Projecting Data on a Sphere 139
necro81 writes "The NYTimes has an article in today's Science section that describes a four-projector system that displays images on a spherical screen. The Science on a Sphere system, developed at the Goddard Space Flight Center and used in some planetariums, can display and animate vast amounts of visual data from the Earth, Moon, Sun, and the other planets. The sphere is suspended by thin wires, and animating the image data gives the illusion of a free-floating, rotating world."
Get the fleet ready (Score:1, Funny)
Re:Mods (Score:1)
Perfect for mission briefings (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Perfect for mission briefings (Score:4, Insightful)
It's a planetarium turned inside-out. Or the offspring of a mating of a planetarium and a Klein bottle. In other words, it's a light trap :)
Re:Perfect for mission briefings (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Perfect for mission briefings (Score:2)
Have some respect! (Score:2)
Re:Perfect for mission briefings (Score:2)
Re:Perfect for mission briefings (Score:2)
I expected something comical...
You fools! Spore! (Score:1)
i reckon i could find a few science friends crazy enough to pay $15000 for the ultimate Spore gaming rig that includes this display.
Halograms (Score:1)
Re:Halograms (Score:2)
My cat sleeping on the keyboard has typed more insightful posts.
Re:Halograms (Score:1, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Halograms (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Halograms (Score:2)
h*O*lograms (Score:2)
Note to GP :
it's hOlogram with an 'o'.
it come from the greek holos : whole
(and grama : drawing)
because its the technology that is about representing a whole object (instead of only a flat drawing).
Re:Halograms (Score:2)
Halo graphics (Score:3, Funny)
Could this be giving birth to the beginnings of 3D halographic techonology?
No, that was the Xbox.
Re:Halo graphics (Score:1)
Actually, that was the Mac. It only made it to the Xbox after a buyout and a significant delay in development.
Re:Halograms (Score:2)
This sort of thing has cropped up before, and it has always been atributable to human error.
This comment can serve no useful purpose anymore. Goodbye.
Shouldn't they be able to do with 2 projectors? (Score:1)
Re:Shouldn't they be able to do with 2 projectors? (Score:5, Informative)
In order for the resolution to be consistent over the entire globe, you have to either intentionally reduce the resolution of the projection near the poles, or add additional projectors.
Re:Shouldn't they be able to do with 2 projectors? (Score:1)
In that case... (Score:2)
Re:Shouldn't they be able to do with 2 projectors? (Score:1, Insightful)
If you have them any closer than infinity, then the equator will be in a shadow. Unless you cheat and have a slightly non-spherical globe.
Re:Shouldn't they be able to do with 2 projectors? (Score:2)
Re:Shouldn't they be able to do with 2 projectors? (Score:1)
I'm guessing that by six projectors, you mean to put them along each of the axes (that is, at the points of an octahedron, or the faces of a cube). That certainly works, but if you put them at the corners of a tetrahedron, you can also achieve complete coverage, provided your projectors are at least 3 radii away from the center of the sphere. Using six merely allows you to reduce that margin to the square root of 3. (I think. Someone please check my math.)
But, as it turns out, these folks aren't go
Re:Shouldn't they be able to do with 2 projectors? (Score:2)
Re:Shouldn't they be able to do with 2 projectors? (Score:1)
For this scenario all you have to do is have a light source and lens bigger than the sphere you are projecting onto. With an infinitely large lens you could also project on the *whole* sphere, from any given (fixed) distance, not just half of it. That's if you manage to focus it correctly, though.
Re:Shouldn't they be able to do with 2 projectors? (Score:1)
That isn't quite the way that lenses work, however. You can't put a huge lens some distance away from the globe, and use the top part of the lens to project over the north pole, and the bottom half to project under the south pole. Instead, pretty much the entire lens is used to focus the image of the light source to any given point on the globe. You can illuminate more than half of the globe with a very large lens, but the parts at the periphery won't be as well illuminated, since only part of the lens
Re:Shouldn't they be able to do with 2 projectors? (Score:1, Insightful)
And Polaris is 430 LIGHT YEARS away, or more than umpty-jillion Earth diameters. If your sphere were the size of a beach ball, the projectors could be REALLY FUCKING FAR away, and there would still be a three-inch band of darkness around the middle.
(I got too lazy to finish working out the math.)
Re:Shouldn't they be able to do with 2 projectors? (Score:1)
You could do it with two projectors in the center provided they had ultra wide angle lenses like an Elumen's projector [elumens.com] but those are somewhat expensive. One could easily spend $24k on precision wide angle lenses that would blend well at the edges.
The smaller "planetoids" globe in the lower depths of the Sci-Fi mueseum in Seattle uses a single Elumen's lens/projector hidden in the wall projecting from the hidden back side of the globe.
I have access to one of these projectors and I've long thought about t
Re:Shouldn't they be able to do with 2 projectors? (Score:1)
I'm actually a little surprised they didn't use more. I'd be interested to know how they keep the projectors in focus over the whole surface...
Reading the FAQ... (Score:1)
Re:Shouldn't they be able to do with 2 projectors? (Score:1)
uh didnt anyone tell them? (Score:1, Funny)
""Laser"" Floyd in your own house, though... woot!
-math
why not from inside-out? (Score:4, Insightful)
Since the application of this thing can easily require building a custom sphere, this seems a more cost-effective way to me.
Re:why not from inside-out? (Score:2, Insightful)
Assuming a requirement was the ability to hang the sphere to make it appear to float, then you'd have to figure out a way to have a fairly strong internal structure to support the projectors without creating seams from within the structure itself. Also you need to get power and video signals to the projectors and still keep your "disappearingly thin wires". Then there is always th
Re:why not from inside-out? (Score:2)
Re:why not from inside-out? (Score:2)
I don't think it could easily be done without shadows from the internal structure though.
Re:why not from inside-out? (Score:1)
The projection need not be from the center of the globe. It could be from the bottom. The problem with that approach is that the image quality in the bottom half of the globe would be relatively poor. The way the system is designed now, most of the globe, maybe 75 percent, is better than the entire bottom half would be with a projection from the bottom of the sphere, and the mediocre parts of the current projection are much more limited than they would be, projected from the bottom.
Re:why not from inside-out? (Score:1)
Re:why not from inside-out? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:why not from inside-out? (Score:2)
Re:why not from inside-out? (Score:2)
Re:why not from inside-out? (Score:1)
Re:why not from inside-out? (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:why not from inside-out? (Score:2)
Seattle Sci-Fi Museum. (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Seattle Sci-Fi Museum. (Score:2)
The first sphere you come across is definitely projected from the inside... there isn't an external projector in sight. If I had to guess they're using 3 for that one though...
Not Just For Planets (Score:1)
P.S. Sorry, had to be said
Funding (Score:2)
"I was driving down a road and the thought came to me: Why don't people display things on spheres?" he said. "When I got home, I painted a beach ball white and projected pictures on the ball.
So, I wonder if he took that beach ball to his presentations when he was trying to get research / grant money for the project?
I want one! (Score:1)
Re:I want one! (Score:1, Informative)
Each projector projects a 2D image as per normal - the centre of the image will be an image that is non-overlapping with the other images projected. You could imagine the image that is projected as being generated by your bog standard 3D application, texturemapping a sphere and rendering it from the point of view of each of the projectors, then applying a mask to en
Ooo Pretty.... (Score:3, Funny)
Who wants to open the pinata?
Ehhh? (Score:2)
Re:Ehhh? (Score:1, Informative)
Anyway... it's not the same effect. DoomBuggies.com [doombuggies.com] has an explanation of it is done. She doesn't follow you around the room, though. That's something else [doombuggies.com].
Re:Ehhh? (Score:2)
I've never seen the thing, but you just described an effect normally created with a hologram. You don't see it often because there isn't normally much point. Presumably they thought it would look spooky because it's so uncommon.
Re:Ehhh? (Score:2)
The illusion has to do with reversing of the depth of field. There's several good illusions like this, this Einstein one is truly awesome: http://www.grand- [grand-illusions.com]
Re:Ehhh? (Score:1)
Want to get a drink after work, and watch the World Cup?
Re:Ehhh? (Score:1)
I think you're mixing up two different parts of the attraction. The woman's head in the globe is a simple bust. Her features are then projected onto the bust, allowing her to "speak." A similar technique is used for Buzz Lightyear in the Emperor Zorg attraction (I forget the name) in Toon Town.
The following faces are done by employing concave faces (that is, caved inward, toward the wall) lit from below, rather than the more traditional convex faces lit from above. Because both concavity and lighti
Already in practice... I think (Score:1, Informative)
See Douglas Coupland's JPod (Score:1)
suspended by thin wires (Score:3, Interesting)
Come on now, can't they use some kind of magnetic levitation system? Or even an air cushion, that would be pretty cheap and cool.
Re:suspended by thin wires (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:suspended by thin wires (Score:2)
Re:suspended by thin wires (Score:2)
Now a mag lev system that could rotate and spin the ball would be cool. a Linear accelerator combined with brushless motor style controler surround the outside of the maglev system in the center with the ball just above it. A circlar linear accelerator(yes I said that and I mean it) with a center section for the actual levitation. come to think of it you would need 16 or 32 linear accelerators in a circular pattern. Computer controled an
Re:suspended by thin wires (Score:1)
Re:suspended by thin wires (Score:2)
Sphere screen envy (Score:1, Funny)
Google Earth (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Google Earth (Score:1)
Re:Google Earth (Score:2)
I'm tempted to build a small scale one just to play with google earth.
Snakes on a Sphere? (Score:2, Funny)
You'd get
the actual earth (Score:2, Funny)
is that too much to ask?
Re:the actual earth (Score:1)
The variation is only a fraction of a percent, hardly perceptible to the unaided eye. Perhaps if you wait long enough, the force of gravity will compress the globe into the right shape for you. Besides, the Earth isn't quite an oblate spheroid, either (by ellipsoid is usually meant a prolate spheroid, I think); the southern hemisphere is ever so slightly bulgier than the northern hemisphere.
Furthermore, this thing is supposed to be able to maps of other worlds, such as Mercury, whose oblateness is pr
Interesting how they used someone elses technology (Score:1)
Yeah but... (Score:2)
Brilliant (Score:3, Funny)
On a sphere, eh? (Score:2)
My dream come true (Score:1)
Soo,,, Anything I want... (Score:2)
Hope that they got a patent on that. Man, the uses... This will be SO in demand.
Developed by NOAA, NOT Goddard Space Flight Cente (Score:1)
Doesn't that making zooming in unrealistic? (Score:3, Insightful)
I made of of these (Score:2)
Re:I made of of these (Score:2)
Re:I made of of these (Score:2)
Re:I made of of these (Score:2)
:D
Re:I made of of these (Score:2)
Tech Museum in San Jose, CA (Score:1)
NOAA Science on a Sphere (Score:3, Informative)
All jokes about the Deathstar attack aside, I actually had the privilege of seeing this display firsthand this past year. I was attending the Annual Meeting of the American Meteorological Society in Atlanta, and NOAA was showing this display with information about the 2005 hurricane season. It is quite a large display, but it has the capability of showing large amounts of data in an entertaining and easy to understand way.
Here are a few pictures of the actual display in operation...
http://community.webshots.com/album/551340290QQkDQ E/ [webshots.com]
While we are here... (Score:2)
I want to create planetary textures for Celestia
(see http://www.shatters.net/celestia/ [shatters.net])
but creating a rectangular image for the texture
and then having this projected onto a sphere
makes the process tedious trial and error --
the poles are really hard to get right.
I'd like to use some sort of modelling software
to 'draw' the texture on a spherical body
and then unwrap this into a rectangular image file
suitable for importing into Celestia as a
what good are snub fighters going to be? (Score:1)
I can hear it now... (Score:2)
Re:whats the point (Score:2)
No, it's not some sort of major breakthrough.
And yes, the 'hole' idea is limited to showing things happening on the surface of a sphere. As it turns out though, there's a lot of interesting things that happen on the surface of spheres. Our lives, for instance. Also weather. And geography.
Re:whats the point-spherical lining. (Score:2)
I hope the replacements he has to train do as good a job!
Re:whats the point (Score:1)
Re:whats the point (Score:1)
Re:hmmm (Score:2)