VOL. 42 No. 4. Sept. 2008

PANORAMA

OF AMATEUR FILM & VIDEO SUR LE FILM ET VIDEO
The Publication of the SOCIETY of CANADIAN CINE AMATEURS / SOCIETE DES CINE AMATEURS

CONTENTS

PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE _____________ 3 VENTURER MONITOR _____________ Fred Briggs 10
CLUB NEWS ___________________________ 4 INTERNET UPDATES _______________ 12 Thom Speechley Thom Speechley SCCA ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING _ 5 BREAKING NEWS & UPDATES _______ 14 Fred Briggs Fred Briggs with contributions from several others GET THE SHOT _______________________ 6 Fred Briggs COLLAGE CREATOR Trevelyan Beard ________________ 8 TIPS _________________________________ 15 Fred Briggs RE-INKING CARTRIDGES _________ 16 Trevelyan Beard
Keith Gloster, ASCCA 10 Seneca Cres. Brantford, Ontario N3R 1K2 (519) 752-5745) ContestChair@sccaonline.ca Thom Speechley, ASCCA #19 - 295 Wilkins St. London, Ontario N6C 5C1 (519) 685-6197) Membership@sccaonline.ca
Fred Briggs FSCCA 3 Wardrope Ave. S. Stoney Creek, Ontario L8G 1R9 (905) 662-4406 Pres@sccaonline.ca
Christopher Chapman, C.M.
Fred Briggs, FSCCA 3 Wardrope Ave. S. Stoney Creek, Ontario L8G 1R9 (905) 662-4406 Pres@sccaonline.ca
T.V. Adams* Ben Andrews Jan Bekooy Joan & Joe Bochsler Carolyn & Fred Briggs Ron Chappell Frances Crutcher * Rose Dabbs* Elke Englicht Lois* & Gordon Fowler Keith Gloster Agnes & Adam Houston Stella Magic Lilian McKibbin* Robert Moutrie Betty Peterson* Bill Ripley Jack Ruddell* Linda Smith* A. Somerville Thom Speechley Grace & Neil* Upshall
Jon Soyka P.O. Box 60554 Mountain Plaza Outlet Hamilton, Ontario L9C 7N7 (905) 388-5840 Fax (905) 388-5840 Director@ciaff.info
Joseph and Joan Bochsler, Fred Briggs
Ben Andrews Box 10 Main Station Barrie, Ontario L4M 5E1 (705) 737-2729 EasternVP@sccaonline.ca
Fred Briggs Thom Speechley 2004 ISSN 1187-28207
David Fuller 5328 Arbour Lane Nanaimo, British Columbia V9T 6E5 (250) 751-0142 WesternVP@sccaonline.ca Sandy Whitehouse 11-2141 Country Club Drive Burlington, Ontario L7M 4R5 (905) 332-2041 Secrty@sccaonline.ca Carolyn Briggs FSCCA 3 Wardrope Ave. S. Stoney Creek, Ontario L8G 1R9 (905) 662-4406 Treas@sccaonline.ca
Thom Speechley, ASCCA #19 - 295 Wilkins St. London, Ontario N6C 5C1 (519) 685-6197 HonoursChair@sccaonline.ca

Joan Bochsler, ASCCA

Clicking on a Title will open your email program with that email address preselected.
475 Caithness St. E. Caledonia, Ontario N3W 1E3 (905) 765-5408

PANORAMA@sccaonline.ca

Stella Magic 189 Park Home Avenue Wilowdale, Ontario M2R 1A1 (416) 221-0577 Tapelibry@sccaonline.ca
BC Hydro Noranda Mines Ltd.

September 2008

PRESIDENTS MESSAGE
Photo by Joseph Bochsler Jr.

Fred Briggs, FSCCA

n the July Issue of PANORAMA we just missed bringing you the bad news about the passing of Lou Lanser, a longtime member of the SCCA, and a founding member of the Vancouver Video Production Club. When the July Issue was emailed to our members, Lou Lansers copy was returned because the email address no longer existed. I telephoned Lou to get his new email address, and received an automatic message that the number was no longer in service. Assuming that Lou had moved, perhaps into a retirement home as so many do at this stage of life, I telephoned Roy Pachkowski to see if he could get me Lous new contact information. Roy was surprised to learn that I wasnt aware that Lou had passed on, on May 28th, in his 88th year. Either Roy sent me a copy of Lous obituary or II found it on the website of the Vancouver Sun. Were sorry that we werent able to provide a link to the obituary in either the Sun or The Province, as neither paper carries their obituaries beyond 30 days. However, the Vancouver Video Production Club did a very nice job of recognizing Lou in their June issue of Reel Talk, and you can read Pat Sheridans moving tribute and view pictures of Lou there. While I never met Lou, I had come to know him and respect him through his long association with the SCCA, and I know I speak for all of us when I say that we share in a small way the loss suffered by his wife (whose name I dont have),

daughter Monique, son Derek, and grandchildren Ryan and Stephanie. We hope you enjoy this issue, and find it useful. This is the third issue delivered by email, and with each issue we learn something new about the software were using to put it together: this time its how to use pictures that arent inline with the text and how to flow the text around those floating pictures. Last time it was the Form on the back page which we asked you to fill in and click on to send the results to us. Unfortunately, only four, thats right, FOUR of you filled in the form and submitted it online. In addition, one member printed out the last page, filled it in, and snail mailed it to us, and another who had recently moved and changed his contact information, was taken a hard copy of the entire issue printed for him by another member, and he snail-mailed the form to us, too. Now we know something about six of our members, but thats hardly enough to help us know what YOU would like in PANORAMA. This lack of response from our members has been a problem for several years, and every year we have great difficulty getting in 1) Membership Fees, and 2) Proxies. This year so many members are in arrears with their fees that the Proxies have become less of a problem. We know that many of you, especially those living outside of Ontario, wont be planning to attend the 2008 Annual General Meeting and the Presentation of Winning Videos and Awards, but we ask you to please read the article on Page 5 about the AGM, because the paragraph in the centre of the page explains how we will overcome this hurdle this year. Were also asking you to mail in your cheque for your Membership Fees and send that in by mail, and go back to the July Issue of PANORAMA, fill out the form on the back page, and submit it to us online by clicking on the Submit button. You may have saved the July issue to your hard drive, or even copied it to a CD, but if you didnt, you can still get it by clicking on this link. ( In either case you will need to be online when you press Submit. If you have a dialup connection, you may prefer to print out the form, fill it in with a pen or pencil, and mail it along with your Membership
Fee (to Carolyn Briggs, 3 Wardrope Avenue, Stoney Creek, ON L8G 1R9). I have corrected a tiny error on this issue that originated with the first email issue, the Spring Issue. The last issue with professional layout and printing was the Winter 2008 Issue, VOL. 42 No. 1, and because of the steep learning curve, I built up the Spring Issue by making changes and adaptations to that issue. Unfortunately I missed the No. on the Front Cover, so the Spring Issue was also VOL. 42 No. 1, and as a result, the July Issue was changed to VOL. 42 No 2. This one is now VOL. 42 No 4, and the two issues you received earlier are incorrectly identified. As I indicated before, we are now delaying further the posting of the email issues to the website, but before they are posted (6 month after you get your copy) this correction will have been made. We hope you will find much of interest and value in this issue of PANORAMA. Remember, as long as youre online, the blue links embedded in the articles will take you directly to the spot on the internet where you can find more information. We are always anxious to receive your input or ideas for articles, first through the form on the back of the July Issue, and at any time by emailing me at Pres@sccaonline.ca Joan Bochsler, our Editor, is a little under the weather right now, so we arent able to bring you her customary Last Word. n

5:00 PM and reconvene at 7:00 PM for a presentation of videos from the CIAFF. We hope to finish by 9:30 PM, for those who travel a considerable distance to attend, but we guarantee that you will be out by 10:00 PM.
Our members have been very slow this year paying their Membership Fees, so our Members in Good Standing at this moment is low, and we expect no difficulty in having a Quorum (40% of the Members in Good Standing). Therefore, we will not send out Proxies, because so few members return them. This could be upset if we suddenly got a large number of Members in Arrears pay their Membership Fees and not attend the AGM. To avoid that problem any payments made between now and the AGM will not be banked and registered as paid until September 22. However, those who pay at the AGM will be present and contribute to the quorum and will be able to vote. We would like to see the 2006 AGM Membership Fees coming in, so you First on the Agenda will be the dont have to postpone any longer! Annual General Meeting, required by Federal Law. We will try very hard to keep the whole Business Meeting down to one hour, as usual. This is your oncea-year opportunity to hear reports on the recent activities of your Board of Directors and Executive, and your best opportunity to question them and express your concerns, wishes and hopes regarding the SCCA. Stella Magic and Sandy Whitehouse have both given notice of their intention to retire from the Executive and we will be looking for replacements. We will open the AGM promptly at 1:00 PM. Following the AGM we will Screen the winning videos from the Annual SCCA Competition, and present the Awards to the Winners. We will adjourn for supper (on your own, at a restaurant of your choice) at 777 Highway 8 For those who have not attended an SCCA AGM in Stoney Creek before, the former Stoney Creek City Hall is located some distance east of the downtown area, at 777 Highway 8, at
the intersection with Jones Road. It can be reached from the Queen Elizabeth Way by taking Exit #83 (Fruitland Road) South to Highway 8, and then traveling east to Jones Road. It may be a little difficult to spot because the building is now the Stoney Creek Municipal Service Centre, with the Stoney Creek Community Policing Centre, a Hamilton Tourism Office, and a branch of the Hamilton Public Library, and is also home to an RCMP Detachment, and the big new sign, almost a billboard, dwarfs the small sign that used to say Stoney Creek City Hall and now says Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
Watch for this sign! There is plenty of free parking. If you click on this link you will go directly to the Goggle Map that will show you where it is. You can change the magnification of the map and move around it to see how to get to the general vicinity, etc., You can even print a copy to bring with you in the car. n

RCMP Sign has relaced the stone Stoney Creek City Hall sign.

PANORAMA 5

Get the Shot!
n Get Make Fake the Shot in the Spring 2008 Issue of PANORAMA, I discussed at considerable length a number of software programs that would provide a facility for converting a photograph into an oil painting, watercolour, pen and ink sketch, charcoal drawing, etc., for use in video. At the end of the article I promised (threatened?) to continue in the following issue with an article on animating those art works for video, and also on some other solutions that might be available to act directly on the video to turn it into animated art work. Well, right there, thats two very different subjects! There are more than one way that might work to animate a small number of single frames to produce smooth video, and a proper examination of the methods, and the software available to accomplish it, will require a lot of work. There are other complications, one of which is the fact that many of the programs that might help have other features we might use for other purposes, but different programs have different features, and I was finding it a challenge to separate and organize all these different approaches, solutions, and software. In the end, I took the easy way out in the July Issue and put together an article that evolved from some recent experiences and some older Get the Shot articles. Now, Id like to make an honest man of myself, but the problem remains Where do I start? Lets start with collecting the pictures that we want to convert to art, but I know of no way to produce animation directly into a single still picture, and make a series of them flow as a video, except to start with a video scene in the first place. Suppose we wanted to start with a 5 second clip, extract each frame separately, convert each one into art (making sure that the conversion process is identical for each frame to avoid a horrible artifact which will be easier to imagine if you consider making the first frame an oil
painting, the second a water colour, the third a pen and ink sketch, etc.), and then putting them all back into the same original order. Well it would be smooth, anyway, but with 30 frames per second, we would have to extract, convert, and reassemble 150 frames! (And thats ignoring the 2 fields per frame.) Maybe we could use just the first and last frame, and then morph between them. The result would be smooth, but might bear no relation to the original action captured in the sequence. Maybe we could take 5 frames (one each second) or 25 frames (five per second) and maybe we could dissolve from one to the next, holding each one for a fraction of a second and keeping the dissolves short. (Lets drop the math for now, as I expect you get the idea.) In any case, we would have to do a lot of experiments to determine the most appropriate number of frames, and try different animation methods (dissolves vs. morphing) to find the best technique. I think you can see why I havent done this yet. Its easy to grab a few frames and save them as jpeg or bmp files, but if were going to do a lot of this, it would be nice to have some software that would automatically grab all the frames at the rate chosen, number them sequentially, and save them for you. I havent found this software yet, but I have confidence that it exists, because several years ago, when we edited linearly, I had software and a computer board that would extract black and white frames at intervals from a video for logging videos, and for help in editing by allowing me to choose the edit points and export an edit decision list (EDL) to use at the linear editing station. If we could do that about 10 years ago, we must be able to do what we need now. Setting that aside, we come to the quality of the frame grabs. Remember, the original is only 720 X 480 pixels. Ive found a very interesting program that will extract frames that are sharper than

the original by extrapolating between adjacent frames. The program is called PhotoAcute Studio , and it has a number of tricks for digital cameras that will improve the results that can be achieved with a camera less capable than the best (even a phone camera!). They claim take photos with more details and less noise, with higher dynamic range and less chromatic aberrations You can take better images - with PhotoAcute Studio, leading edge tool for improving digital photos. PhotoAcute software processes sets of photographs taken in continuous mode. It utilizes super resolution algorithms to convert a sequence of images into a single high-resolution and low-noise picture that could only be taken with a much better camera. My Olympus Camedia C-4000 digital camera is rather old, and has only 4 Megapixels. It was cheaper to buy this program ($49) than to upgrade to a new camera, and the program has features that I wouldnt get with a new camera. I since bought a new Pentax Optio M20 with 7 Megapixels at a very good price. Its very handy, fits easily into my pocket and is always available, but the pictures are not as good as the Olympus, even without using PhotoAcute. Never underestimate the importance of the lens! Rather than trying to explain all the functions, and how they are obtained, Ill just quote the Help File: Take photographs with resolution beyond normal matrix capabilities This is the basic use of PhotoAcute Studio. There are two main parameters of the digital image determining the quality: the spatial resolution and the noise. Using PhotoAcute Studio, you can get pictures with higher resolution and lower noise than your camera allows. To do this, simply take continuous photographs (4 or more recommended)

6 PANORAMA

of the scene, transfer them to PC, load Take photographs of dark into PhotoAcute Studio and start Objects on a back-lit background processing. When taking photographs of a scene containing both shadow and highlighted Take incredibly good objects (e.g., dark objects on a back-lit photographs in background), it is always a problem to low-light conditions capture both shadow and highlight Taking pictures in low light details. Adjusting the camera settings to conditions (e.g. night photographs) capture highlight details will result in usually requires using long exposures losing shadow details and vice versa. and high sensitivity levels. PhotoAcute Studio allows you to While allowing photographing of low capture both shadow and highlight light scenes, long exposure leads to details. handshaking artifacts (the longer the 1. Take several photographs in photograph is being taken - the more exposure bracketing mode. the camera is displaced), while, a high 2. Load the photographs in PhotoAcute sensitivity level results in high noise. Studio. To take better photographs in low-light 3. Process the photographs, using conditions: "Expand dynamic range" and "Equalize 1. Set normal exposure and high brightness" options. sensitivity (ISO) level. 2. Take several photographs in Get high-quality still continuous mode. frames from video 3. Transfer the photographs to PC and Note: Importing video frames is not process by PhotoAcute Studio. available in the PhotoAcute Studio 4. Optionally, brightness equalization version for Mac OSX. feature can be used to increase the Still frames from a video sequence brightness. usually have rather low quality PhotoAcute Studio will automatically comparing to photographs, due to the combine photographs and remove the lower resolution of video cameras, noise caused by high ISO. You will get interlacing artifacts, high compression a clear image, as if you took the level, etc. photograph using a tripod and had a With PhotoAcute Studio, you can camera with an extremely good matrix. retrieve high-quality still frames from several sequential frames lingering on Automatically restore the scene. scenes overlapped with Open the video file, select the desired unwanted moving objects frame range, optionally exclude Some scenes happen to be unneeded frames, and process the constantly overlapping with unwanted frames just the same way as several moving objects. For example, people photographs. walking in front of a site. For more details on importing video With PhotoAcute Studio, you can take frames please refer to Importing video photograph of such a scene and frames section. automatically clear away the unneeded moving objects. You can also expand the Depth of 1. Take several photographs in Field by shooting a series of shots at continuous mode (not less than 5). different focal lengths (which will each 2. Load the photographs in PhotoAcute have a different depth of field) and then Studio. letting the program merge them by 3. Process the photographs, using combining the best focused areas in "Remove moving objects from the each photo and producing a photo with scene" option. a cumulative depth of field.

The software can also correct for chromatic aberrations automatically, and geometric distortion such as barrel distortion and pincushioning automatically. (This is especially useful when stitching together shots for a panorama of an architectural scene, as will be discussed in another article.) Geometric corrections and super resolution both require that the software has a profile of your particular camera. Before buying the program you might want to check the list of camera profiles that come with the program when you buy it. If your camera is not on the list, dont worry. When you have the program there is a step by step procedure for shooting the test photographs and emailing them to the company. They will extract a profile for that camera, add it to the next update of the program, and email you when you can download the update that includes your camera profile! No charge! In fact, they give you a free license for helping them collect profiles! I think that means the program is free, but I had already paid for it and didn't inquire about a refund. Ive tested most of the procedures available, with much success, and I wanted to go out and shoot all the photographs to illustrate all these features, but Ive finally realized that the illustrations on the web site are more numerous and more helpful than the few that I could include in PANORAMA. Have a look at the samples and click on Next Example or Example List. Notice especially the Sand Castle around which the program has removed all the people! If people or things are moving, you should shoot video. If you dont have your video camera, and shoot a still, the frozen movement wont look good in your video. Solution: take several shots and clear out all the moving objects with PhotoAcute Studio! It sure beats shaky video! The program is worth the money just for this feature alone! There will be more about this feature in a later article about image stitching programs. I just wont promise when this time! n

7 PANORAMA

COLLAGE CREATOR BY ARCSOFT
ne way of spreading good-will and happiness is to give people a photograph of themselves. This opportunity comes when I find myself at a gettogether in a club meeting or at a party. This has occurred several times recently and each time I have taken a shot of each persons smiling face looking at the camera together with a few random shots of small groups at dinner.
While some programs are well over $100, Collage Creator sells for only $39.99. Lets imagine you have it in the computer and are raring to go!

Save as Current Project adjusted for blur and opacity. And of Saves/overwrites the current project course the text can be in any colour. Save as New Project Enables Add Clip Art Drag and drop pre-designed clip art you to save the current project as a newly titled project. illustrations to your collage (fig. 6) Save as Image File Enables you to save your collage as a flattened image (JPG, BMP, TIF, etc). Print Printing offers some very good choices. Ill let you browse the Help file for this tidbit. Albums This is a bonus feature, whether collaging or not. With this feature you can visually organize your media files into album collections for easy access. When you add a file to an album, a small thumbnail image appears in the Figure 6 There is a collection of over 100 clip album. Each thumbnail image acts as a art images for you to use in your link or shortcut to its source file. In collages. Simply double-click or drag other words, albums dont actually and drop a clip art thumbnail onto the contain files, but provide direct access to them. Its similar to the way shortcuts workspace. on your desktop work. Deleting an album thumbnail does Use the Doodle Maker Works like a digital sketchpad. Draw not automatically delete the file cartoon mustaches to apply to a face, or associated with it; it simply deletes the thumbnail link. design your own colourful clip art. Albums can contain thousands of thumbnails (links). Where to get it Arcsofts web site is very difficult to navigate to the Collage Creator Download (15 day free trial) so I recommend that you download it through Softonic. (You can go there and follow the trail by clicking on DOWNLOAD (Evaluation), and then clicking on FREE DOWNLOAD (Trial Version From Publishers Website) and then follow the instructions. Figure 7 Alternatively, you can just click HERE. Use the Letterboard (fig. 7) and then click on FREE DOWNLOAD Use this for unique word form from as described above. letters that appear to be clipped from If you like the program you can buy the magazine pages. licence. I paid $40. n Save you have three choices

PANORAMA 9

MOBILE ENTERTAINMENT SYSTEM MOBILE ENTERTAINMENT SYSTEM

by Fred Briggs

n the July Get The Shot article I mentioned a Citizen LCD Viewer that ran on a 9 Volt Battery, that I used as a viewer on my high-angle extension pole, and it has occurred to me that some of you may be looking for something like that. I didnt include any photo of the LCD Viewer because its no longer available, except possibly on eBay (or a garage sale!), but if you are looking for it on the internet, the Model Number was M938-1A. The screen was about 3 and today some of us are looking for something larger than the viewing screens on our camcorders. Some of us may be using a portable DVD player for this, but most of them have some shortcomings for this purpose. About a year ago Michael Veronneau submitted an article for publication in PANORAMA about one portable player, the Mustek PL8A90, that had several features that were very useful in this regard. Michael even provided 22 pictures of the unit, but I couldnt use them all, and I went looking for a smaller number of shots that would show just what we needed to show, so I went to the Tiger Direct Web Site, since Michael had bought it at Tiger Direct. Unfortunately I learned that the item had been discontinued and they didnt have even one left, so there was no use running that article and getting you all excited over something that you couldnt buy! I already had a portable DVD Player that I have used as a video monitor with my camcorder, but it wasnt nearly as good for that as Michaels, so I began my own hunt for something better. There wasnt much competition! A few months later, just after Christmas as I remember, I discovered a couple of prospects in The Source (formerly Radio Shack and now owned by Circuit City). One featured a screen that swiveled through 180 which would make it more useful for other crew members

(that is, other than the cameraman) to monitor what was being shot, but the other one had TWO Screens. WOW! This would let the director watch one while the cameraman watched the other instead of bending over to keep his eye on the eyecup, or squint at the little side viewing screen. Or one could be mounted on the front of the tripod, facing the talent so he or she could see just what was in the frame very handy for a subject who is used to talking with his hands, just as one example! So I bought one. It was defective! I returned it, and began a search of other Sources within 100 kilometers with one left in stock. It turned out that all those who still had one, only had one in the stockroom that had to go back to the manufacturer because of a problem, in most cases in the second monitor! Now I knew I didnt want one anymore, and stopped looking for one of those! And when I go after something, Im quite thorough, but all I could find was a few two-screen models made for the automotive aftermarket, and sold for very high prices in the automotive sound shops that install them. Ive been watching the market for six months now, and recently found something in Wal-Mart a DVD player with a 16:9 screen with an 8 diagonal that has inputs for AV, and a second monitor of the same screen size with inputs for AV or from the DVD player! It looked good in the glass case, and the big box in which it was packed looked encouraging, but the proof of the pudding is in the eating, so I stuck my neck out and bought the Venturer PVS19388iR for $168 plus taxes! You wont find it on the internet so this may be a discontinued product (or Wal-Mart Canada only?) but more likely a brand new product (manufactured in May 2008), as the name appears nowhere else but on the big blue box (and the unit itself) but not on the Directions Booklet! This model isnt even listed on their web site.
The entire system is really designed for the back of the front seats in a car, but they have thoughtfully provided some of the features that make it possible to screen directly from your camcorder without recording first. At $168 you have probably decided immediately that either you have no need for this item, or you are interested in more details. If the former you can quit reading now. If the latter, read on for the capabilities, limitations, and some possible work-arounds for the deficiencies. On the DVD Player, the screen opens as usual, like a book. It can be turned 90 one way, or 180 the other way (and tilts). In that position, the screen can be folded back down so the screen surface is on the outside. The player has a Li-ion battery that can be removed from or attached to the back of the player. The player runs from the battery or on 9 Volts from a 120V AC supply, and the Li-ion battery can be charged while in position with that same voltage adapter. The accessory screen is powered by 12V from the cigarette lighter in your car or from the 120V AC 9Volt adapter mentioned already, but not from the Liion battery pack. This screen has RCA inputs for Left and Right Audio, and Composite Video (Yellow), but no Audio or Video Outputs. There is a 9V output so that the separate monitor, powered by the 12V plug from your car, can power the DVD Player, and charge the battery on the player. There is a cable with the 3 audio/video plugs on each end, the power output plug from the monitor on one end and the power input plug for the player on the other end. Using only those two power cables (plus the 12V input from the cigarette lighter) and a separate cable for video and audio, your daughter could watch a DVD on the player from her seat, and your son could play a video game (or watch a tape on your camcorder) on the monitor at the same time. (Each unit has a pair of chrome loops though

PANORAMA 11

xtra Vigilance Needed There are always a few bad viruses floating around but the current threat to browsing or surfing, is the more aggressive distribution of MalWare. These are infections which install themselves and behave as antispyware but they are in fact spyware programs in disguise. The people who created these ugly performers have hidden them in legitimate links (Some Google sponsored links) and innocent looking spam. MSNBC.com Breaking News and CNN.com Daily Top 10 are two possible subject lines in an offending e-mail. One trap even masquerades as an offer for Internet Explorer 7 from Microsoft. The most common rogue program contained in these links is called Antispyware 2008 XP. If you open the e-mail, it immediately runs a phony scan of your hardrive and pops up a message telling you how badly infected your computer is. Then it offers to remove all the bad stuff if you buy their product. Their product of course is just another copy of the phony software. Removal of the offending program is not difficult but probably a challenge for the less sophisticated computer owner. To protect yourself, its back to basics: Delete ALL spam and any other unsolicited e-mail and keep your antivirus /Antispyware protection up-to date. While browsing, exit immediately from any website asking you to open or download any file you didnt specifically ask for. Two useful programs to help avoid and to remove offensive software are, Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware and Spybot-S&D. Free versions of both are available. Some New Toys Since we have been publishing PANORAMA magazine in PDF format and sending issues by e-mail, we have been looking for ways to make this system more helpful for our readers. One of the challenges is in deciding how to save any issue or valuable article for future reference. Many readers Im sure, simply download the entire issue and perhaps start an archive by saving it to a CD-ROM. Saving individual pages or a single article is not possible with the Adobe Reader. Fortunately you can accomplish such a task by using two small, free programs. (Note: Once you have installed these programs you will find them very useful for managing all of your Acrobat PDF files)

The first is a simple program that allows you to select individual pages and convert them to separate PDF files. (The same format as PANORAMA). The program, PrimoPDF is a free download. Once installed, it shows up each time you open the 'print command. The second freeware program is called PDF Helper. This program is used to combine any multiple saved files into a single PDF file. The resultant file is much smaller than an entire issue and perhaps easier to index for future reference. Step one is to open a copy of PANORAMA in Adobe Reader. Locate the first page you wish to save and click the Print button.
For the printer, select PrimoPDF in the drop-down menu and insure you have selected Current Page.
When PrimoPDF opens, use the browse button in the Save As window to select the destination folder. Give the file an appropriate name such as page01. Repeat the steps for each page if you wish to save more than one page.

12 PANORAMA

Audio Extractor The AoA Audio Extractor enables you to copy and save a portion of the audio track of an existing video. This is useful if you are editing and need a particular sound or short musical clip and you dont have one in your immediate resources. If you remember that you have the desired audio on another project, this program will allow you to extract just the part you want without loading an entire file onto your timeline. Open AoA Extractor and select the format (MP3, WAV) and location for the saved audio file. Then click Add Files.
If you have saved more than one page, you might find it advantageous to combine all those pages into a single file. This is where you use the PDFHelper program. To use the program, install it and it will immediately create three folders in your C:/Temp directory called PdfHelper, Input and Output. Locate the folder named Input on your C drive under Temp/pdfhelper. Then move all the files to be combined Browse your system to locate the required video clip or into that folder. Now, open the PDFHelper program and file. click Start.
All of the saved pages will now be combined into one file and saved in the Output folder in the same directory. Click Open. When the file has been selected, click Movie Clip in the main window. This opens a frame where you can select the precise portion of the audio track you want by moving the sliders. (This assumes that you have made a previous note of the in/out points of the selection.)
You can now rename and save the combined file for future reference or print it to keep a hard copy. Click OK and the audio portion is now saved in the chosen folder. n

PANORAMA 13

BREAKING NEWS. & UPDATES
different ways. Theyve made a deal with DreamWorks Animation to provide hardware to enhance its content for 3-D cinema , and together they have begun joint development of a new 3D system, InTru3D.
In the June PANORAMA we tipped you off to the new push by RealD 3D and Cinemark to bring digital 3D to a theatre near you. Shortly thereafter two of our readers emailed me with another development nearer home, announced on July 23rd. Cineplex, who currently has 41 digital 3D theatres, plans to add many more. It wasnt clear if they will bring their total number of such theatres up to 175, or equip another 175 theatres. I was thrilled with the quality of Journey to the Center of the Earth, and was very pleased that there was no ghosting (that flaw in the polarizing system in which the left eye sees a little of the right eyes image, and vice versa), that has plagued image separation by polaroid glasses since its inception. Only the expensive, complicated, and cumbersome electronic shutter glasses eliminated it up till now, but the new, perfected sunglasses achieve the same degree of excellence! Macleans Magazine carried an interesting article about the new wave of 3D, also on July 23rd. Theres a lot of information here and you can still read it online. Time Magazine also had an article about the new boom in 3D on August 25th.

I dont know how I missed reporting this earlier, but in May, Samsung demonstrated a new LCD TV at the 2008 SID symposium in Los Angeles. You thought you had seen the ultimate with HD 1920 X 1080p resolution? Think again. This 82-incher has "ultra definition" resolution of 3840x2160p. But maybe well wait for the upcoming 4k standard which has a 4096x1716 working resolution! Dont believe me? I dont blame you, but check it out yourself. And Now For Some Real Meat Unwrapped Mosaics!
On another aspect of 3D (that we introduced in the article about Samsung and Texas Instruments on Page 18 in the Winter 2008 issue of PANORAMA , Intel has now entered the arena in two
On August 13th at Siggraph 2008 in Los Angeles, Microsoft unveiled some new research. This is a real breakthrough with a lot of promise, not just for Hollywood, but for those of us who would like to be able to make videos with the kind of Special Effects that are currently very technically challenging, resource intensive, and horrendously expensive. It isnt
available for us yet, and when it is, dont expect a free download! They have published a paper which you can read as a PDF file. I doubt any one of us will read it in its entirety, but these things always start out slow and easy before getting into the squiggly math, and it wont hurt you to take a peek. There is also a web site on this project where they demonstrate what it can do, and how they do it, with two streaming videos. The first is 1 minute, Low-Res WMV 6.7 MB, and this will give you a quick and easy overview of what this is all about. The second is an outstanding 7 minute HiRes WMV demo that shows several uses for the technique and more details about how it works, Unfortunately, its 117MB, so it you have a dial-up internet connection it will take forever, and even with a high speed cable connection it may stop a few times as it refills the buffer. But you really out to see this! Very Late Breaking News: On August 17th they added a free download for the code so you can try it at home! How, I dont know! In their own words: This code was developed as part of the Unwrap Mosaic project. The purpose of this project is to enable home users to perform special effects in their videos. A paper describing this work was presented during SIGGRAPH 2008. The released code implements the "embedding" stage, in which point tracks are embedded into 2-D, directly yielding x and y coordinates for each track. We assume that these tracks are given. Such tracks can be computed using standard computer-vision algorithms for interest-point detection and tracking. The code is written in MATLAB. Anybody know MATLAB? I once knew a guy named Matt who worked in the Chem Lab! n

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