Loosely explained, 3D technology tricks the mind into thinking it is seeing a three dimensional image by setting objects closer to one camera lens for one eye, and farther away to another camera lens for the other eye, then melding the two images together.

In a perfect world with the right visual conditions, and eyesight that can quickly change between this dual-camera trickery, you get that 3D feeling. But, unfortunately, there are too many situations where it won’t work quite right for some eyes, or the glasses, lighting, or other environmental conditions in a home rather than in a theater setting won’t allow the user to see the screen as well.

Over the centuries some of our best inventions have been inspired by the nature that surrounds us. From our feathered friends who inspired us to take to the skies to the sea creatures that inspired us to make better suits for our Olympic swim teams, nature influences our advancements in all branches of technology, possibly even the way we’re able to shoot video.

NocturnalVision, a Swedish company, patented a new technology inspired by the eyes of a small tropical bee (Megalopta genalis), as well as other nocturnal insects. Combining their study of these insects with mathematics, NocturnalVision’s algorithm opens up the possibility of a camcorder with full-color night vision.

According to CNET, NocturnalVision uses an approach called “spatiotemporal summation.” The technology works by analyzing the image in each frame of video, as well as the action from one frame to the next in order to recognize pixels changing from light to dark, or from dark to light. From there it determines how to reduce the visual noise by calculating which pixels should be preserved, and which ones should be suppressed. Essentially, the technology makes it possible to shoot video in dimly lit conditions without the issue of grainy images.

As of right now, the new technology works, but at processing speeds too slow (five frames per second) to keep up with a camera’s frame rate. NocturnalVision is, indeed, interested in applying this technology to camcorders and camera phones, but is currently seeking venture capital.

When HD was first introduced to the video world back in the 1990’s, IT departments at production houses around the world gave a collective groan. Back then the best video transfer speeds were 50 MB/s with a Firewire cable, making HD video transfers a huge vortex of wasted time. With the advent of Firewire 800 (which was capable of speeds up to 100 MB/s) and eSATA (with speeds up to 380 MB/s), video transfer speeds took a huge leap forward. Even so, video editors were still losing precious years of their life waiting for HD projects to transfer from one hard disk to another.

Now USB 3.0 is looking to solve that problem. With the support of manufacturers such as Sony, Intel, Microsoft, Compaq, and IBM, USB has quickly become the connection of choice for computer equipment ranging from keyboards and mice, to coffee warmers and iPods. As a result, USB cables and connections have become by far the most common in the computer world. So when USB 3.0 was announced in 2007 with speeds up to 400 MB/s, the video world quickly realized that there was huge potential behind the new technology due to its many features and advantages.

One of the greatest features of USB 3.0 is that a 25 GB file can be transferred in just 70 seconds essentially eliminating the frustration of wasted time when transferring large HD assets from one hard drive to another. Additionally, with such high read/write speeds, USB 3.0 has become a viable connection for editing on external hard drives without the speed delays of current connections. This gives studios and editors a reasonable workflow option in a world where solid state media recording has become the new norm. With rapidly falling prices on external storage, studios now have the option to buy hard drives such as Buffalo’s newly released SuperSpeed USB 3.0 external DriveStation HD, edit on them, and then store them much like tapes were stored in the past. The advantages of this set-up is when a client asks for a re-edit on an old project, instead of having to reconnect footage from tape, studios can simply connect their external hard drive using USB 3.0 to their computer and start editing right away saving huge amounts of transfer time. Lastly, another potential advantage of USB 3.0 is its increase in the market. It is quite possible that if you are at a friend’s house with a USB 3.0 hard drive and no cable, that your friend will probably have a USB 3.0 cable for you to hook your hard drive to your computer.

As great as USB 3.0 could be for video editors, there are also some other interesting products that could be a great boon to the video-editing world. Just this last May, the Serial ATA Organization announced the specs for SATA revision 3.0, allowing for transfer speeds of up to 700 MB/s. Also, Intel also announced a curious new technology called Light Peak. Light Peak is an optical cable standard that can deliver bandwidth from 1.25 GB/s to 12.5 GB/s. Whichever technology becomes the standard, one thing is for sure: the future for HD video production has never looked so good.

Now Mac-based editing workgroups using EditShare storage solutions will be able to work collaboratively, accessing in real time a pool of media files.

EditShare, the technology leader in cross platform collaborative editing and shared media storage systems, announced compatibility for the Apple® Snow Leopard® release. The award-winning EditShare multi-channel ingest, shared storage and archiving solutions offer special project sharing capabilities for Broadcast, Postproduction and DI editing workgroups. “The nature of EditShare business is creative-based with a good portion of customers using Apple hardware. Fully qualifying this popular OS release for EditShare solutions was our top priority. EditShare customers tend to push the boundaries of technologies and often embrace advancements such as the new Snow Leopard,” comments Andy Liebman, President and Founder, EditShare. “So it is with great pleasure that we officially add this new OS to the list of supported platforms.”

Thanks to EditShare’s patented bin-locking / project-locking framework, Mac-based editors using Apple Final Cut Pro® and Avid® editing applications can instantly see, copy or revise the work of colleagues with the assurance that a bin, sequence or project will never get accidentally deleted or overwritten. Via a file-manager type interface, editors can clearly see all the bins and project files being used by all editors in their group. Bins and projects belonging to other editors are automatically opened as “Read Only,” and control can easily be transferred from one editor to another.

The days of science fiction are over. It seems the ideas once thought to be impossible are now only several lab tests away from becoming reality (i.e., designer babies and steaks grown in petri dishes). On the video side of technology, we already have a complete convergence of digital technology on our hand-held devices, not to mention the ability to make paper-thin, “go-anywhere” digital displays. However, there are those who desire something just a little more portable than the fore mentioned. Lucky for them, they need not wait too long, for scientists are developing the most portable of all displays: the LED tattoo.

The brains at the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Illinois, and Tufts University in Medford, MA, have combined their research to develop implantable silk-silicon electronics. These implantable electronics include silk-silicon LEDs that can be placed into the skin, as well as biocompatible electrodes that could work in conjunction with the nervous system. The intention is to apply this technology to medical devices, such as blood-sugar readings that would automatically appear on the skin. Philips’ Design Probe took a different approach to the obvious medical implementation. Their vision is a world of touch sensitive body art, or “interactive skin technology.” Read the rest of this entry »

Reprinted from an Blackmagic Design press release:

Blackmagic Design today announced DeckLink Studio, a new model capture card designed as a replacement for standard definition cards, with increased analog connectivity for older analog equipment as well as SDI/HD-SDI and HDMI connections for the latest cutting edge digital equipment. DeckLink Studio 2 replaces current model DeckLink Studio and adds 10 bit HDMI capture and playback for the same low price of  US$695 or €545 from Blackmagic Design resellers worldwide.

DeckLink Studio features independent connections for SDI, HDMI, analog component, S-Video and composite video, so all types of external video equipment can remain connected without re-cabling. DeckLink Studio also includes SDI and HDMI connections that switch between SD and HD, as well as an SD only output that always outputs via a built in hardware down converter even when running in HD. The SD down converted output is great when you need to monitor your work in both SD and HD at the same time.