Visualizing Data Inside the 30-ft Allosphere 131
TEDChris writes "The Allosphere, being created at UC Santa Barbara, is the most ambitious attempt yet at creating powerful 3d visualizations of raw scientific data, such as the structure of a crystal, or how quantum effects take place. Researchers watch from a bridge inside the 30-foot sphere, looking at data projected 360 degrees around them and listening to 3D sound. The first major public demo of the facility has just been posted at TED.com. Optimists would argue that many of the greatest scientific breakthroughs happened through a new visual way of imagining data. Penicillin and relativity come to mind. So this is either a killer new research vehicle, an incredible toy, or just an insanely expensive art project."
Find people with powers? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:360 or 420? (Score:1, Funny)
Allosphere? Bah! (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Find people with powers? (Score:3, Funny)
You mean helmet. Heh. I just said 'helmet'.
Mac vs. PC (Score:4, Funny)
Mac: Hi, I'm a Mac.
PC: And ... I'm ... a ... PC.
Mac: Wow, PC. You're really slow today.
PC: Yes ... I'm ... running ... AlloSphere ... research ... for ... UCSB ... ... today.
Mac: What exactly is the AlloSphere useful for?
PC: Scientifically, ... it ... is ... an ... instrument ... for ... gaining ... insight ... and ... developing ... bodily ... intuition ... about ... environments ... into ... which ... the ... body ... cannot ... venture: ... abstract, ... higher- ... -dimensional ... information ... spaces, ... the ... worlds ... of ... the ... very ... small ... or ... very ... large, ... and ... the ... realms ... of ... the ... very ... fast ... or ... very ... slow, ... in ... fields ... ranging ... from ... nanotechnology ... to ... theoretical ... physics, ... from ... proteomics ... to ... cosmology, ... from ... neurophysiology ... to ... the ... spaces ... of ... consciousness, ... and ... from ... new ... materials ... to ... new ... media.
Mac: Wow, that ... that sounds pretty amazing.
PC: It ... is.
Mac: Anything else?
PC: 42.
Mac: What does that even mean?
PC: I ... have ... no ... idea.
Re:Penicillin and relativity come to mind? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Find people with powers? (Score:2, Funny)
build myself an awful looking hat.
Just steal a fedora from a kid trying to look stylish at the mall, much faster than building one yourself.
No imagination... (Score:4, Funny)
So this is either a killer new research vehicle, an incredible toy, or just an insanely expensive art project.
All three, you got the superego, the id and the ego all in one machine.
Re:What is a USC Santa Barbara? (Score:2, Funny)
Didn't you get the memo? All colleges in California are now just adjunct campuses of USC, by order of the Governator himself. He said he'd be back if it wasn't done.
Re:360 or 420? (Score:3, Funny)
I would have expected just over a dozen and a half steradians myself.
Re:Find people with powers? (Score:3, Funny)
Cerebro lives! (Score:1, Funny)
Early reports indicate that the facility is also useful for tracking down mutants.
Re:Mac vs. PC (Score:4, Funny)
Why is PC running Shatner OS?
Re:Find people with powers? (Score:3, Funny)
Well, everybody here's thinking it but I'm saying it:
Lets invest in the porn industry!!
Re:Amazing(not) (Score:3, Funny)
Yeah, but head-mounted displays were Dominion technology. They were the bad guys. That's probably why the UCSB folks went with the astrometrics lab from Voyager (only better).
Re:Penicillin and relativity come to mind? (Score:3, Funny)