideways, you can show perfectly how the eyelashes and eyes move. You can also use the tools to work more easily and efficiently. This can be done in all kinds of ways, with all kinds of emphasis, depending on what the creator wants to do. This technology is an extension of drawing, so it works best if the creator has a good artistic sense.”

Source: diginfo.tv

Software: What The New Microsoft Office Gets Wrong

What The New Microsoft Office Gets Wrong:

Windows 8, the most radical redesign of Microsoft’s flagship operating system, is often said to be schizophrenic. On the one hand, the user interface that first greets users is beautiful: a fun, playful grid of colorful tiles, based on Microsoft’s well-received Metro design language, that offers access to apps and content. On the other hand, hidden beneath this Metro-enhanced surface is the same desktop-based UI we’ve known for decades, still riddled with taskbars, toolbars, and drop-down menus.

Today, Microsoft unveiled a preview of its latest version of Office, and like Windows 8, the newest iterations of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint are just as split-minded. With roughly one billion users worldwide, Microsoft faced the same issues designing Office as it did Windows: How do you re-imagine a ubiquitous piece of software without alienating your global user base? While Microsoft designed this latest release for mobile, engineering the experience for touch-screen devices, and infusing elements of Metro’s design language into the program, Office 15 still feels slightly dated—bogged down by decades of legacy.

Source: FastCoDesign

Infographic: Evolution of the Web

Evolution of the Web

Interactive infographic about the evolution of browsers and the web. This infographic features major web browsers since 1993 such as Mosaic, Netscape, Opera, Internet Explorer, Safari, Firefox, and Chrome, as well as key developments in web technologies such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.

Tech: Avatar Mirrors users Facial Expressions

A Keio University group, led by Associate Professor Yasue Mitsukura, has developed a method for measuring which way a person is facing and how their expression changes. This system achieves high speed and high precision, using an ordinary PC and a USB camera.

“We think this system could be used by CG animation hobbyists, in Web dialog systems that show a character instead of the person’s face, and for making characters move in real time at events. Because the system uses just one PC and one camera, it can be applied in many situations very easily.”

Source: DigInfo TV

Tech: Swÿp

Swÿp, a prototype interface to share files with a swipe

Natan Linder, a PhD student in the Fluid Interfaces group at the MIT Media Lab with Alexander List are developers of Swÿp, a piece of open-source software that facilitates “cross-app, cross-device data exchange using physical ‘swipe’ gestures,” they write on their website. “Our framework allows any number of touch-sensing and collocated devices to establish file-exchange and communications with no pairing other than a physical gesture.” Translation: Dragging files from a phone to a computer with a swipe of the finger isn’t just a cool, far-fetched idea, it’s reality.

Swÿp can be used for iOS and LuminAR, but it’s still part of ongoing research, so it’s not available in app form yet.

Infographic: How Linux is Built

While Linux is running our phones, friend requests, tweets, financial trades, ATMs and more, most of us don't know how it's actually built. This short video takes you inside the process by which the largest collaborative development project in the history of computing is organized. Based on the annual report "Who Writes Linux," this is a powerful and inspiring story of how Linux has become a community-driven phenomenon.

Tech: NUIverse

Demonstration of the NUIverse application designed by David Brown for the Samsung SUR40 for Microsoft Surface.

Tech Links: Anonymous-OS

Anonymous has just released Anonymous-OS, their own Ubuntu-based operating system that uses the MATE desktop environment. It was created to help check the security of web pages for educational purposes and is available for download through SouceForge ...at your own risk, of course.

Tech Links: Poll Everywhere

Poll Everywhere, A Simple Live Polling Web App

Tech: Transparent Touchscreen Display

The Samsung Transparent Window is a 46 inch transparent LCD display that is a combination touchscreen computer and window (video via MobileNations). The display can perform a variety of functions familiar to tablet users. There’s even a “blinds” app that blots out unwanted natural light. The display is entering production later this year.

Via: The Next Web

Infographic: Platform Adoption Ramps

 

Infographic: Top Apps of 2011

Here Are The Most Popular Mobile Apps Of 2011:

According to mobile app analytics company Distimo, these were the most popular apps from around the world on every platform.

Source: Business Insider

News: 8 Out of 10 Software Apps Fail Security Test

Desktop and web applications remain a wasteland of bugs and holes that only a hacker could love, according to a report released Wednesday by a company that conducts independent security audits of code.

In fact, eight out of 10 software applications fail to meet a security assessment, according to a State of Software Security report by Veracode. That’s based on an automated analysis of 9,910 applications submitted to Veracode’s online security testing platform in the last 18 months. The applications are submitted by both developers — in the government and commercial sectors — as well as companies and government agencies wanting an assessment of software they plan to purchase.

Via Wired

Tech: Autodesk bringing 3D Modeling to the Masses

Autodesk bringing 3D modeling to the masses:

You may not know CAD, but if you’ve got a computer, you can now start creating 3D models.

That’s the idea behind 123D Catch and 123D Make, two new free software applications that Autodesk is planning on releasing on Monday. The two programs join the company’s existing iPad app, 123D Sculpt, as part of a family of tools that are intended to give just about anyone the ability not just to make their own 3D designs, but also to get them produced as real, physical models.

Autodesk unveiled the two new applications at a press event at its innovation center here today, making the argument that just about anyone can now play the role of 3D modeler that has traditionally belonged to CAD experts and other professional designers.

With 123D Catch, a user can take any digital camera and use it to photograph a real-world object. By snapping a few dozen pictures from angles all around the object and then uploading them to Autodesk’s cloud-based system via the software, the user can within minutes get back a 3D model of the object. Autodesk will process the model at no charge.

Via: CNet

Tech: Glasses-Free 3D Display

Head Tracking for iPad: Glasses-Free 3D Display - Jeremie Francone and Laurence Nigay of the Grenoble Informatics Laboratory track the user's head using an iPad's front facing camera, using the positional data to create the impression of depth without the use of specialized glasses.  The demo with the targets has been inspired by the work of Johnny Lee with a Wii remote.