On Friday, I wrote about the Throwable Panoramic Ball Camera, a device that takes panoramic images by simply tossing it into the air. One use case that came to mind was capturing HDR sphere images to be used in realistically placing 3D models in real-world scenarios. If Kevin Karsch’s research moves into the public space, using HDR images for this reason may soon be a thing of the past.

Kevin Karsch is a Computer Science PhD student at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign who is currently researching computer graphics and computer vision. What makes Kevin’s research so interesting is what he calls Physically grounded photo editing. From the description:

Current image editing software only allows 2D manipulations with no regard to the high level spatial information that is present in a given scene, and 3D modeling tools are sometimes complex and tedious for a novice user. Our goal is to extract 3D scene information from single images to allow for seamless object insertion, removal, and relocation. This process can be broken into three somewhat independent phases: luminaire inference, perspective estimation (depth, occlusion, camera parameters), and texture replacement. We are working on developing novel solutions to each of these phases, in hopes of creating a new class of physically-aware image editors.

In other words: the software aims to allow people to easily insert 3D objects into existing 2D photographs. Kevin has posted the following video on his Vimeo page, describing the process and results with examples:

Found via PhotoWeeklyOnline INC

From Apple’s Press Release:

Apple® today announced it has sold over four million of its new iPhone® 4S, just three days after its launch on October 14. In addition, more than 25 million customers are already using iOS 5, the world’s most advanced mobile operating system, in the first five days of its release, and more than 20 million customers have signed up for iCloud®, a breakthrough set of free cloud services that automatically and wirelessly store your content in iCloud and push it to all your devices. iPhone 4S is available today in the US, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan and the UK, and will be available in 22 more countries on October 28 and more than 70 countries by the end of the year.

Verizon Wireless has updated their Privacy Policy, allowing them to collect your Web browsing history, cell phone location and app usage for third-party marketing purposes. Verizon wired customers (examples: Verizon FiOS Internet, DSL) are also subject to the changes and can expect more targeted ads based on their geographical location. How will Verizon supply this data, and how can we expect marketers to use it? From the PCMag.com article:

“For the business and marketing reports offered by Verizon Wireless, records about Web sites visited, cell phone locations and other consumer data will be combined (or aggregated) to compile reports that provide businesses with insights about their customers,” Nelson said. “For example, these insights may include the demographics (age ranges, gender, etc.) and interests (such as ‘pet lovers’ or ‘tennis enthusiasts’) of visitors to a Web site, or commuters who might pass an outdoor billboard. These aggregate reports could be used by Web publishers to help provide content that is more appealing to users, or to help advertisers better select the ads they will display on outdoor billboards or at other venues.”

The data will be aggregated before it is distributed to third-parties. If you do not want to be part of this process, Verizon offers a way to opt-out online or you can call 1-866-211-0874 to talk to a Verizon representative.

According to an article on The Register, a Mississippi woman filed a lawsuit on Wednesday alleging Facebook of breach of contract, unjust enrichment, trespassing and invasion of privacy. She alleges that by Facebook tracking her internet browsing history after she logs out of their service, they are violating federal wiretap statutes. From the complaint:

“Leading up to September 23, 2011, Facebook tracked, collected, and stored its users’ wire or electronic communications, including but not limited to portions of their internet browsing history even when the users were not logged-in to Facebook,” the 17-page complaint stated. “Plaintiff did not give consent or otherwise authorize Facebook to intercept, track, collect, and store her wire or electronic communications, including but not limited to her internet browsing history when not logged-in to Facebook.”

We talked about Facebook’s questionable user tracking process before as well as the government and privacy groups requesting the FTC to investigate these claims. This latest addition to the Facebook privacy scandal now brings civil legal action which could grow to class-action status.

When I initially heard about Apple’s new Find My Friends app, the first thing that came to mind were the ethical implications. How long before I read about the app being used to track an unknowing subject? Unfortunately, it didn’t take long before I got my answer.

Take the following post found on the MacRumors Forum:

Divorcing wife. Thanks iPhone 4s and Find My Friends

I got my wife a new 4s and loaded up find my friends without her knowing. She told me she was at her friends house in the east village. I’ve had suspicions about her meeting this guy who live uptown. Lo and behold, Find my Friends has her right there.

I just texted her asking where she was and the dumb b!otch said she was on 10th Street!! Thank you Apple, thank you App Store, thank you all. These beautiful treasure trove of screen shots going to play well when I meet her a$$ at the lawyer’s office in a few weeks.

thankfully, she’s the rich one.

Some users in the forum are questioning the legitimacy of the post, but the scenario is possible. It is only a matter of time before this or a similar story blow up in the media. People need to realize that technology does not have a moral compass. It merely provides tools to enhance our lives. No matter how many safeguards are put in place, the user ultimately decides on how to use it, and they should be held accountable for their actions.