The SpinImage 3D imaging software from Autolycus Corp. is now Mac OS X compatible. The product will be available next month.
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The US$999 SpinImage DV Pro’s 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, Andrew Justice, founder and president of Autolycus Corp., 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/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 3D 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.
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), 17MB of available RAM, and 75MB of free hard disk space. A demo version is available from the product Web site.