|
Japan is familiar with legendary Godzilla, the well-known monster brought to life in various movies. The huge reptilian creature was seen numerous times climbing skyscrapers and wrecking havoc. However, dinosaurs were never part of this scene. Now, thanks to Canon’s technology, historical dinosaurs can be seen in 3D. The 260-specimen dinosaur exhibit in Chiba, Japan, offers visitors an unprecedented experience involving the gigantic creatures.
The exhibit was opened on July 18th and according to plans will run until September 27th. Among the various exhibits, visitors can use Canon’s video scopes to watch a “site-wide view” of three-dimensional dinosaurs. The result is a major enhancement to museum-experience, in the form of Augmented Reality.
|
Augmented Reality (AR) is a field of computer research that deals with the combination of real-world and computer-generated data (virtual reality). The seamless result is achieved by blending computer graphics objects into real footage in real time (which is critical, to avoid any delay). Using Canon’s video scopes, one cannot differentiate between the computer originated objects and their real-life counterparts.
The collection exhibited is named “Dinosaur 2009 – Miracle of the Desert”, since it is composed from various fossils gathered at deserts around the world, including the Chinese part of Gobi desert and the African desert Sahara. Furthermore, Canon’s involvement isn’t limited to supplying the devices for the virtual reality simulation; the company is a proud sponsor of the exhibition.
TFOT has previously covered a recent research of dinosaurs’ vision and the new speculation about the real dinosaur killer, the cause for their extinction. Other related TFOT stories cover TDVision’s technology that offers 3D digital content in High Definition format, as well as the Minoru 3D Webcam, an innovative webcam which offers a unique 3D experience.
For more information about the exhibition, see Canon’s press release (Google translation from Japanese).
