Off Course-On Target

Seeing Around the Corner of the Future of Photography

I continue to believe that we are hitting the tipping point of the exponential curve of the evolution of what we currently call photography.  I think photography and camera are becoming as ill fitting as terms like calling and phone.  Don't you find it interesting that one of the things you do the least with your "phone" these days is actually call someone?  Or at least your smartphone now does so much more than just act as a telephone that it seems quaint to call it a phone.

Capturing our world via sounds and images is being revolutionized as we see exponential increases in things like resolution, combining still and video capture with sounds, location and more and now being able to photograph things we can't even see such as with this recent development from MIT of cameras that can see around corners. 

With the note that all of these are all technologies which now several years old, as are my posts about them, consider some of the following examples of how rapidly and fundamentally things are changing in these areas:

Adobe and others have also developed cameras and what they call “computational photography” that can gather such complete information on a scene that focus becomes infinite and something we can adjust after the photo is taken. 

Or how about things like Photosynth which can align and stitch together thousands of photos and videos to create a “model” of the whole building or space which you can then walk through.

Add to this the ability to take photos with your “phone” and convert them into 3D models such as with apps like the Autodesk 123D series and how we are starting to see 2D printers replaced by 3D versions capable of "printing" full working 3D assemblies so you can “print” those models you’ve captured and snowflaked them to make them “just right” for you.

Add to the mix things like the Sixth Sense technology

and notions such as The Quantified Self 

and you will start to see how we need to completely rethink and reimagine what “photography” means and consider what we need to learn in order to make smart choices and use the power of these innovations for positive good and gain.

For now start to notice how the use of video is becoming more and more pervasive and consider that as the resolution of video cameras in our “phones” goes up and up, won’t still and video merge into one when you can grab just the perfect “frame” for a video anytime you want a “still photo”.  A little further out what if you don’t need to remember to take a photo or a video of an event before it happens because it you are capturing everything all the time. 

Scary?  You bet!  Exciting?  Absolutely!  Inevitable?  I think so.

Snowflake Effect: Mass Personalization of Manufacturing

Derek Singleton has written a good overview of some good examples of the mass personalization of manufacturing in a recent posting “Anyone can be a Manufacturer” and an earlier one “Three ways to bring Crowdsourcing into Mainstream Manufacturing”.  They are IMHO well worth the read and following some of the links. 

The only significant omission to me. which many seem to miss, is the area of 3D scanning that enables us to capture existing objects in the form of full 3D models which we can then modify and adjust to suit our individual needs and situation before “manufacturing” at a click of a button.  Perhaps Derek will write more on this topic as well.  For now you can see some good examples such as Autodesk’s 123D series of apps for more on this critical component of the Snowflake Effect on manufacturing for the rest of us.

As I’ve been saying in my articles and speaking engagements the last few years, one of the biggest and best examples of how the ubiquitous Snowflake Effect is fundamentally disrupting the present and shaping the future is what I think can rightly be called the Third Industrial Revolution wherein each of us as individuals become empowered to create or manufacture our own “stuff”. 

This revolution is very pervasive and diverse in that sometimes we will literally have a one click manufacturing plant on our desktop along the lines that can already be seen with some of the early 3D printers available.  At the other end of the spectrum it will simply yet powerfully mean that we will play a more and more key role in the design and production of products we create with the assistance of others and higher end services and the myriad of points along this entire DIY (Do It Yourself) spectrum.  I think this will likely proceed along lines similar to how photography and photo printing have evolved where they were initially the domain of experts only to where we used to just take photos and send our film off to be developed and turned into prints to where we now either just click and immediately see the photo results on extremely high resolution screens or hit the print button and soon have a near perfect photo in our hands.

As we begin to similarly capture and print real and complex objects with the simple click of a button we become more intimately involved in the whole process from the initial idea of “Gee, wouldn’t it be great to have one of those.” or “I wish ‘they’ would make something like this.” to the modification and improvement of the object to make it “just right”, just for me, just for now and almost instantaneously have that in our hands.

The instant gratification and production of more “stuff” does NOT excite me and is in fact one of the concerns to be dealt with as we move into this brave new world.  What I am VERY excited about is the degree to which this will in fact involve each of us more directly and intimately in the whole idea-design-test-create-improve cycle.  Think of all the learning this will inspire in us all!  Think about how much more we will understand the materials and energy that go into producing things and the power this new awareness will bring to many as to how to consume less, reuse more and get more out of life. 

How much “stuff” do you have in your life that you don’t use because it never worked well, never fit you properly, never did what it was supposed to do?  Imagine if every “thing” you have is just right, just for you.  Imagine the new skills and knowledge you will need to have and want to have to live life well in this new snowflaked world.  As with all powerful new innovations and discoveries the advent of personalized manufacturing will bring with it equal measures of risks and benefits and it is up to each and everyone ONE of us to choose how we will shape and use these new tools and enablers going forward.

We may curse snowflakes while shoveling billions of them from our driveway or when our car is skidding on compacted ones on roads, yet the almost spiritual beauty of fresh fallen snow and the intricate perfection of each and every unique snowflake evokes emotions deep in our souls and reminds us what a profound gift uniqueness is.  It may be difficult at fist to see such beauty in something as ‘ugly” and conforming as manufacturing has historically been, but these are the traits of the previous forms of manufacturing and why, for me at least, the rapidly evolving Third Industrial Revolution is so powerful, so exciting and yes, so beautiful. 

 

Think about it.  What will you do as these capabilities are put into your hands?  What new skills and knowledge will you need to have to use them wisely and for best benefit?  What new services and support will you need?  How will use these new capabilities for greater good both for the world overall, yourself and the rest of the world’s snowflakes?  As you ponder these kinds of questions, if it doesn’t make you equally excited and scared then I’ve done a very poor job of explaining this.  Hopefully better writers like Derek will help to do a much better job and set off that spontaneous cognitive combustion within you as you have that the Aha! moment of recognition and set of in pursuit of your relentless curiosity to learn and practice more.

Seeing is believing 2.0?

Microsoft stock and business may be rather cold but their research work is HOT from what I’ve been seeing the past year. Let me bring but two recent examples to your attention and see if you don’t agree.  These are also more examples for my ongoing quest around “What if the impossible isn’t?” or WITII?

PIVOT

The first is one called MS Pivot which tries to enable us to see the web almost literally as a web rather than just a set of pages.  It works primarily with photos right now and I originally came across the underlying technology over a year ago when they were working on Photosynth, which is also equally worth checking out BTW, here is my previous post with my thoughts of how I see Photosynth technology being used.

As you watch, start to rethink your understanding of what search and filtering are really about and see some of the new possibilities Pivot enables.

SecondLight

The other bit of MS research to bring to your attention today is called SecondLight and for a metadata guy like me, this really catches my attention as a way to enable some truly powerful ways of visualizing underlying data, meta or not.  This one is really a case of where it is much easier to learn by watching rather than reading so check out the video below and you’ll quickly see what this is all about.  The first half of the video will show you what it does and the second half will show you how it works.  I’m pretty sure by the end you too will be excited as you start to imagine the possibilities for use and especially for learning.

Whatever you may think of Microsoft, this is a great pair of examples of the kind of research which major corporations can contribute to and which bode well for our future innovations and discoveries.  I hope that by bringing these capabilities to your attention we can collectively get better at “readiness for the unexpected” an the premature arrival of the future.

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• An In-Depth Look At Pivot, Microsoft's Newest Data Visualization Tool (techcrunch.com)
• http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2332945,00.asp

Printers that Print Printers? WITII?

If you've been reading some of my posts over the past few months you know of my ongoing asking of the question What If The Impossible Isn't? or WITII? as I've been abreviating it.  This arose from my previous observation that we are living in a world of exponential change and the purpose of this theme of WITII? is to show that much, perhaps even most of what we assume to be impossible is actually now, or is about to be, possible.  And possible in this context is not so much that something has just been invented or accomplished in some research laboratory.  Possible in my the WITII? context is about products, services and capabilities that are available, affordable, accessible and usable for "the rest of us".

One of the more fun and significant examples of my ongoing quest for examples of "What if the impossible isn't?" (WITII?) and the Snowflake Effect of extreme mass personalization is that of 3D printers; machines that can create or "print" fully functional or "real" objects and assemblies.  3D printers are a good WITII? example in that they are not new, but they are beginning to reach a price point, availability and a functionality that can put them on your desktop on your budget and enable you to make things that you would want.  The application of this technology is also expanding dramatically as demonstrated by my previous post on the MIT Cornucopia project which looked at a 3D printer for food!

However as fun and exciting as these developments are, one of the most profound changes which 3D printers are ushering in is that of machines which can self replicate.  Simply put, you can buy a 3D printer which can "print" a copy of itself (some assembly required). 

Pause and think about that for a minute ...............  

Better yet, watch this video that will show you a recent example, the RepRap (short for Replicating Rapid-prototyper) self replicating 3D printer.  Well worth 8 minutes of your valuable time to see this in action and have Adrian Bowyer, the originator of the RepRap project explain it.

RepRap from Adrian Bowyer on Vimeo.

As per the video and the RepRap site:

“ This 3D printer builds the parts up in layers of plastic. This technology already exists, but the cheapest commercial machine would cost you about €30,000. And it isn't even designed so that it can make itself. So what the RepRap team are doing is to develop and to give away the designs for a much cheaper machine with the novel capability of being able to self-copy (material costs are about €350). 

Not counting nuts and bolts RepRap can make 50% of its parts; the other parts are designed to be cheaply available everywhere.That way it's accessible to small communities in the developing world as well as individuals in the developed world. Following the principles of the Free Software Movement we are distributing the RepRap machine at no cost to everyone under the GNU General Public Licence. So, if you have a RepRap machineyou can use it to make another and give that one to a friend.

Talk about exponential rates of change!  This not only affects the rate of change for making these kinds of machines, it equally changes things like business models, sharing of designs and actual parts and machines.

I don't know about you but that sure get's me excited and has my head reeling!  See what I mean about "What if the impossible isn't?", what was once just something you read about in science fiction novels and movies is now on your desktop! 

I'll let you think on it a bit more and be back to you in future posts with both more examples and implications.

Avatars R'us? DIY Structured Light 3D Scanning | VizWorld.com

The 3D scanning effect that brought us radiohead’s “House of Cards” video is now within the realm of us mere mortals thanks to the work of Kyle McDonald.  In a new project on Instructables, he shows how to connect a projector and 3 cameras together to great a great low-cost 3D scanner.

You’ll need a camera, a projector, and some open source software to process the image data. Using these simple tools, [Kyle] turned out much better video than before. Take a look after the break to see his results from scanning at 60 fps using a PS3 Eye. The trick to this setup is getting the correct synchronization between the projector and the camera, something that could be improved with a bit of extra hacking.

via www.vizworld.com

3D Capture at 60fps from Kyle McDonald on Vimeo.

Very much worth watching this chunky video* (above) on how 3D scanning is entering the DIY (Do It Yourself) domain.

• Note the cool new "drag to share" tab in the top left corner if you've not seen it before

Talk about mass personalization and The Snowflake Effect!  Suddenly you can have an avatar which really IS you!  Right now.  With what you probably have on your desk.

Want to get started?  Here are the full instructions on the Instructables site.**

• If you've not done so already be sure to check out the Instructables site itself for a great example of DIY learning content.

And think about the implications and applications for learning, education and training.

Every day we get closer to the singularity where the real and the simulated/virtual/digital become indistinguisable or one and the same.

If you're not equal parts fascinated and frightened I don't think you're paying attention! Let's resolve the frightened part by guiding this in the right directions by using it for great results.

Creativity is Different From Innovation : American Express OPEN Forum

Creativity is Different From Innovation

Jan 04, 2010 -  John L. Mariotti 

This idea is not a new one.  Theodore Levitt raised this issue in his legendary 1963 Harvard Business Review article entitled “Creativity is not enough.”  He emphasized his title with the statement: 

 

“The fact that you can put a dozen inexperienced people in a room and conduct a brainstorming session that produces exciting new ideas shows how little relative importance ideas themselves actually have.”

via www.openforum.com

Thoughtful and thought provoking article and topic worth some pondering.

This is also helpful in delineating as I like to do between innovation, invention and discovery.

While I have a bit different view of creativity, Mariotti's observations about the critical role of asking the right questions and inverting or turning things around is key for me.  With my incessant asking "What if the impossible isn't?" you can imagine  why I appreciate his comments:

"Then it is important to ask the right questions, in the right ways — and then answer them.  We humans tend to answer the questions we are asked.  Instead of asking, “Why can’t we?” ask, “How can we, or how else might we?”  

The difference in these two questions might seem small, but it is huge.  Ask a question about why we can’t do something, and the answer is a litany of reason why we can’t do it.  Simply turn the question around and ask, “how can we?” and the litany is a listing of what is, or might be possible."

Unfortunately for you, this only serves to fuel me to continue to be more curious and to ask What if the impossible isn't?