10 Centuries of European History

My only criticism of this video is that it should play faster, and should show the year somewhere. If this is ten centuries, then the years should correspond to roughly:

1000 AD – 1100 AD = 0:00 – 0:32
1100 AD – 1200 AD = 0:32 – 1:05
1200 AD – 1300 AD = 1:05 – 1:37
1300 AD – 1400 AD = 1:37 – 2:10
1400 AD – 1500 AD = 2:10 – 2:42
1500 AD – 1600 AD = 2:42 – 3:15
1600 AD – 1700 AD = 3:15 – 3:37
1700 AD – 1800 AD = 3:37 – 4:20
1800 AD – 1900 AD = 4:20 – 4:52
1900 AD – 2000 AD = 4:52 – 5:22

Influencers [Video]

I have to admit that I take this video with a grain of salt. There’s also something odd about juxtaposing Michael Jordan with Ghandi. Sure, they’re both iconic. But, I’m not sure that Jordan is really much of an “influencer” (in terms of being avant garde or an early adopter) except for the fact that he’s famous for being such a good athlete. Being influential because you’re ultra famous is actually pretty easy.

New Tech – 3D on the iPad/iPhone, Augmented Reality [Video]

I just thought this was a pretty cool demo. It’s a 3D world running on the iPad and iPhone. I didn’t know they had such powerful processors. I guess it follows the general computing trend of the past 50 years, though – more powerful computers in smaller packages. Decades ago, computers filled an entire room. Then there was the desktop computer, then the laptop. Tablets and phone devices are just another step in that progression. I suppose the only limiting factor is the interface.

Speaking of the interface, this is next video is a pretty cool tech mockup. Maybe in the future, we won’t be limited to the size of a tablet or smart phone screen. (This video works best with blue-red 3D glasses, but it’s still watchable without them.)

It would be pretty weird to see someone interacting with their computer this way – since they’d be seeing the augmented reality images through some sort of glasses, but no one else would see what they’re seeing.

3D without 3D Glasses [Video]

I kind of wondered how they did 3D without 3D glasses. I knew that a parallax barrier would work, but I figured it would have too small of a sweet-spot to be very good (i.e. shift a little to the left or right and the 3D would fail). I guess it’s big enough, though I haven’t actually tried it in person.

Based on their description, this system wouldn’t work for TV or movies – unless they dramatically increased the number of images handled by the system, creating a whole series of sweet spots.