Toshiba?s ?360-degree? head mounted display

Toshiba has developed a giant full-faced helmet that weighs around three kilo and facilitates the wearer to see a full 360-degree view on a 40 cm dome-shaped fish-eye screen. The idea of full ?360-degree viewing is fabulous but do you guys think it?s really fabulous with that gigantic 3 kg helmet on your head? It could have been a ground-breaking gizmo if they had made it a bit small. …
Source: Coolbuzz

And clearly, I was not the first to make this association. The “Dark Helmet” search results contain the Toshiba HMD !

(For those who are way too hyper to read any further, here is the download link and the screen pic show the settings I use for videos with do not exceed the max resolution of the iPod. For everyone else, feel free to keep reading.)

If you have an iPod that supports video and you have videos that are not supported by your iPod, the solution is to convert them. There are lots of tools to do the job. iTunes will do it for you but very inefficiently (slot and bloated results). You can buy software that make light work of it for you (at a cost). You can use ffmpeg if you like command-line tools (a call to all Linux users here). Or you can use SUPER.

SUPER? stands for “Simplified Universal Player Encoder & Renderer”. (And for the record, SUPER actually uses ffmpeg but you don’t need to know what it does <grin>.)

If you need a simple, yet very efficient tool to convert (encode) or play any Multimedia file, without reading manuals or spending long hours training, then SUPER ? is all you need. It is a Multimedia Encoder and a Multimedia Player, easy-to-use with 1 simple click. SUPER? is 100% FREE to download and to use. SUPER? does NOT require any additional external codec to be installed, absolutely nothing. SUPER? can also play and save Internet Media Streams with different protocols ( mms://  rtsp://  http://). 
Source: eRightSoft

While the quote looks like an advertisement, it true so I call it a testimonial. I’ve used a lot of different software to convert video podcasts, the odd TV show from my old PVR, or a funny video off the Internet. Most did a good job. SUPER did a good job with a decent user interface, batch processing, and at the magic price point of $0.00.

The only comment I will make about SUPER is their website. It has lots of good information *and* it’s hard to find the actual download link. There are a number of links that you expect to be the download, but each one takes you to the next page of information. Only after getting thru all of the pages of features, descriptions, examples, etc, will you get the actual link to download. So, I suggest you read thru all of the pages *and* here is the download link.

A couple of notes of video resolution you may or may not have read - the iPod Video (or iPod 5) officially supports up to 640×480 resolution starting with the 1.2 firmware. *But*, if you are planning to view the movie thru a TV, projector, or other output device capable of greater resolution, then what you are more interested in is the “307200 pixel” limit. With a few exceptions, if the width x height of the video will be less than 307200 pixels, you don’t need to reduce the resolution. I say “with a few exceptions” because if you are close to exceeding the maximum resolution, then you may need to understand “macroblocks”. I won’t go into them here. You can read up on that elsewhere. Suffice it to say, you can load a 16:9 widescreen video onto the iPod at up to 720×405 and it will play!

The idea is not new and I don’t take credit for it. One example to demonstrated the value was a simple “setup your home wireless security” video. It was not more than 3 minutes long. Another example was “building a Google Maps application”. Again, the instruction was under 10 minutes.

The idea never took off at my company. But, it does seem to have a live on the internet. LessonBites has come up with an interesting business model for the idea …

LessonBites provides a marketplace for instructors to sell their lessons using internet-based video. LessonBites provides lessons in bite sizes (like individual tracks of a CD) so you can learn what you want. The price of each video is 99 cents.

The product model is the same as “just in time education”. What is interesting is the business model. At 99c a lesson, the price might be right for personal training.

I’m not keen on their solution to piracy but I’m sure they felt they needed to do something.The quality of  some videos is not what I would expect and there appears to be some bandwidth issues. The value wil only come from volume of lessons.

Of course, YouTube and other sites may have made this business model moot. Of course, “content” is still the big issue. There is more “how to” videos for bad things then generally useful things <uh oh>. If you are looking for “how to” videos, here is a “top 10 list” of places to start.

The conversation and the post got me thinking so I dug out the old hacked CVS camcorder and downloaded the Ops software from sourceforge. Within 2 minutes I was downloading video clips from the “little plastic device”.

I recorded a 10 second clip of the clock (no big surprise). FYI - The camcorder records in DivX format.

I bought one of these CVS one-time use cameras for about $20. It took me about 15 minutes to hack it and another 5 minutes to install the software and download the first video. It worked as documented on the Internet.

Would I recommend it to others ? It’s good if you need to put a video camera in harms way. Otherwise, there a a lot of better options. Most point-and-shoot cameras can shoot video. Most reasonably modern digital camcorders can download to a computer. And if you want the smoothest of solutions, there are a number of current camcorders that record to a hard disk and will make downloading a breeze.

In the “audition round” Paul Potts sheepishly walks on stage in a somewhat rumpled gray suit. When asked what he would do to demonstrate his talent, he said, “sing opera”. That left all three judges afraid. Needless, the anticipation of an “average Joe” wanting to sing opera had them preparing for something on the order of William Hung. The music started and Paul opened his mouth and everything stopped and listened. Before it even ended, the audience erupted.

To see and hear for yourself, click on the video above or check out this YouTube search.

What I was most impressed with was the audience, not just of blue hairs, but equally filled with teeners and twenty-something’s. They all exploded when they heard Paul sing. The shy mobile phone salesman had a dream and a voice and years of training. He now had his chance.

Paul wins some money, will get a recording contract and more important to Paul, he next performs for the Queen. Yes, Britain does have talent. And after seeing the audience, they have class too.