VizWorld.com

Using classic hologram imaging techniques, researchers at New York University have created a “holographic microscope” capable of visualizing individual biological molecules with amazing precision.

It allows us to view particles a micrometer in size and with nanometric precision–that is, it captures their traits to within one billionth of a meter.”

“That’s a tremendous amount of information to obtain about a micrometer-scale object, particularly when you consider that you get all of that information in each snapshot,”

Unlike a single holographic image, they feed the data into a recorder and create a holographic movie that can then be analyzed later with full 3d data.  Due to the sheer volume of data coming from the microscope, they’ve implemented a GPGPU solution for speed on NVidia GTx280′s with CUDA and GPULib.

The entire project was detailed in a paper, “Flow visualization and flow cytometry with holographic video microscopy” at Optics Express, and is available online.

via Bio Optics World Magazine Articles, Holographic movies of bio molecules promising for medical diagnostics, drug discovery.

Hardware, Science biomed, cuda, gpgpu, hologram, microscope

Weta’s new R&D firm, TransFX, (which we’ve discussed a bit previously) is now up and running.  Sebastian Sylwan and Joe Letteri sit down with VFXWorld to talk about their aims for the upcoming SIGGRAPH2009, and announce that they are looking for new employees.  However, it’s not the type of employees that Visual Effects house are typically recruiting.

SS: Of course, we will have a number of people there. We will be mostly focusing our efforts on the recruiting side, mostly in the R&D area. The idea is to get more profiles that have possibly some experience with 3D tools but more on the researcher side, so people that are doing a PhD or a post doc in computer graphics or math labs but are approaching problems that are in the three areas of interest. We are going to be actively looking for people there. We are not going to be having a booth, but we will be scheduling meetings ahead of time. And we are setting up an email address for resumes to be sent ahead of time so that we can schedule interviews with specific people.

via ….. >> VFXWorld / Feature Articles << …...

Science jobs, siggraph, transfx, weta

The Pixel Farm is announcing some new software at SIGGRAPH in a few weeks, so they’ve decided to offer PFMatch 2.1 for Apple’s Shake 4.1 for Free!

As you may be aware, PFMatch has recently been discontinued. Much of the product philosophy of PFMatch is soon to be re-introduced with a fresh approach focussed on improved workflow and closer integration with 3rd party applications that can utilize the unique data that our products produce. All will be revealed for the first time on The Pixel Farm stand at SIGGRAPH 2009, in August.

The offer is only valid until the end of August, after which point PFMatch will vanish into the dark abyss of abandonware as Pixel Farm moves onto new products.

via The Pixel Farm®.

Graphics apple, free, pfmatch, pixelfarm, shake, siggraph, software

The "Bokode" is the tiny dot in the center.

The MIT Media Lab will be presenting a new barcode technology in a paper at SIGGRAPH that uses angular-specific barcodes, providing a whole new way to encoding information.

The tiny labels are just 3 millimeters across — about the size of the @ symbol on a typical computer keyboard. Yet they can contain far more information than an ordinary barcode: thousands of bits. Currently they require a lens and a built-in LED light source, but future versions could be made reflective, similar to the holographic images now frequently found on credit cards, which would be much cheaper and more unobtrusive.

The paper is entitled “Bokode: Imperceptible Visual Tags for Camera-based interaction from a Distance”, and will be available at the SIGGRAPH website on Monday.

via Barcodes for the rest of us – MIT News Office.

Hardware, Science barcode, siggraph

Grid VFX, the company behind several of the shots in the upcoming Tron Legacy movie, has finally released the teaser trailer they demoed at ComicCon2008.

Tron Legacy is a 3D high-tech adventure set in a digital world that’s unlike anything ever captured on the big screen. Sam Flynn (Hedlund), the tech-savvy 27-year-old son of Kevin Flynn (Bridges), looks into his father’s disappearance and finds himself pulled into the same world of fierce programs and gladiatorial games where his father has been living for 25 years. Along with Kevin’s loyal confidant (Olivia Wilde), father and son embark on a life-and-death journey across a visually-stunning cyber universe that has become far more advanced and exceedingly dangerous.

Hit up the Flynn Lives website to stream or download the trailer, in standard & HD formats.

via SDCC: WHOA! Tron Legacy Grid VFX Concept Test Officially Online! – ComingSoon.net.

Graphics grid, movie, vfx

A video on YouTube shows Ubisoft demoing their new real-time strategy game “RUSE” on a multi-touch enabled table display (possibly a Microsoft Surface, although that’s unconfirmed).  It’s impressive, and they have obviously spent alot of time implementing support for it.  However, from what I see they spent a lot more time fiddling with camera views and orientation than actually playing the game.

It does, however, show one possible design for a strategic battlefield viewing solution.  See the video after the break.

Read more…

Hardware display, multitouch, table, ubisoft, video game

Another win for Augmented Reality as Jonas Jager capitalizes on the success of previous AR Business Cards and unveils a system (built for a class project) that creates a generic AR Business card combining an AR marker with QR Codes.  The result is a generic system for mixing models, photos, and real-time updated status information (from Twitter, FaceBook, etc) onto your business card.

See video of it after the break.

Read more…

Science augmented reality, businesscards

StudioGPU will be at SIGGRAPH2009, of course, presenting some of the newest integration features with the AMD ATI FirePro cards.  In addition, however, they’ll be showcasing some future features of MachStudio Pro:

StudioGPU will also be showcasing future MachStudio Pro technology, such as the support for displacement mapping with hardware tessellation and the ability to process more than a billion polygons in real-time. Other new features being demonstrated will include the ability to create full motion blur with velocity maps, stereoscopic camera support, configurable anti-aliasing algorithms (Box, Gaussian, Mitchell) and many more.

They’ll also be working with AMD and others at the GPU-Accelerated Production Rendering session to discuss how massive farms of GPU’s can accelerated production rendering environments for realtime workflow, and attending the Jon Peddie Research media luncheon.  Full details after the break.

Read more…

Graphics, Hardware, Science machstudio, siggraph, studiogpu

What do you get when you mix a beach ball with a bunch of projectors and a few NOAA visualization scientists?  You get ‘Science on a Sphere’, as the visuals are projected onto the sphere to allow true visualization of the earth’s surface.  Controlled by a Wii-mote, it projects a 4000×2000 display onto the 68-inch sphere showing ocean currents, atmospheric temperatures, population trends, and anything else you can think of.

The software is written to support any number of projectors, but the zoo’s setup is typical, following NOAA’s recommendations for equipment. It uses four high-end Sony projectors that provide a resolution of 72 dots per inch on the sphere. These are aligned every morning to keep the images in sync. Each projector is controlled by a Dell Precision T3400 workstation running Red Hat Linux. A fifth T3400 hosts the content for the sphere and controls the other four computers. There is a Bluetooth connection on the control computer for the Wii Remote.

The system costs only $165,00 0and software is already available from NOAA to run on it, making it a pretty useful tool on day 1.

NOAA’s Science on a Sphere adds a new dimension to data displays — Government Computer News.

Hardware, Science geospatial, noaa, projection, sphere

A massive 125-step tutorial is available on ExistingVisual that shows how to model, render, animate, and composite a dancing ice cream bar with Maxon’s Cinema4D and Adobe’s After Effects tools.

Existing Visual » Animate a Dancing Ice Cream Bar in Cinema 4D and After Effects.

Graphics adobe, after, aftereffects, cinema4d, maxon, tutorial