Friday, September 20, 2013

See GTA5 (or anything else) in a new way

Another great Flipboard find: a new kind of lens that combines insect and human vision, promising great new features and capabilities for things as common as mobile phone cameras and as intricate as laparascopy (see the link if you don't know what that is). Basically, the new lens is a gel-fluid-filled elastic polymer that has several dome-like bulbs on it. If I understand it correctly, the bulbs provide the insect-like wide field of view, while the whole device will expand or contract (as the amount of fluid is changed) to alter the focal point. The developer (Yi Zhao) says it gives "a wide-angle lens with depth of field."

One possibility for implementation are mobile phone cameras, which currently typically have a fixed-focus lens; the new lens would offer a dynamically focusing lens, improving the depth of photos. Of course, a gel-fluid in your phone's camera lens could be bad if it cracked; I'd hope the designers would take this into account and seal off the areas around the camera lens. (Maybe the Phoneblocs people could find a great way to make it practical.) Another possibility relates to surgical procedures; the new lens, with a different type of activating mechanism (electrically active polymer instead of gelatinous fluid), would provide surgeons with a wide field of view and, at the same time, the depth perception necessary for judging the distance between the lens and tissue, improving their ability to accurately place instruments or remove tumors.

Cool, but mostly for the idea of human/bug eye lenses.

Maybe the new lens will find some new way of viewing Grand Theft Auto V (GTA5), which has surpassed $1 billion in sales in just three days ("a rate faster than any other video game, film or other entertainment product has ever managed," according to Take Two, or so says that article). First day sales alone were over $800 million. GTA5 is available on XBox 360 and PS3 platforms, of which there are something like 160 million console gamers. Based on a retail price of roughly $60, the $1 billion in sales equates to about 16.7 million copies sold, or 10% of the (XBox 360/PS3) gaming community. 10% of console gamers bought one game. (FYI, I wasn't part of the 10%.)

One guy bought the game, and it turned out badly: he was "stabbed, hit with a brick and robbed as he walked home from the store" just minutes after buying the game. I suppose someone will make some reference to video game violence, kids, etc. After all, this is a fairly violent game, right? Rated M for "Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Mature Humor, Nudity, Strong Language, Strong Sexual Content, and Use of Drugs and Alcohol." Regardless, robbing a guy of his video game? Really? (Three teens, 15, 16, and 18, were taken into custody.) In another situation, three other teens (19, 19, and 20) had bought an unmarked police car at auction, arrived at a game store, got out wearing police uniforms, and tried to use their fake authority to break in the front of the line for the game. Seems like a lot of trouble to go through. Especially since the game can be bought over the Playstation Network online - you didn't even have to wait in line at the store at all!

So, maybe there is something to this "video game promotes violence" thing... since it's causing teens to mug others to get the game (as well as the guy's cell phone & watch) and/or impersonate police officers to try to skip the line. Anyway, I guess I'll go back to playing some Battlefield 3 now.

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