However, one questions still remains. All of the spectacular images that come from Hubble are two dimensional. How did they get them into a 3-D format? Well, that is what the article at NASA’s Image of the Day gallery tells you.
This image depicts a vast canyon of dust and gas in the Orion Nebula from a 3-D computer model based on observations by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope and created by science visualization specialists at the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, Md. A 3-D visualization of this model takes viewers on an amazing four-minute voyage through the 15-light-year-wide canyon.
A 15-light-year-wide canyon would probably look very flat to us if we were standing on it. Heck I am not even certain we could see the sides of the canyon.
Abduzeebo brings us a great gallery of 3D Artwork from Olivier Ponsonnet, known as reiv over at CGSociety, who uses 3dsMax to create some simply beautiful character pieces.
Olivier Ponsonnet’s pieces are a mix of realism and imagination, something intriguing and mysterious, full of details and personality. His pieces are really beautiful and eye catching, so take your time to appreciate them.
Hit abduzeebo for their selections, and reiv’s CGPortfolio for more fantastic stuff.
Some time ago, Nvidia lost the right to continue to make chipsets for Intel. This meant that Nvidia could not make any chipsets for the latest Nehalem processors. With AMD and Intel integrating the memory controller, and other functions, onto the CPU, the market for third party chip makers has decreased.
Nvidia Corp. confirmed early on Thursday that it had combined the core-logic and system-on-chip development teams. The move will considerably enlarge the amount of engineering resources for development of next-generation Tegra system-on-chip (SoC) solutions.
“We have merged these teams under the Tegra development team. This substantially strengthens our engineering effort for Tegra development going forward,” said Ken Brown, a spokesman for Nvidia.
The Motion Graphics Festival (MGFest) is coming to Boston in just a few weeks for a 4-day event of animation, video, and music. In particular is Thursday April 1st, the “Lumen Eclipse” Event which starts at 6:30pm and showcases the work of names like Ken Adams, Carl Burgess, NASA, Larry Carlson, Hikroshi Kondo, and many many more. The website is up with full schedules and registration information, tickets are available now.
The Wall Street Journal reports that 70 Miles Per Hour Is the New 55, and that drivers in Mississippi go really fast. This is not news to me, given where I live.
What is interesting is that the data was gathered from TomTom GPS units. Tom Tom collected the data anonymously from customers who allowed them to do so. The data is supposed to be used to improve the quality of Tom Tom’s route guidance software.
However, I am surprised that Texas is not in the top 10. Perhaps all their drivers were in the Dallas and Houston traffic jams.
Left to their own devices, American drivers confronted with an open stretch of interstate highway tend to drive at about 70 miles per hour—whatever the legal speed limit happens to be.
Little change beginning today, VizWorld readers. Now, the “Pixels” posts will be organized by ‘type’ (You’ll see below “Review”, “Tutorial”, “Inspiration”) and also include links to good deals. If you find a good deal on a product, definitely send it in to us to be included.
Fast Company as an article posted on American car maker GM using augmented reality in their cars. The idea is that the technology will sense road signs or animals and highlight it on a heads-up display. Theoretically this should make for safer driving. Personally I wonder how long it will take until the kids can play Space Invaders on the windshield of your car. The technology should be available in 2016, or just far enough out so that if it does not show up, everyone will have forgotten this article.
Using cameras and vehicle sensors, the system fetches data and paints the results onto a phosphor-coated windshield using ultra-violet lasers. So, for example, during foggy conditions, an illuminated line will appear showing the edge of the road, or highlight pedestrians, road signs, or, indeed, any animals that might have strayed onto the highway.
Expreview has snagged the two pictures to the right of the new XFX GeForce GTX 480 and the XFX GeForce GTX 470. These look like final products to me, especially since the release date is only a week away.
The GeForce GTX 480 is reported to have 480 Shader Processors running at 1401 MHz, a 700 MHz core, 1.536 GB of memory running at 1848MHz on a 384-bit memory bus. It is expected to consume about 250W TDP and cost US$499.
The GeForce GTX 470 is reported to have 448 Shader Processors running at 1215 MHz, a 607 MHz core, 1.280 GB of memory running at 1674MHz on a 320-bit memory bus. It is expected to consume about 225W TDP and cost US$349.
You can click on the images to the right for a larger, better view. You can also click on the link below to see more pictures.
The Scientific Visualization Studio at NASA’s Goddard Flight Center has released its latest visualization of Carbon Dioxide from 2002 through 2009. The data is collected from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) on the NASA Aqua spacecraft. The data is compared to the data collected at the Mauna Loa, Hawaii observatory.
Interestingly enough, the Earth Observatory image of the day shows the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii. Since the Mauna Loa Observatory sits on a volcano that is continuously releasing carbon dioxide, how can they take accurate measurements? Click the link to find out.
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has created a project website for OpenPV to track solar energy installations across the US, and visualize the results. You can head over to the OpenPV Page and view maps showing the growth of solar energy sources from 2000 to today (a decade). With granularity of almost day-by-day, you can see every installation as they come online (while bubble) and join the map. No surprise that California has the most, accounting for over 75% of the solar installations in the US, but you can see them scattered across the entire US.
There are seven, in fact, for which the PV Project hasn’t logged a single installation: Alaska, Arkansas, Kansas, Kentucky, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and both of the Dakotas. There probably are a few solar panels in those states, but the point of the map is simply to show the relative amount of solar in different areas. It gets the point across: the above states show up as a huge empty streak splitting the country in half.
Abduzeebo brings us a great gallery of 3D Artwork from Olivier Ponsonnet, known as reiv over at CGSociety, who uses 3dsMax to create some simply beautiful character pieces.
The Motion Graphics Festival (MGFest) is coming to Boston in just a few weeks for a 4-day event of animation, video, and music. In particular is Thursday April 1st, the “Lumen Eclipse” Event which starts at 6:30pm and showcases the work of names like Ken Adams, Carl Burgess, NASA, Larry Carlson, Hikroshi Kondo, and many many more. The website is up with full schedules and registration information, tickets are available now.
Little change beginning today, VizWorld readers. Now, the “Pixels” posts will be organized by ‘type’ (You’ll see below “Review”, “Tutorial”, “Inspiration”) and also include links to good deals. If you find a good deal on a product, definitely send it in to us to be included.
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has created a project website for OpenPV to track solar energy installations across the US, and visualize the results. You can head over to 
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