Dev

This Computer Vision Central article reports the new NVIDIA CUDA 4.0 toolkit includes a computer vision library. From the article: "NVIDIA announced the latest version of the NVIDIA® CUDA® Toolkit for developing parallel applications using NVIDIA GPUs.

The NVIDIA CUDA 4.0 Toolkit was designed to make parallel programming easier, and enable more developers to port their applications to GPUs. This has resulted in three main features:

NVIDIA GPUDirect™ 2.0 Technology -- Offers support for peer-to-peer communication among GPUs within a single server or workstation. This enables easier and faster multi-GPU programming and application performance.

This Los Angeles Times article reports Microsoft plans to open up its Kinect motion-sensing controller for the Xbox 360 to a wide array of engineers with the release of a Software Development Kit planned for this spring. From the article: "The Kinect SDK will be made available to noncommercial users such as enthusiasts and academic researchers.

"Microsoft's investments in natural user interfaces are vital to our long-term vision of creating computers that are intuitive to use and able to do far more for us," said Craig Mundie, Microsoft's chief research and strategy officer, in a company blog post. "The fruits of these research investments are manifesting across many of our products, Kinect for Xbox 360 among them."

A commercial version of the Kinect SDK is planned for a later date, Microsoft said.

This Artlantis Blog article looks at the Leonar3Do VR Tool. From the article: "Our readers may be interested in learning about this amazing new 3D virtual reality tool, known as Leonar3Do. Check out this video for more information, in addition to the official website. Even Prince Charles gave it a try on his most recent visit to Budapest!

This VR Geek Blog article shows how to build your own low-cost virtual reality wall. From the article: "Following the VR Kit – HMD (VR Goggles), here’s the Wall ! If you want to build one for yourself, join the VR Geeks !

I have to say I’ve been waiting to have this kind of setup at home for 15 years, and I could finally build one myself !!

A 2.20m x 1m65 3d screen ! With that I can look at the 3D pictures and movies I took with my Fuji W1 3D camera, play (in 2D) with my game consoles, watch (2D) movies and .. get immersed !

Visualization Library is a cross-platform OpenGL-based C++ visualization toolkit dedicated to visualization professionals. This new release brings an enhanced volume visualization engine implementing realtime Blinn-Phong lighting with the OpenGL Shading Language, isosurface extraction via marching cubes, DICOM file support to read and write medical images and volumes, plus many other enhancements. A set of volume visualization screenshots can be found at: - http://visualizationlibrary.com/docs/html/pagguideslicedvolume.html - http://visualizationlibrary.com/docs/html/pagguidemarchingcubes.html - http://www.visualizationlibrary.com/jetcms/node/4

For more information on Visualization Library features visit: - http://visualizationlibrary.com/docs/html/pagkeyfeatures.html - http://visualizationlibrary.com/docs/html/pagchangelog.html

From the OpenSceneGraph website: "PERTHSHIRE, Scotland - 12th February 2009 - OpenSceneGraph Professional Services announces the release of OpenSceneGraph 2.8, the industry's leading open-source scene graph technology, designed to accelerate application development and improve 3D graphics performance. OpenSceneGraph 2.8 written entirely in Standard C++ and built upon OpenGL, offers developers working in the visual simulation, game development, virtual reality, scientific visualization and modeling markets - a real-time visualization tool which eclipses commercial scene graph toolkits in functionality, stability and performance. OpenSceneGraph 2.8 runs on all Microsoft Windows platforms, Apple OS/X, GNU/Linux, IRIX, Solaris, HP-UX, AIX and FreeBSD operating systems."

From the OpenSceneGraph website: "PERTHSHIRE, Scotland - 5th August 2008 - OpenSceneGraph Professional Services announces the release of OpenSceneGraph 2.6, the industry's leading open-source scene graph technology, designed to accelerate application development and improve 3D graphics performance. OpenSceneGraph 2.6 written entirely in Standard C++ and built upon OpenGL, offers developers working in the visual simulation, game development, virtual reality, scientific visualization and modeling markets, a real-time visualization tool that eclipses commercial scene graph toolkits in functionality, stability and performance. OpenSceneGraph 2.6 runs on all Microsoft Windows platforms, Apple OS X, GNU/Linux, IRIX, Solaris, HP-UX, AIX and FreeBSD operating systems."

This centredaily.com article reports Dassault Systemes announced its international Virtual Reality Experience and 3D Entertainment contest which challenges competitors to invent a multiplatform 3D real time application geared toward the general public using 3DVIA Virtools technology. From the article: ""The world of general public entertainment is reaching a new paradigm, lead by VR technologies for immersive, interactive, emotionally-charged experiences in 3D," says Mehdi Tayoubi, director of interactive media at Dassault Systemes. "Dassault Systemes is committed to innovation and with this contest is helping to create a next generation of VR creatives."

From the OpenSceneGraph website: "PERTHSHIRE, Scotland - 25th April 2008 - OpenSceneGraph Professional Services announces the release of OpenSceneGraph 2.4, the industry's leading open-source scene graph technology, designed to accelerate application development and improve 3D graphics performance. OpenSceneGraph 2.4 written entirely in Standard C++ and built upon OpenGL, offers developers working in the visual simulation, game development, virtual reality, scientific visualization and modeling markets - a real-time visualization tool which eclipses commercial scene graph toolkits in functionality, stability and performance. OpenSceneGraph 2.4 runs on all Microsoft Windows platforms, Apple OS/X, GNU/Linux, IRIX, Solaris, HP-UX, AIX and FreeBSD operating systems.

Visualization Library is an open source C++ middleware for 2D/3D graphics applications based on the industry standard OpenGL 2.1, designed to develop professional applications for the Windows XP, Windows Vista and Linux/X11 operating systems. Visualization Library alpha 1 supports advanced features like OpenGL Shading Language, Frame Buffer Objects, Multiple Render Targets, Vertex and Pixel Buffer Objects, KdTree/AABB frustum culling, multilingual Unicode-based text engine, advanced texturing, DDS cubemaps, mipmaps, compressed textures and much more.

Visualization Library can be especially useful in 3D/2D scientific visualization, virtual reality, augmented reality, visual simulation, data visualization, presentations, multimedia applications, special effects, 3d/2d games.