Go where the love is (day 147)

bacterial update: The kombucha scoby appears to have survived.  I tested the pH and it decreased a little bit.  I got a bit more brave (stupid?) and took the scoby out and added sugar.  It foamed like yesterday but then reverted to a normal state.  This is my last ditch effort at saving this batch.  I'd say if by the end of the weekend it's not approaching a 3.5 pH, I'll let it go.  I'm looking forward to starting from scratch.  It would be a bonus if I could get some tea out of this batch though!  I haven't even been optimistic enough to buy some bottles.  Many kombucha tea brewers recommend getting a heating pad.  I'm intrigued by this idea but I would rather do without mostly because I can't think of a location with a plug nearby that would also be appropriate for brewing tea.  I may try putting a hot water bottle near the brewing container and see if that helps.
The Kefir grains woke up with a new zest for life and I knew I was in trouble when I saw the fermentation was almost done as I was leaving for work.  There was no way I'd be back to strain it at the optimal time.  And I wasn't.  When I got home it had separated into a thick layer of curd with whey at the bottom.  So I decided to make Kefir-Leban, the kefir equivalent of "if life gives you lemons, make lemonade".   It's currently straining through cloth and should be ready in about 20 hours.  It can then be used like cream-cheese, or made into a harder more mature cheese.  I'm intrigued by cheese-making but not enough to make my apartment smell like a cheese factory.

I know that a few days ago I said that I would keep going to the Stereoscopic Displays and Applications conference.  Now I'm not so sure.  I did come away with some new insights about stereo technologies but considering the cost of attending, it doesn't seem like a good trade.  For the same price I could go to SIGGRAPH and be much more satisfied.  It dawned on me that my interest in stereoscopy centres around two topics: the art of making stereoscopic movies, animations and artwork; and the hardware and software people are using to create these on the cheap.  In other words, I am interested in stereoscopy for artists and amateurs.  I don't think this will ever be a central part of the SD&A conference.  But it could be part of the new Stereoscopic 3D Centre currently being developed at Emily Carr in partnership with Kerner Optical.  In fact, I will make sure it is.  With that in mind, here is a piece of information I picked up at the conference.  Colby Systems has created a relatively inexpensive stereo video camera that records at full HD resolution.  The cost is $699 USD, plus an extra $99 for a camera stabilizer.  I will purchase one for the Breath I/O project and put a review on this blog once I try it out. 

A song for this post.

Tribal rivalry (day 145)

I took one look at the morning schedule for the Stereoscopic Displays and Applications and decided to crash one of the other conferences: Human Vision and Electronic Imaging.  They were having a full session the high dynamic range (HDR) light in Ansel Adams photographs, capped with a tour of an Ansel Adams exhibit at the San Jose Museum of Art.   It was a glorious morning and I remembered who my tribe is as soon as the lights went down and the pictures started talking.  The exhibit was of Adams' early works and contained some old prints from the late 30s.  I loved the pictures of more intricate subjects like grasses and roots.  He could really make texture come alive just as he did majestic shots of landscapes.

I toured the rest of the exhibits and barely made it back in time to hear engineers talk about depth maps.  I learned something.

A song for this post.

Spectacled visions (day 144)

I'm a big fan of phantograms.  Terry Wilson sells them at the Stereoscopic Displays and Applications conference.  I always feel like buying way too many.  Phantograms are stereoscopic images that appear to pop out of the page when positioned on a table and viewed at an angle (standing up).  It can make things like bowls and flowers seem like they are really on the table.   There is an art to creating and printing a phantogram.  One of the biggest issues is getting accurate colours so the stereoscopic effect works well and the subject looks good.  It can be hard to get good colour with anaglyphs (most phantograms are anaglyphs).  This time I bought a book on phantograms.  Like most things stereoscopic it's slightly tacky but I like it that way.

The other neat thing I saw today is a product called StereoJet.  It prints stereo images onto polarized sheets which can then be laminated and framed.  The images can be viewed with polarized glasses (similar to those used in 3D theatres).  The left and right images are printed onto orthogonal linearly polarized sheets which are then superimposed. A third sheet adds a quarter wave retarder which create circular polarization.

I also saw a demo of Digimarc technology which embeds visual codes as watermarks into images.  These can be detected by a camera and used to retrieve information about an image.  Unlike other similar technologies, the marks are undetectable so they don't obscure or change the design of the picture.  It's been used extensively to keep track of where images are being used and help protect copyright.  But for me the use of the watermark to reveal related information from the image is more interesting than the copyright applications.  I love the idea of getting out my camera to take a picture of something and being informed that there is more to this picture.  Better yet, it would be great to be able to encode information into pictures I take with my cell phone.  Things like voice, links to other pictures, links, etc.

A song for this post.

Not (yet) my tribe (day 143)

It's odd to be surrounded by thousands of people and feel alone.  This is the second time I've attended this conference and I thought it would be different this year.  But I'm starting to realize that there is a fundamental mismatch between the average SD&A attendee and me.  I remember once sitting at  Tim Horton's waiting for someone to pick me up.  I wasn't eating the doughnuts but I was watching other people eat doughnuts.  The atmosphere was ok and I was enjoying reading the paper.  I think I might have been sipping coffee too.  Anyway.   At some point I looked around and I thought "If I hung out here all the time, eventually I would look like the people that come here regularly".  The thought was sobering and I looked for my friend's car.  I feel the same way about this conference.  I look around and I think "I don't want this to be me in 10 years."  Needless to say the feeling seems to be mutual.  They can't see me becoming like them so they don't bother engaging in more than superficial conversation.  The saving grace?  Some pretty great content.  And there are other sub-conferences happening so I can duck out and take in some other type of information when I've had enough.  I will keep coming here because of the content and because I think eventually it will change.  And if it doesn't, maybe I'll start my own regular stereo conference.

If I could change SD&A I would add some art tracks, change the venues to be smaller, and add some technical courses.  Maybe change the management team to proportionally include fewer engineers.

BTW, Disney is converting the original Beauty and The Beast to stereoscopic.  They showed a preview and it is beautiful.  They said they aim to have it done (start to finish) in a year.  

A song for this post.