Night vision cameras are super devices that have been used in some super situations.  A few examples include the Paris Hilton sex tape, Jame Gumb’s creepy use of night vision in Silence of the Lambs, and a funny scene involving night vision from the hilarious movie, Step Brothers.

That said, there’s an issue with night vision cameras which, up until now, no one has solved with any degree of success.  That issue?  The fact that night vision camera’s only capture images in a monochrome green color.

Finally someone has tackled a major societal issue by creating a night vision camera capable of taking photographs in color.

The Nanosystem Research Division of AIST (National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology Japan), finally came out of the dark, displaying their new camera which can take color photos in the dark.

Using a highly sensitive infrared technology, the camera can take real-time color video in the dark!  Further, in using advanced algorithms which analyze reflected wavelengths from objects of different colors, the camera fills images with colors and not the disgusting green hue night vision enthusiasts have grown to know.

While still in development, the creators plan to make it commercially avaialable to all by the end of 2011.  Prior to doing so, the camera needs to be made both smaller and more durable for every day use.

Have you used night vision?  Would you consider investing in a color night vision camera?  Why/why not?

ubergizmo

RoboCop, one of the sweetest films of my generation, will not be honored with a statue by Detroit in the same way as another film, the meh-inducing Rocky, has been by Philadelphia.

Detroit’s Mayor Dave Bing, a former NBA star, not the inspiration for Microsoft’s search engine, has turned to the Internet for ideas on how to revive the Motor City.  Unfortunately in a Tweet from the Mayor on Monday indicates the city has no plans for a RoboCop statue to honor the 1987 blockbuster film based in Detroit.

The Tweet from Mayor Bing resulted in an instant wave of Twitter messages from fans of the movie who hope the Mayor will retract his statement and create a statue destined to be as iconic as that of The Statue of Liberty.

Among the sentiments expressed by Twitter users after the Mayor’s Tweet included the following:

• “Some people just don’t get it”
• “If I were mayor of Detroit, my top priority would be a Robocop statue.”

Philadelphia has a statue honoring Rocky, but thanks to Mayor Dave Bing Detroit will not celebrate its connection to the iconic RoboCop any time soon.

What do you think of the Mayor’s decision?  Is a RoboCop statue long overdue or something that should have never been considered in the first place?

When comics convert from print to the screen – be it silver screen, little screen, or computer screen – the results are often disastrous. We’ve become so accustomed to this fact that as comic book lovers, we follow the news of every comic adaptation’s progress as if it was life or death. Universally.

We obsess over every little detail, but in sheer acceptance of our fate, preordained by movie & TV studios, we rarely ask the big question: should a comic be adapted? Is one comic more worthy than another? Is one comic so strong that it’ll survive any and all mishandling it’ll inevitably receive once it hits the studio’s hands? Or is it a comic that should never, ever make the transition?

Let’s examine some comics that haven’t deserved their 15 minutes of Hollywood fame, and a few comics that should be given a chance to demonstrate their full glory on the silver screen.

Kick-Ass: Kick-Ass. What can I say? Mediocre comic, mediocre film. Soon to be a mediocre sequel! Taking up valuable box office space and studio dollars and cents while other movies that deserve to be made languish in the wings. Movies like…

Deadpool: As one of Marvel’s most unforgettable characters, Deadpool has been crying out for a good movie of his own. And fans are crying out alongside him. This is a movie that would be well watched regardless of whether it was made wonderfully or made like crap. Deadpool’s story is an endless supply of amusing source material for a first rate movie plot. And the film is “in the works” – except it has no director and very little in the way of a firm cast. Ryan Reynolds is meant to reprise the role, but back-to-back Green Lantern projects mean that a Deadpool movie is so far on the back burner it’s freezing over.

RED: RED is a three part comic with one main character who’s quite capable of launching a killing spree all by his lonesome. There is no real supporting cast and, in my ever so humble opinion, the comic isn’t terribly good. But the movie looks a whole lot more promising. The cast of supporting characters that are mostly nonexistent in the source material is nothing short of amazing, so what have they done with the comic that the original creative team didn’t? We shall see…

Ant Man: Edgar Wright appears to be doing everything short of enlisting a witch doctor to get an Ant Man movie made. This is a character who’d have legs (there’s a pun just waiting to be made in there, somewhere) on the big screen. There’s plenty of story and plenty of cast surrounding Ant Man, which equals lots of opportunities for good writing to shine. It’s a no-brainer, really, so why isn’t Ant Man getting his time in the spotlight?

Runaways: I’m 100% behind the making of a Runaways film. But I am 100% against the destruction of the Runaways story, as would certainly happen if rumors came true. The current gossip is that Marvel and Disney plan to tweak the Runaways tale to make it more appealing to the “tween” audience that is so grossly enraptured by Twilight that it makes me yearn for the days when Harry Potter was a prepubescent sex symbol. A Runaways made for Twilight fans is not a Runaways I want to see. Period.

Are there any comics you’d like to see make the jump to film or TV? Any that absolutely should never have crossed over? I’d love to hear your thoughts, just drop a comment in the box.

And while you’re at it, check out Unreality Check here at ForeverGeek.

Martin Wilson is a long-standing artist using traditional film photography as his medium.

His web site showcases 16 big art pieces that are stitched together from individual, ordered 35mm film.

Once Martin has developed the film, he scans it in and then place the final image together, including the shot numbers under each frame. He swears that he doesn’t cheat at all using Photoshop, and if he makes a mistake or shoots a frame out of place he starts the whole project again from scratch.

In a digital age when so much is manipulated via Photoshop, surely this has to count as master geekery? Take a look at some of the amazing artwork on his site. You can buy it all, too, and not for stupid prices either.

(Via)