Triptent has introduced Robic, a custom developed robotic arm system designed for high-speed cinematography. Robic is a fully programmable camera arm that allows for precise, exact movement up to 105 miles per hour to capture and follow motion in laser-sharp focus at 2,500 frames per second. The Robic system is now available for productions exclusively through Triptent, and is compatible with professional cameras including the Phantom HD, Flex 4K, Red Epic and the ARRI Alexa Mini.
“Together with our longtime collaborator, director-technologist-inventor Fernando Kocking, we decided to develop a custom solution allowing our clients a way to create shots that we’ve never been able to capture before in-camera,” said Joe Masi, founder of Triptent. “With Robic the speed and clarity of the footage is incredible. We can truly follow the action in real-time as it happens–a ballerina on point as she leaps into the air, a glass propelled by gravity as it crashes to the ground, the trajectory of a baseball through the air after a hit. Robic is the first rig to offer such laser-focused images even at high speeds. Using Robic’s infrared motion sensors, we can produce motion control shots that don’t require CGI, layering or effects because everything is captured precisely in live action.”
Robic is built around a set of sophisticated robotic arms developed by Staubli, which were then custom engineered via a software toolset written by Kocking to specifically service high-speed cinematography workflows. Robic is ideal for capturing not only tabletop and product footage, but also people and objects, enabling new possibilities in sports, performance, automotive, beauty and lifestyle shoots.
The current Robic set-up includes four motion control arms, all fully synchronized to capture a shot with ultimate precision even though it may just be a millisecond in time. Two of the robotic arms, together with the custom Robic software, are designed to control cameras, and two are designed to control objects. The camera control arms can be used alone, or can be programmed to follow the movements of an object mounted on another Robic arm for perfectly synced capture. The system has also been designed so that camera arms can be controlled and programmed very simply via a videogame controller, dramatically reducing prep time.
The Robic system is transportable and can be set up on a stage or on location, and is already in use on commercial projects.
Google Opens Its Defense In Antitrust Case Alleging Monopoly Over Online Ad Technology
Google opened its defense against allegations that it holds an illegal monopoly on online advertising technology Friday with witness testimony saying the industry is vastly more complex and competitive than portrayed by the federal government.
"The industry has been exceptionally fluid over the last 18 years," said Scott Sheffer, a vice president for global partnerships at Google, the company's first witness at its antitrust trial in federal court in Alexandria.
The Justice Department and a coalition of states contend that Google built and maintained an illegal monopoly over the technology that facilitates the buying and selling of online ads seen by consumers.
Google counters that the government's case improperly focuses on a narrow type of online ads — essentially the rectangular ones that appear on the top and on the right-hand side of a webpage. In its opening statement, Google's lawyers said the Supreme Court has warned judges against taking action when dealing with rapidly emerging technology like what Sheffer described because of the risk of error or unintended consequences.
Google says defining the market so narrowly ignores the competition it faces from social media companies, Amazon, streaming TV providers and others who offer advertisers the means to reach online consumers.
Justice Department lawyers called witnesses to testify for two weeks before resting their case Friday afternoon, detailing the ways that automated ad exchanges conduct auctions in a matter of milliseconds to determine which ads are placed in front of which consumers and how much they cost.
The department contends the auctions are finessed in subtle ways that benefit Google to the exclusion of would-be competitors and in ways that prevent... Read More