ThatsMyFace

ThatsMyFace offers your own 3D face from two images

by Matthew Humphries posted on November 19, 2008 8:30 am



If you’ve ever wondered what you’d look like in a few years time, or when you start getting really old, then ThatsMyFace.com may be able to help. They have introduced a service where they will produce a 3D image of your face taken from just two pictures you upload.

The production of the face is free and just requires a shot of your face looking into the camera, and one of your side profile. This is then converted into a 3D mask for you to view. After that you can start doing some manipulating including the following options:

* Find out what you look like at age 20, 40, or 60
* Change yourself to be African, Indian, Asian, or Caucasian
* Change you gender
* Produce a caricature of your face to highlight the distinctive features
* Be shown your facial asymmetries
* Be awarded an attractiveness rating
* Locate other people who look very similar to your face

ThatsMyFace also aim to make some money out of this service by offering you the chance to buy your face in a number of different guises. These include having it lasered into a glass cube for US$29, a plastic face mask for US$49 that looks very real, and printing it on a number of items such as t-shirts, bags, or a hat. They are also branching out via relationships with other companies to offer you cosmetic surgery, or photographic services.

The 3D mask in plastic looks very eerie in the YouTube video. It would probably freak a few people out if you wore it and then took it off to reveal the same face. As it’s a free service I’m very tempted to try it out just to see how their aging process works. I’m not sure about the gender change option though.

This is a cool app. Imagine making a mask of someone's face and then totally messing around with it, etc. This could be fun.

Space Station residents to drink recycled urine | Gaming and Culture - CNET News

If you're the kind of person who wants to do research on the International Space Station, it appears that you may need to cross some boundaries of taste many of us wouldn't even consider.According to a BBC News story Friday, the crew aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavor, which is scheduled to launch from the Kennedy Space Center on Friday afternoon, will be handing off to their Space Station colleagues a water regeneration system designed to, among other things, recycle urine for reuse as fresh water.The system, which will ionize, filter, distill, and oxidize wastewater, "will make yesterday's coffee into today's coffee," one astronaut told the BBC.The idea behind the $250 million system seems to have been to figure out a way to ensure that residents of the Space Station had a supply of fresh water. To date, the Space Station has had the luxury of getting water deliveries from newly arrived Space Shuttles. But the Shuttle program is slated for retirement after 2010, and that looks to end the program's role as, among other things, the Space Station's personal water truck.Still, the system won't be implemented right away. First, NASA wants to be sure that it works, as designed, in a zero-gravity environment.On Earth, astronaut testers are apparently convinced that the filtration technology works just fine."Some people may think it's downright disgusting," Endeavor astronaut Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper told the BBC, "but if it's done correctly, you process water that's purer than what you drink here on Earth."Some who have tried the recycled water did report a faint taste of iodine, but they didn't see that as a problem."Other than that, it is just as refreshing as any other kind of water," said Bob Bagdigian, who ran the system's development. "I've got some in my fridge. It tastes fine to me."Daniel Terdiman is a staff writer at CNET News covering games, Net culture, and everything in between. E-mail Daniel.

Space Station residents to drink recycled urine | Gaming and Culture - CNET News

Teaching with Twitter - Chronicle.com

Teaching With Twitter



David Parry, a professor at the University of Texas at Dallas, talks about using Twitter, a new messaging service, for his courses.

A new service that allows people to send notes to a set list of recipients' cellphones is being used as a teaching tool by some professors and college librarians.

Video: Teaching With Twitter - Chronicle.com