Technology in Anime

Taking a look at some examples of how technology is being used in the anime industry - photos taken at the Tokyo Anime Fair which was held over the weekend.

First up is AR (Augmented Reality) and there was quite a bit of it at the show. If you are not familiar with AR then the video below will give you an idea of what it is.

The lady you must recognize by now as she has been following me around for the past month filming my daily life - the NHK documentary to be broadcasted worldwide in May.
As for the photo - take the pink postcard and hold it up to the camera on the mac...

...and Nene will popup on the screen after the camera and software has recognized the pattern on the postcard. Nene doesnt do much apart from walking and looking cute.

This is Fukuoka-san who I met when I was on TBS. He is also one of the top guys at Ascii Media Works. He plays the Shamisen professionally in his spare time.

Some of the properties that Ascii owns includes Dengeki.

They also own Shana, Railgun and Nogizaka.

Fukuoka-san loves Mio. He's also got DD Mio too ^^;

Fukuoka-sans latest project is Tokyo Kawaii Magazine - following blurb from their site.

"Tokyo Kawaii Magazine" is a digital magazine app for iPhone. It provides the latest news of Japanese pop culture from Tokyo known as the holy place of Kawaii to the world. The magazine has not only talk about the latest news on Japanese animation and manga but all Kawaii stuff such as Lolita fashion, street fashion, cosplay, costumes, games, Japanese foods, idols, visual-kei bands and internet culture, even some popular places as Akihabara, Harajuku or Shibuya are also included in every issue.

Demo version for folks to play around with. Load of Macs being used at the show.

Example of one of the pages from the magazine - flick up n down to go through the pages in the current feature or flick left or right to jump to other categories.

More AR stuff. Here you hold up a card and after being recognized by the camera/software a video will start to play.

Various images spring up attached to these objects when held in front of the Mac.

Noitamina is a popular anime show in Japan. They had a series of cards which would show something different when held in front of the Macs - here we have the East of Eden phone which spins around - they dont just spin around but move around on the screen according to where you are holding the card.

A megane musume tries her dab hand at AR. AR has been around for quite a while but popularity has increased of late since the introduction of Sekai Camera for the iPhone.

The increase in 3D imagery was certainly noticeable at the Tokyo Anime fair this year.

Films like Avatar have helped increase the demand to watch 3D at home. This TV is supposed to show video images in 3D without the need of 3D glasses but the effect was a bit iffy.

The Puri Cure girls looked good on this JVC display with the paper 3D glasses.

Panasonic had their 3D series of Viera displays out for us to try. This 3D VIERA TH-P50VT2 would cost about 309,999 yen when it comes out next month.

Each of the Viera displays comes with a set of 3D glasses like this. The product page however does not list how much additional glasses are but am guessing about the 15,000 yen mark.

And here is the flyer for the product. Have 3D displays come out in your neck of the woods yet?