technology

"The world's largest self-made video game"

Julien — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 16:50:28 +0200

From the age of 10, Robert Pelloni dreamed of an “ideal” video game. Whilst having coffee with friends one day, he began scribbling ideas on napkins. Five years later he’d created what he suggests is possibly the world’s largest self-made video game. In those five years Bob hardly left home, working night and day on his project, with no internet connection and virtually no social life, his bedroom floor strewn with papers.

Bob is basically a self-taught game designer. In High School he took an introductory class on C++ programming, though he had no previous training of graphics or game design. He first got a dot to move on a screen, then designed a character and got it to move. Soon Bob had his basic story ready. His 65-song soundtrack was recorded using sound waves, while sound effects were produced with objects and recorded with a microphone. Hence, the sound of footsteps was created using a real shoe. He reckons the whole thing cost him less than $10,000, whereas the average game today costs about $500,000 to make.

New Radiohead clip is online sensation

Ségolène Team Observers — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 17:23:15 +0200

The music video for Radiohead's latest single "House of Cards" was yesterday the most watched clip on the web. Not only is it aesthetically pleasing, but technologically mystifying too - it was filmed without a camera.

It's only been online since Monday (14 July), but the latest clip from Oxford's finest musicians has already received 1,277,013 hits. This, along with the fact that Radiohead is the biggest rock group in the world, is largely due to the fact that critics went into rapture over the new album, "In Rainbow". But equal praise is reserved for director James Frost, whose technical prowess, also having served the likes of Coldplay, Stereophonics and Norah Jones, reached new heights on the project.

The short film is made using an experimental animation technique that employs neither lights nor camera, but is shot in real time. The contours of singer Thom York's face are not reflections but the mathematical harnessing of his movements. Followed by 64 revolving lasers and scanned by a clever device made by Geometric Informatics, every move he makes is registered by the reaction speeds of laser beams.

And to boot, never missing the chance to get their fans involved, the group put a page on Google to let people try out the technique. Once finished, there's a group on YouTube waiting for your attempt.

Does France really need CCTV?

Sophie Team Observers — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 10:53:47 +0200

One of grafitti artist Banksy's illustrated jabs at the CCTV system in Marble Arch, London. Photo: "improbulus" on Flickr.

Video surveillance cameras go relatively unnoticed in London, despite it being the most surveyed city in the world. In France however, where plans to increase their numbers by threefold have just been announced, the extra eye-spies will not go up without a fight.

Following a meeting with the French National Commission of Video Surveillance, the Minister of the Interior confirmed plans to advance a "citizen protection model for France". Announcing an increase from 20,000 cameras to 60,000 by the end of 2010, Michelle Alliot-Marie has caused outrage, with critics rallying against what they call a "useless" scheme that comes with a "phenomenal" cost.

Mobile phone health risks: "I trust specialists more than big firms"

Sophie Team Observers — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 09:28:52 +0200

Cooking popcorn with mobile phone waves (a faked video posted on YouTube).

French scientist David Servan-Schreiber led a group of 19 cancer specialists in speaking out about mobile phone-related health risks - particularly for children - and calling for increased awareness of the dangers. We asked our Observers, including one of the doctors who signed the agreement, whether they think that mobile phones really are deadly.

The text, which was published in the French press on Sunday, recommends using handsfree sets and restricting their use by children under 12 to emergency cases. It also suggests that sending text messages is better than making calls.