Monthly Archives: October 2014

Dan Pacheco in 3D

Witness the advent of the 3D selfie.This scan of Professor Dan Pacheco was made using the Structure sensor. The model was imported into Sketchfab, a site that makes it easy to share 3D models on the web. Click the Play button on the image, then click and drag your mouse around to see the model from different angles.

Dan Pacheco
by Dan Pacheco
on Sketchfab

You can also embed 3D scans into a game environment using the free version of Unity 4. To learn the basics of how to use Unity, check out Professor Pacheco’s tutorial from the ONA 2014 conference or any of the lecture notes from his Virtual Reality Storyteling class. It includes a Unity template to help you hit the ground running with creating 3D environments.

Click in the image below, then use your arrow keys and mouse to move around. If you haven’t used the Unity Web Player before you may need to download it first. Eventually this extra download won’t be necessary, as future versions of Unity will export environments as WebGL and won’t require a plugin.

The Future of Digital Media Panel

On Sept. 29, 2014, in celebration of dedication day for the Newhouse School’s Dick Clark Studios and the Alan Gerry Media Innovation Center, Horvitz Chair Professor Dan Pacheco moderated a panel about the future of digital media. It included an accomplished group of digital media experts including:

  • Kristina Hahn, Head of Consumer Packaged Goods at Google.
  • Ed Wise, SVP of Branded Entertainment at Turner.
  • Mitch Gelman, VP of Product at Gannett Digital.
  • Larry Hryb, Director of XBox Live at Microsoft.

The panel focused on current and emerging trends in digital media, includingthe rise of YouTube as a competitor to television, branded content, the use of virtual reality and gaming to interest younger audiences in journalism, and creating story experiences in the Oculus Rift. You can read press coverage of the panel from the Newhouse web site, The Daily Orange and Syracuse.com. You can also watch the full 90-minute live recording on UStream here:

Broadcast live streaming video on Ustream

The panel was also covered widely through social media. See what resonated with people in the Twittersphere through this curated Storify by Newhouse graduate student Lauren Cavalli.