Media Development Tools Reviews

RealOne Player and Helix DNA Client reviewed by PC Magazine
Discusses Real, Windows Media and QuickTime from the perspective of a developer (using the API or SDK).
From the article:
Media Development Tools
February 1, 2003
By Richard V. Dragan
Developers are faced with a difficult decision: picking the best format for delivering content. Many factors are at play, including the quality of output and the players that the target group is likely to have. An important consideration is which format will provide the best tools for producing content.

Video available for research..

The Open Video Project :: Project Information

Anticipating a future with widespread access to large digital libraries of video, a great deal of research is currently focused on many areas related to digital video. Research in these areas requires that each investigator acquire and digitize video for their studies since the multimedia information retrieval community does not yet have a standard collection of video to be used for research purposes.
The purpose of the Open Video Project is to collect and make available a repository of digitized video content for the digital video, multimedia retrieval, digital library, and other research communities. Researchers can use the video to study a wide range of problems, such as tests of algorithms for automatic segmentation, summarization, and creation of surrogates that describe video content; the development of face recognition algorithms; or creating and evaluating interfaces that display result sets from multimedia queries. Because researchers attempting to solve similar problems will have access to the same video content, the repository is also intended to be used as a test collection that will enable systems to be compared, similar to the way the TREC conferences are used for text retrieval.

Sideshow – Todd

Todd Robbins Carnival Knowledge
From the site:
Todd Robbins, whom New York Magazine calls “a performer of dazzling skill,” parts the curtains of the secret world of the carnival sideshow in his amazing new stage production, “Carnival Knowledge.”

One of the last practitioners of a quintessentially American art form, Todd Robbins brings us face to face with an oddly beautiful mixture of real-life human marvels and classic carnival magic. TheaterMania.com calls the spectacle “infectious, informative and colorful.” The New York Post promises, “this is theater at its most visceral!”

Pan, Tilt and Track Webcam

Cameras > QuickCamÆ Orbit‚Ñ¢” href=”http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm?page=products/details&CRID=4&CONTENTID=7172&countryid=19&languageid=1″>Logitech > Cameras > QuickCamÆ Orbit

Unfortunately it is USB and not FireWire. Probably no MacOS support either.

From the site:
You’ve never seen anything like the unique combination of form and function of the QuickCam Orbit. It features a black, ball-shaped camera that sits atop a nine-inch-high stand at your eye level. Why? So that you’ll get optimal face time during your video calls or video instant messaging (IM) sessions. And when you move, it actually follows you around! The QuickCam Orbit mechanically and automatically turns left and right for almost a 180-degree horizontal view or up and down for almost 90-degree top-to-bottom view. So your smiling face will always stay in the picture.

Internet watches… ;-)

Suunto
From the site:
Suunto n3, the first in a new line of smart wristop computers that combine the quality and features from Suunto with access to timely, glanceable information provided by Microsoft‚Äôs MSNÆ Direct Service. The Suunto n3 offers a variety of features that will streamline daily tasks and enhance daily life – a stylish and unique information source for people who want to be in the know while on the go. Owners will be able to receive customized information to their wrist discretely and automatically – Microsoft‚Äôs MSN Direct Service ensures that the information they need is up-to-date and ready at a glance.

Fossil has another MS powered watch is: http://www.fossil.com/jump.jsp?iMainCat=450&itemType=CATEGORY&itemID=451.

Fossil also has a Palm powered watch: http://www.fossil.com/jump.jsp?iMainCat=447&itemType=CATEGORY&itemID=448