Mac OS X compatibility is coming to the next versions of the SpinImage DV and SpinImage DV Pro software from Autolycus, a new digital imaging software development company. Both are expected to ship on April 30, company representative Andrew Justice told MacCentral.
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The US$999 SpinImage DV Pro, which is nearing completion, is a 3D imaging solution. Its output doesn’t require a plug-in and is visible to users of all major Web browsers, including WebTV and AOL. The SpinImage format is JavaScript (not applet) based, so it’s fast-loading and stable, Justice said.
The SpinImage DV software also allows the choice of QuickTime VR output. You can choose any number of frames and any degree of compression to find your own optimum quality/file size trade-off point. Files are usually small: typically 30kb to 300kb, depending on user preference.
With SpinImage DV Pro, you can use live video from the camera, or pre-recorded video from a tape or computer file. There are two resolutions: 320 x 240 and 640 x 480. You can export frames in a variety of file formats, including lossless formats. SpinImage DV Pro lets you select the turntable speed so it can be used with any continuous-motion turntable. There’s selectable auto-spin speed upon page load for both formats. Plus, you can adjust hue, saturation and other camera settings from within the software.
Live video can also be captured from any video source recognized by QuickTime, including most FireWire and USB Web cams . Plus, any .mov or .avi video file may be imported into the software via drag-and-drop, which means you can use any camera with movie mode.
Autolycus also offers a $399 SpinImage DV Object Imaging Kit, a complete 3-D object capture solution that utilizes a Kaidan Motorized PiXi-M turntable and the consumer version of SpinImage DV software to create 3D object movies.
To use SpinImage, you must first center the object of interest on the turntable. Then, a camcorder, connected to a Mac or Windows system via FireWire captures a video stream of the spinning object. The SpinImage DV software then converts the video stream into a QuickTime VR or a Java-viewable object movie that’s ready to be transferred to a Web site for viewing.
A demo version of SpinImage is now available for the Mac. Fully featured, it allows you to see all of the capabilities of the SpinImage DV software for up to 30 days.
“We have had the downloadable trial version up for less than three weeks and have over 200 downloads logged,” Justice said.
Both products require at least a Power Mac G3/233 with FireWire, Mac OS 8.6 or later (as we said, the Mac OS X version is due next month), 17 MB of available RAM, and 75 MB of free hard disk space.