The Future of IMAX is… Lasers!

  by Jen Yamato

from http://www.movieline.com/

By the year 2013, IMAX theaters and Kodak will bring digital theatrical projection to the next level with a single, exciting, futuristic-sounding concept: LASERS! The companies announced their partnership today in a statement promising advances in quality projection in large-scale IMAX and dome theaters in the coming years to benefit moviegoers, theaters, and investors. Win-win-win?
“This Kodak intellectual property is truly cutting edge,” said IMAX CEO Richard L. Gelfond in a press release today, “and will be used by IMAX’s esteemed Technology Group to enhance the cinematic experience for consumers, enable the application of digital technology in our larger and institutional theatres, and make being in business with IMAX even easier and more profitable.”
IMAX is exclusively licensing over 50 Kodak laser and digital projection-related patents and technologies that promise to enhance the visual experience and light quality of the IMAX experience, as well as make content distribution within the IMAX network easier.
“Because this technology produces the deepest blacks, and the brightest 3D of any system demonstrated to date,” said Kim Snyder of Eastman Kodak Company, “it will truly make the movies more exciting for consumers, and that creates a strong value proposition for the studios and exhibitors as well.”
Meanwhile, Kodak has in recent years been developing laser projection technology, which previously fell under separate laser-specific regulations. In February, the company got the go-ahead from the FDA to bring their technology to cinema theaters (vs. specialized laser shows, etc.). According to Kodak’s website, the features of their Laser Projection Technology include combined 2-D and 3-D projection,” 3-D images “twice as bright” as those used in standard industry practice, and 2K resolution scalable to 4K. In a statement last spring, Kodak explained the initiative:

Typically, digital projection systems using high power lasers fall under the definition of a “demonstration laser” and must follow existing regulations for conventional laser projectors, such as those used in laser light show displays. Kodak has been working in conjunction with laser safety consultants and the FDA to address potential safety issues.

KODAK Laser Projection Technology promises to bring vastly improved image quality to theater screens, including significantly brighter 3D viewing, and to dramatically reduce costs to digital projection in cinemas through the innovative use of long-life lasers, lower-cost optics and more efficient energy usage.

Could lasers be the key to the future of theatrical moviegoing? Will it make the sucky peripheral IMAX seats you get when you arrive late suck any less? Would Jim Cameron approve? Stay tuned…
[Press release, Kodak]

Strung Out On A Lazer Harp: Q&A With Radium Audio

by Kevin Holmes
from http://www.thecreatorsproject.com/





Radium Audio are, an audio collective that plays around with sound. They create innovative sonic branding and audio design, always searching for that ever-elusive “sound that stirs emotion.” They have a sound lab in East London where they conduct their musical experiments, make instruments and create interactive designs. They recently notified us of their latest creation: a lazer harp that can control sound and stills. Seeing as how we’re big fans of lazers, the project naturally piqued our interest, so we emailed them to find out some more about this mystical new musical instrument.
The Creators Project: So, obvious question here… how come the lazer harp?

Radium Audio: It’s been on the table for quite a long time. We had often talked about building something beautiful and magical using two of our favorite things: lazers and sound. When we were invited to represent sound at the F5 motiongraphics event in NYC, we decided the time was right to finally get on and build one!
How does your lazer harp differ from other lazer harps?

We did an audit on existing lazer harps, from the first ones built in the 1970s by Geoff Rose and Tim Walsh, via Jean-Michelle Jarre and his followers, up to the modern ones described on internet DIY sites, and we found that all of them were basically showpieces and not designed as a serious musical instrument. They were all monophonic—ours is polyphonic with selectable scales. They were not ergonomically designed for smooth and fast playing, rather for stage show effects. Our design is based on ergonomics and how a player can move his hands in a comfortable way over the beams—like a guitar neck, actually. Our harp is also velocity-sensitive to allow the same dynamics as a traditional piano keyboard.

Can you briefly explain how you built it?

First we made a wood mock-up with strings as beams, testing out sizes and angles to get it right. Then we made a thorough list of features we wanted to put inside it and then the design evolved from that. We passed through a number of prototypes before we got to the design we’ve used.

You’ve said the lazer harp controls video and stills, how does this work?

The lazer harp is basically a MIDI keyboard. We are using the MIDI control signals to control graphics as well as sound. This is a feature of the performance software we have developed for internal use.

Radium Audio Lazer Harp from Kevin Holmes on Vimeo.

What other instruments are you building?

We are currently building a series of hand gesture controllers, some using lazer beams and some using invisible sensors like IR [infrared] and similar. We have also developed middleware that turns “nonartistic” devices—such as bar code readers for example—into controllers for sound and visuals. And we have a number of other solutions up our sleeve that we cannot talk about openly just yet :) Just wait and see.

How dramatically do you see musical instruments evolving over the next 5-10 years?

Imagine the time when humans started to understand how to use—shape and control—wood and the revolution coming from that in terms of instrument making, all the possibilities: guitars, drums, violins and more. Now, consider the fact that it took quite a while from that point in time until we were able to build things like the Stradivarius violins, although it was built from the same material.

We are now at the end of a period in time when electronics and micro-processors have emerged as a major tool in musical instrument design—samplers, synthesizers and much more are all around us. However, we are still waiting for the Stradivariuses. Honestly, there’s quite a lot of bad design going around in the musical instrument world, especially in software-based devices. So, we are moving into the next phase: developing really good designs. It probably means that there will be few new basic technologies but, hopefully, a lot of improvements on designs. We are still waiting for the electronic instruments that you can buy at the age of 17 and live with for a lifetime, still evolving and finding out new things when you are 75. You can do that with a violin, why not with an electronic instrument ?

All images courtesy of Radium Audio

Make Your Own Star Trek Phaser

By: Laura Hudson
From: http://www.comicsalliance.com

Countless Star Trek fans have dreamed about owning their own phaser, and while Wikipedia lists it as a "fictional weapon," one enterprising (rim shot) gentleman decided not to let anyone else tell him what can and cannot be real, and transformed a 1994 Playmates replica of the phaser from the classic "Star Trek" series into a 320mA – 465mW laser device, complete with appropriate sound effect.



He's even got a tutorial to help you build your own, and while this may not be as dangerous as the "real" thing -- e.g. able to burrow tunnels through solid rock and disintegrate hostile aliens -- there's a video of the guy popping balloons with the beam, so it's not a joke, particularly if you shoot it into someone's eyes. Remember: Once you add actual lasers to a toy, it's not a toy anymore, so don't point it at any living things, ok?

Could Aliens Be Sending Us Laser Signals?

Over a decade ago SETI pioneer Jill Tarter and I had a dinner discussion about the protocol procedures for announcing to the world the first detection of a signal broadcast from an extraterrestrial civilization.

I expressed relief that I would never have to worry about publicizing such a discovery from Hubble Space Telescope. “Hold on Ray,” Jill said, “you never know, Hubble might conceivably pick up a signal that other telescopes can’t detect.”

Oh, my worst nightmare! Imagine keeping that information under a news release embargo!

Now, some readers will scratch their heads at this because SETI has been popularized in the 1997 movie Contact where actress Jodie Foster “listens” for radio signals from E.T. with the huge radio telescope array near Socorro, New Mexico.

But another communication strategy that aliens might use instead of radio signals is to send brief and intense bursts of laser light across the galaxy – sort of like a signal lamp between two ships. Some space telescopes would be ideally suited to pluck out such a signal from the sky background.

Why laser beams instead of radio transmitters? A directed beam across interstellar space would be unmistakable from the stellar background and could penetrate thousands of light-years. With each pulse of energy a signal from a big enough laser optics system could appear 1 million times brighter that the transmitting planet’s parent star. The thought is that an alien society would use an agile laser-transmitter to “paint” nearby target sunlike stars with a “searchlight beam.”

An advanced alien civilization would not have to bust its annual GNP to construct a super-laser. Ideally, they would build a telescopic mirror the width of 10 football fields. They’d shine a laser into it that is capable of pumping out a blinding 1 quadrillion watts of energy in brief bursts (just such a laser is already in operation at the University of Texas).

Now, a petawatt is 1,200 times the entire electrical generating capacity of the United States -- but the shots last for less than a trillionth of a second each. The laser could pulse at one blast per second or so.

The pulse sequence might have a mathematical pattern embedded in it. This could yield a complex and lengthy message, or simply repeat a shorter transmission for redundancy (so long as it does not decode into those sappy musical tones from the 1977 film Close Encounters of the Third Kind)

There have been numerous optical SETI (OSETI) searches with ground-based telescopes, going all the way back to the early 1970s. Ironically, the newly launched NASA Kepler space observatory might be capable of stumbling across just such a signal too. It has the light sensitivity, photometric precision, time resolution, and sample size (170,000 stars) to do, serendipitously, an unofficial (and unsanctioned) OSETI experiment from a space platform.

In addition to doing a census of stars with Earthlike worlds, it is not entirely impossible – however remote – that the observatory could stumble upon an artificial laser transmission. In fact SETI researcher Steve Kilston has gone so far as to assert that if Kepler doesn’t get laser-zapped, the result would statistically reduce the estimated number of actively laser-transmitting civilizations in the Milky Way Galaxy to less than one million (and of course it could also be "zero").

A variety of other space telescopes could be similarly adept at coming across an OSETI signal. The European Space Agency’s Gaia observatory (2011 launch) will map the position and velocities of one billion stars in our galaxy. Its onboard multi-color photometer is capable of serendipitous OSETI detections.

A wildly ambitious, spendthrift super-civilization – a million years more technically evolved that us -- might build a moon-sized laser mirror. They would tap a fraction of their star’s energy just to power a godzillion-watt laser capable of transmitting an intergalactic beacon across millions of light-years.

Perhaps a future space telescope might intercept such a signal. The question is, how long will it take the researchers to shake off their amazement and disbelief, and dare tell their colleagues?

Photo Credit: University of Texas, Adam Contos/Ball Aerospace

Star Wars scientists use laser gun to kill mosquitoes in fight against malaria

Scientists who worked the Star Wars anti-missile programme in the United States are building a ray-gun than can kill mosquitoes in a bid to tackle the scourge of malaria.

By Alastair Jamieson

Insect-killing lasers could fight the spread of malaria Photo: AFP

Experts behind the 1980s missile shield idea have helped to develop a laser that locks onto and kills airborne insects.

It is thought the device, dubbed the 'Weapon of Mosquito Destruction' (WMD), could be used against mosquitoes, which kill almost one million people around the world every year by spreading malaria.

The research in Seattle, reported in the Wall Street Journal, has been funded by Microsoft billionaire Bill Gates through his charitable foundation.

The WMD laser works by detecting the audio frequency created by the beating of mosquito wings. A computer triggers the laser beam which burns the wings off the mosquito and kills it.

Among those working on the research project are astrophysicists Dr Lowell Wood and Dr Jordin Kare who both worked on the original Star Wars plan to shield America from nuclear attack.

Dr Kare said: "We like to think back then we made some contribution to the ending of the cold war. Now we're just trying to make a dent in a war that's actually gone on a lot longer and claimed a lot more lives."

The laser missile defence system was proposed in the 1980s to knock Soviet missiles from the skies with beams. It was greeted with enthusiasm by President Ronald Reagan but mocked as "Star Wars" by Senator Edward Kennedy and never got off the ground.

The idea of using the same mechanism to kill insects was down to Nathan Myhrvold, a former Microsoft executive who now runs an innovation firm call Intellectual Ventures. The firm was tasked by Mr Gates with exploring new ways of combating malaria and Dr. Wood suggested using lasers. Work on the WMD began last year.