Realtime ASCII Goggles

jabjoe writes "Russian artists from Moscow have created goggles with realtime image filtering. Among the Photoshop-like filters that can be applied is, interestingly, ASCII: you can view the world in real time as ASCII. Pointless but cool."

Pointless but cool?

[biocute]

It's not pointless if it's cool, it's just useless.

ASCII

[exploder]

I think the ASCII mode would have been cooler if they'd run the edge detect first. As it was, it seemed like the majority of the information rendered was in the brightness of the characters, not in the choice of character for each position.

My 12 Year Old Kid Would Love It

[lottameez]

I'd never get it back. This product has enormous toy potential.

One camera only...

[UfoZ]

...means you lose depth perception.

Nice gimmick, though.

Re:One camera only...

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes and no. Would you say you lose depth perception while watching a movie?

Re:I wouldn't say useless.

[pragma_x]

I'd say that's the tip of the iceberg. Real-time video manipulation has all kinds of crazy implications for various impairments.

Being able to simulate various types of color-blindness, or color-shift the real world to assist the color-blind are two possibilities. You could also use edge enhancement for people that can't focus too well, brightness enhancement for people who can't see in moderate light, gamma correction for night-blindness, and maybe some kind of stylized "cell shading" for people who have trouble discerning shapes and depth cues (shadows, etc).

Now, add on some binocular optics (read: conventional glasses) and you can further push the envelope by compensating for astigmatism, lazy eye, and all the rest.

Also, a lot of CCDs can see in to the near-infrared. So IR-enhanced viewing is also a distinct possibility.

Re:ASCII and thou shalt receive

[AndersOSU]

I like to posit that Keanu Reeves is a fantastic actor, provided his character has no idea whats going on around him, see Bill and Ted, the original Matrix, and A Scanner Darkly, (possibly also the Lake House, but I'm not about to subject myself to that to find out.)

The second Keanu Reeves' character is has a flash of insight, he is completely unbelievable - see, Dracula, Chain Reaction, Matrix 2 and 3, and Constantine.

Movies like Speed, and The Devils Advocate are a mixed bag, the scenes where Keanu is confused are good, the scenes where his character displays some sort of talent are bad.

Re:ASCII and thou shalt receive

[the_lesser_gatsby]

For a single method - like everybody is.