VizWorld.com

EVGA has unveiled their latest offering in the monitor space, the “InterView”.  It’s a pair of 17-inch monitors running at 1440×900, on a single stand with a 1.3-megapixel webcam embedded directly between them. The really interesting part is that the monitors are mounted on 180-degree swivels to make it great for sharing work with other people.  It’s neat, and something I’ld like to see in action. It retails for $650, and requires separate DVI hookups for each monitor (so laptops won’t work unless you have extra hardware).

Personally, I’m waiting for the dual 30″ version :)

EVGA | EVGA InterView | Dual Monitor.

Hardware display, evga, lcd

Visual Dynamics has just released VRayScatter 2.5.5 with a few new features, and most importantly 3ds Max 2010 support.  If you’ve never tried VRayScatter before:

VRayScatter lets VRay generate huge amounts of objects in an array. Never before within 3ds max could a user create scenes with millions objects. With VRayScatter, the user is able to create huge forest areas or even a city with uncountable amount of buildings in two clicks. Quick render time generation of objects with optimized RAM management makes the process of scene creation as easy as 123.

Integrated special procedural map VRayScatterTexture allows a user to define random color for every object in the array for a pure realistic effect. VRayScatterTexture can also be used on any object in the scene.

They have several impressive results and examples on their website.

via VRayScatter – Plugin for 3ds Max and V-Ray – VRay.com.

Graphics 3dsmax, plugin, software, vray, vrayscatter

One short-lived character in Ice Age 3 is the “Mist Monster”, a hazy exaggerated memory of Buck’s arch-nemesis “Rudy”.  Blue Sky has done volumetric work in the past, but with a technique that quickly broke down.  For this new character they developed a new technique based on Maya.

For this movie they took advantage of Maya’s compressible fluids and set up all of the dust, snow powder, mist, and the entire sequence of the Mist Monster using what Blue Sky calls SmaugVox, smog in a voxel system. “We gained two things. One was with Mayas’

fluid system, we were able to run simulations. We made a series of tools to determine the contact between the geometry and the ground and packaged it for the FX TD’s so they could run sims using Mayas’ rendered feedback to see what it would look like, then exported the density and velocity information to bin files that we would convert into voxels for our proprietary software.”

via CGSociety – Blue Sky on Ice.

Graphics blue sky studios, movie, vfx, volume

BOXXLabs, the research division of BOXX technologies, lead technologist Adam Glick has a good writeup on what he predicts will be the big focuses at SIGGRAPH this year.  He opens with an interesting discussion of why the “shrinking” of SIGGRAPH is a good thing.

Attending SIGGRAPH provides stellar opportunities to see first hand, the emerging technologies and academic research projects that will shape the future of the computer graphics world. With less people in attendance, those of us that do show up hopefully won’t have to wait in line as long to watch demos, or to get “hands on” time with demo systems and technology prototypes. I personally love to see the new stuff up close -to me it’s easily the most interesting and inspiring part of SIGRAPH.

He then moves on to predictions.  His picks:

• Bye-bye HD, hello 4K and bigger
• Stereoscopic 3D
• Augmented Reality
• Too much fun on Bourbon street.

via BOXXtalk – The BOXXlabs Tech Review: Ready or not- here comes the BOXXlabs SIGGRAPH 2009 preview.

Graphics boxx, siggraph

If you watched the recent Home-Run Derby on ESPN, you might have noticed that the balls were tracked mid-flight with a colored “comet trail”.  Popular Science has an article talked to the german firm “Trackman” who built the technology making it possible.

The Ball Tracker utilizes low-power Doppler radar operating at 2000 Hz to monitor the speed, location and spin of the ball. That data is fed to an algorithm which calculates the projected path of the ball based on its current location. This allows ESPN to continuously display the distance traveled on the screen during flight and to calculate the total home run length as soon as the ball lands (previous methods took seconds or minutes to get the same information).

See a video of the effect after the break.

via How It Works: ESPN’s Ball Tracker Follows Home Runs With Doppler Radar | Popular Science.

Read more…

Science baseball, realtime, sports, trackman

This just came in from some SGI Reps in the Bay Area.

Please join us for the SGI User Group Bay Area Chapter Meeting

Join SGI users, SGI executives, and customers for the SGI User Group Bay Area Chapter Meeting on July 23, 2009. The meeting will be held at the SGI corporate headquarters in Fremont and will feature key speakers from SGI and NASA Ames.

Featured Speakers

o Dr. Eng Lim Goh, SGI Chief Technology Officer, will speak on Technology Trends

o Bill Thigpen, NASA Ames HECC Deputy Proect Manager, will talk about Pleiades

The SGI User Group (SGIUG) is an independent, worldwide interactive community focused on sharing information and improving the technical productivity of SGI® high-performance computing, data storage, and visualization systems. The user group and conference is open to all and we welcome new members.

When: July 23, 2009 from 2:30pm – 5:00pm

Location: SGI Corporate Headquarters

46600 Landing Parkway, Fremont, CA

Pleidas is the new NASA Ames supercomputer, a 100-cabinet SGI ICE.  Check it out, and let us know what SGI has to say!

Hardware conference, sgi

Makers of the previous “Nearest Tube” augmented reality application for the iPhone are back with “Nearest Subway”, an equivalent app that works for the New York City underground.

acrossair, the makers of Nearest Tube iPhone app bring you the New York Nearest Subway one of the first augmented reality apps to go live in the iPhone AppStore. Forget boring 2D maps! Try this amazing new application that tells New Yorkers where their nearest subway station.

When you load the app, holding it flat, all lines of New York subway are displayed in arrows. By tilting the phone upwards, you will see the nearest stations: what direction they are in relation to your location, how many miles away they are and what lines they are on. If you continue to tilt the phone upwards, you will see stations further away, as stacked icons. Only available to Apple iPhone 3GS users.

Looks pretty neat.. See video of the app after the break.

via YouTube – New York Nearest Subway Augmented Reality App for iPhone 3GS from acrossair.

Read more…

Hardware acrossair, augmented reality, iphone

Still nothing official on the SGI & PSC falling-out we reported on last week.  From SGI’s PR firm gave us the following statement:

SGI remains committed to the HPC community and in fact still has a business relationship with the Pittsburg Supercomputing Center. This means that all of the business dealings are considered internal and confidential, and SGI cannot publicly comment on status of any deal at this time. I am sure you understand.

So what does this mean?  Well, it’s possible that SGI & PSC are still negotiating, either lowering the final performance (sub 1-Petaflop) or raising the amount they are willing to pay.  Either way, we hope to hear more from them.

Hardware psc, rumor, sgi

The US Government, particularly the military, deals with thousands of contractors and vendors and billions of dollars.  Tracking the flow of money throughout the thousands of hands it must pass through is a difficult task, to say the least.  How does the US Government track possible procurement fraud through this maze of connections?  The US Army uses powerful infovis software.

So, not surprisingly, integrator SRA International, which has a contract to help the Army Criminal Investigation Division investigate potential procurement fraud, uses data visualization software from i2 to help root out cases of bribery, money laundering or conspiracy.

“The contracting arena is just so large [and] there are so many government personnel, bidders, contractors, employees and their families. Data visualization software really helps clarify the big picture,” said Amanda Post, an analyst for SRA.

via Army employs visualization software to uncover procurement fraud — Government Computer News.

Science financial, infovis, military

As if you really needed any more proof that 2009 is the year of 3D-Film’s comeback, SlashFilm has compiled a massive list, with release dates, of every known 3D film coming out in 2009 and 2010.  The list encompasses upcoming films, like G-Force and Harry Potter (24 minutes of 3D in IMAX, I didn’t know that), as well as lesser known films as the return of Disney’s Beauty & the Beast in 3D in 2010.

The Ultimate 3D Movie Preview and Release Date Schedule | /Film.

Graphics 3d, list, movie, vfx