Still no high-performance Symbian device…

Just checked GLBenchmarks for Samsung INNOV8.

Samsung GT-i8510 Innov8 performance details:
High-level 3D Performance
GLBenchmark HD ES 1.0 : 1602 Frames
GLBenchmark HD ES 1.1 : 628 Frames
GLBenchmark Pro ES 1.0 : 328 Frames
GLBenchmark Pro ES 1.1 : 35 Frames
CPU Performance
CPU Performance: Float : 988
CPU Performance: Integer : 4183

For comparison –

Nokia N95 8GB performance details:
High-level 3D Performance
GLBenchmark HD ES 1.0 : 1944 Frames
GLBenchmark HD ES 1.1 : 1766 Frames
GLBenchmark Pro ES 1.0 : 395 Frames
GLBenchmark Pro ES 1.1 : 570 Frames
CPU Performance
CPU Performance: Float : 1411
CPU Performance: Integer : 4254

Old Nokia N95(8Gb) still beat best of newish Symbian devices hands down.
Other platforms had 600+ Mhz devices long time ago, Palm switched to new generation CPU – OMAP3430. After two years no one still able to produce better high-performance Symbian device ?

New evidence that our world is two-dimentional.

Retweet from @bruces
It seems a new evidence found, that our universe is not 3d but 2d surface. According to Holographic principle in in string theory physic inside some volume of space could be completely described by the theory restricted to the boundary surface of that volume. That is tree-dimensional physical processes inside the volume of space could be seen as illusory projection of the two-dimensional processes on the surface of that volume. The new development here is that as in quantum theory space-time should be granulated, that granulation should be primarily two-dimensional, on the surface of the volume. The space-time granulation inside the volume would be projection of the surface granulation. And – here the news – that projected granulation should be bigger than original surface granulation(plank length). That bigger granulation should create additional blur, or noise in physical effects. And it seems that noise exactly like that was detected at GEO600 gravitation waves detector

Eric Drexler has blog

Thanks to Blogmas I know that Eric Drexler has blog.
What caught my attention was 3D imaging of biological nanostructures. Electron tomography was used to reconstruct 3d structure of biological, well, nanostructures.

Samsung INNOV8 and AR

Samsung INNOV8 (Samsung GT-i8510) seems to be the best Symbian device for AR so far.(And for 3d gaming too BTW)
Camera: 120 fps in QVGA vs 30fps Nokia N95
CPU: 450 Mhz ARM11 + PowerVR 3d accelerator vs 330 Mhz ARM11 + PowerVR 3d accelerator for Nokia N95
Sound: 3D surround sound effect by DNSe 2.0 technology vs ??? for Nokia N95
GPS : both, but INNOV8 being Symbian 9.3 allow self-signing for developer who want to use GPS.
For Nokia N95 use GPS require complete Symbian Signing.

Overall pretty impressive device, with 3d accelerator, 50% faster CPU and a lot faster camera.
Mobiles on other platforms often have better CPU (533-800 Mhz), but usually lack 3d accelerator and/or have bigger screen resolution. Bigger resolution would either eat more CPU power or would force developer make effective screen window smaller.

PS There are reports that actual INNOV8 CPU speed is 330mhz

Augmented Reality Tower Defense game is up for download

It’s here. In this demo I’ve used the same multimarker tracker I’ve used in last demos. 3d position of the camera calculated form markers used for placing tower. Third dimension used to control tower height
If you don’t know what Tower Defense is, here is wiki entry

Symbian AR: N95 still the king of the hill

New Nokia 5800 is looking good, but if rumored specs are correct it still can not beat N95 (or N82 and other OMAP 2420 phones)
Nokia 5800 is rumored having Freescale i.MX31 369 Mhz CPU, vs Nokia N95 TI OMAP 2420 330 Mhz CPU.
Both have floating point (VFP), but only N95 have 3d accelerator, which would more then compensate for slightly slower CPU.
Nokia 5800 high resolution screen actually play against it in 3d applications. High resolution screen require more processing power for 3d rendering, which combined with lack of 3d acceleration can slow down 5800 considerably.
Touchscreen is interesting thing by itself, but not easy to integrate with AR from usability point of view. So N95 still win. IMHO.

Phone camera as 3d pointing device

Here is a short video how phone camera could be used as precise enough 3d pointer.
This demo use the same engine as my first demo.