Posts Tagged ‘3d’
DARPA Creates Interactive 3-D Holographic Map Table
The display can be expanded to as large as six feet, and has a visual depth of up to 12 inches. UPSD is also interactive – battle planners can freeze, rotate and zoom in on the images. They can also print out two-dimensional representations of the 3-D data (seen above) that troops can carry with them on their missions.
Zebra Imaging won the contract to create the technology for UPSD, and DARPA is using LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) systems for the data. The technology is not field-ready yet but has been demonstrated and is now being installed in Army and Air Force research centers.
Video: 360-Degree Fog Display Creates a 3-D Image Observable From All Angles
As we see in the video, the image quality is still a little shaky, but researchers say their next step is to make the technology “more stable.” Applications for the 360-Degree Observable Fog Display are not exactly clear, but researcher Asuka Yagi says in the video that they hope to apply it in “healthcare and entertainment.” The project was inspired by amusement park fog displays, so we can only hope that means one day your children will be taking pictures with 3-D fog princesses at theme parks.
Video: A 3-D Tour of All the Known Galaxies, In 90 Seconds
Apparently the video was created by taking images from the Hubble telescope and several other sources and placing them in a virtual 3-D space, corresponding to our viewing vantage point. Basically, it's a 3-D video tour of the universe as we know it at the moment. You can check out the full-sized video here. Enjoy!
[NASA Goddard Twitter via Gizmodo]
New Software Can Digitally Improve Actors’ Physiques in Post-Production
Developers at the Max Planck Institute for Informatics in Saarbrücken, Germany compiled 3D scans of 120 men and women of varying sizes, merging them into a single model that can be morphed to any shape and overlaid atop original footage.
The software, called MovieReshape, builds on existing programs that track an actor’s silhouette through a scene, mapping the body into a morphable model. Using the compiled 3D scans, the program can create realistic-looking and moving body parts to the programmer’s specifications. The more dramatic the alteration, the more noticeable it may be against a constant background, but in a survey of 30 viewers, none reported the distortions to be distracting.
At present, the program only works well in clear, unobstructed scenes, so don't expect to see digitally enhanced actors in every new release just yet. But, as NewSci suggests, it could be a quick solution for advertising companies that currently have to shoot multiple ads to cater to varying international beauty standards.
The program is set to be released at the SIGGRAPH Asia computer graphics conference in December.
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Intel and Nokia launch joint research on mobile 3D virtual worlds
Smartphones have barely entered the 3D age, but andare already racing ahead to do research on enabling 3D virtual worlds on mobile computing platforms.
The two companies are announcing today a research center (pictured below) at the University of Oulu in Oulu, Finland, that will work on the technology required to make the mobile 3D virtual world possible.
Heikki Huomo, director of the university’s center for internet excellence, said in a press call that the research center will hire two dozen researchers to work for at least three years on the problem. The work starts now and will focus on creating compelling experiences on mobile phones for users. Intel and Nokia are working together already on a project dubbed MeeGo, a mobile operating system.
“3D has the potential to revolutionize mobile and internet user experiences,” Huomo said.
We’ve heard that pitch before from companies such as IBM, which were big believers in Second Life’s 3D virtual world. A few years ago, everyone thought that virtual worlds would become pervasive and that 3D user interfaces would take off. Martin Curley, director of Intel Labs Europe, said that virtual worlds saw a big hype cycle, crashed due to inflated expectations, and are now making a comeback. He believes the same could happen over time with mobile 3D worlds.
Intel and Nokia believe that the technology will go well with their MeeGo operating system, which is targeted at a wide range of mobile devices. Intel hopes to take cues from the research to develop its next generation of microprocessors. The new lab will partner with other Intel labs in Germany, France and Ireland.
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After 3 Years of Data Crunching, NASA and Microsoft Release Stunning New Interactive Mars Tour
NASA scientists have been crunching data for three years on more than 100 computers to come up with the brand-new Mars map. Its image collection spans the Viking orbiters nearly 40 years ago to the HiRISE camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which is .
NASA says it was looking for a way to share its wealth of Mars images, and WorldWide Telescope was a good fit. To use it, you have to the PC-only free program, or use a Web client.
NASA says the map may lead to new scientific discoveries.
The program lets you fly through a 3-D rendering of Victoria Crater, soar past Olympus Mons and examine rock formations with surface-level detail.
In some Martian locales, you can right-click an image, and you'll find Web pages for the missions that captured them.
The 3-D effect is derived from information provided by an instrument called MOLA, the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter, which flew on the Mars Global Surveyor. Scientists at NASA's Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, Calif., combined the data with regular images to come up with 3-D views.
The images themselves reside on the Nebula cloud at NASA-Ames.
Two NASA scientists also offer video tours. James Garvin of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., walks viewers through the geological history of Mars and discusses three possible landing sites for human missions there. Carol Stoker of Ames addresses the question of whether Mars harbors life, and discusses the findings of NASA's Mars Phoenix Lander.
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Video: Scientists Watch Grass Grow, at the Cellular Scale
The team stained growth cells in Arabadopsis thaliana and rice plants, and trained laser-scanning microscopes on the growing plants, according to Scientific American. They fed the microscope data into new computer algorithms that reassembled the structures, cell by cell, in three dimensions. The result is this video.
The algorithm and the "filming" technique could inform future studies on other plants, and could also be used to study cell death, the authors say.
Plants grow very differently than animals. Their seed embryos give rise to simple stalks, unlike human fetuses, for instance, which grow limb buds soon after conception. Instead, flowers, roots and bark appear as the plant matures. Cell development at this level is not well understood, as SciAm reports -- scientists don't know exactly what causes some cells to grow petals as opposed to roots.
The team stained certain growth cells, called meristem cells, which are responsible for developing organs like flowers and roots. They found that in Arapidopsis, the flower meristem cells divided about once every 19 to 24 hours and multiplied to "several hundred cells, even before the onset of differentiation and organ formation." The finding unlocks some secrets about cell division rules in plants, the researchers say.
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