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Breaking News: On stage at the GTC2010 Keynote, NVidia announced that they are working with PGI, the Portland Group, to develop a new compiler CUDA-x86.  If you don’t have a GPU cluster handy, you can run your CUDA code directly on the CPU for testing and debugging, and even deploy it to users who don’t have suitable GPU’s.

Of course, you’ll need the GPU for optimum performance, but it makes CUDA not just an NVidia technology, but a technology that runs on any computer.

Update 12:10pm it was confirmed later that this will not be a free offering, but rather a commercial product marketed and sold by PGI.

Update 9/23 1pm: More information here.

Science cuda, nvidia

Side Effects Software has a case study online of their product Houdini in use in the Scott Pilgrim movie by Mr. X and Double Negative.  I find it amazing that the snow in the movie, much of which I thought was actually blown snow, was actually Houdini particle effects.

In Scott Pilgrim’s Toronto, it is winter even though the movie began filming in spring. It was therefore logical for “Toronto” studio Mr. X to winterize key scenes in the movie. The snow was going to need to be more than just an environmental simulation of snow. Mr. X’s goal was to treat the snow just as if it was another character in the movie. It needed to be very directable and with Houdini, they were able to create quick and easy setups which would provide them with the control they needed.

via Scott Pilgrim – Side Effects Software Inc..

Graphics houdini, movie, vfx

Richard Kerris, CTO, ILM, discusses how NVIDIA Quadro GPUs enabled the creation of breakthrough visual effects. Hear how the ILM creative team was able to create life-like simulations of fire for blockbuster movies, including Harry Potter and the Last Air Bender.

Hardware cuda, nvidia, quadro

I’m settled into the press pit at the NVidia GPU Technology Conference Keynote hall, where the screens are unreasonably large and the microphones are deafeningly loud.  Currently listening to “Uprising” by Muse, and waiting for it to begin.  I’ll be updating this post as new information comes along, so stay tuned!

• 8:42 – I don’t know who makes NVidia’s playlists but I need to find them.. Now listening to “Electric Eel” by MGMT.  Seems several press photographers are using HDR cameras, listening to the rapid-fire shutterclicks.
• 8:44 – Don’t forget you can watch along (if you have the ability) at NVidia’s livestream of the keynote.
• 8:45 – Seems everyone gets a pair of Dolby3D Passive Polarized glasses upon entry.  I guess 3D will be on the agenda.
• 8:50 – Beginning to notice a theme.. “Uprising”, “Keep on rocking in the free world”… Hrrm.
• 8:56 – Before we begin, enjoy some “really kewl demos” in 3D..
• Technical Snafu there.. sorry folks. Had to disable the Twitter Tracker temporarily.
• 9:11 – Ubisoft HAWX2 Demo, in 3D.  NVidia has 3 focus areas: Professional (Quadry), Computational (Tesla), Personal (Tegra/GeForce).

Remainder after the break.

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Hardware feature, gtc, nvidia

Universal Robotics, a company that creates software and control systems for large robotic systems, has partnered with Logitech to create a “Spatial Vision Logitech Bundle” that combines their 3D vision software called “Spatial Vision” with a pair of Logitech Webcam Pro 9000 USB Cameras.  The result is a consumer system that can shoot 3D Video and photos from the comfort of your computer.

With a built-in image capture and video recording feature that instantly creates 3D video and images, it can record 3D video on its own or assist in the creation of professional-quality 3D films.  The bundle components can help filmmakers align any camera for 3D filming, saving laborious setup and costly reshooting.  The calibration files created by Spatial Vision visually correct images during the production process to optimize 3D viewing.

However, it’s not cheap.  Currently selling for $599. Full press release after the break.

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Hardware 3d, logitech, stereoscopic

MINOX is launching a conceptual study with a new camera called the PX3D. This camera stacks four lenses vertically. When a person takes a picture, each of the 5 megapixel sensors takes an image from a slightly different perspective. These four images could then be combined into one 20 megapixel image using the provided software. Or, the user could opt to view the image in 3-D, again using the special MINOX software. Since this is a conceptual study, they are not ready to market it yet. However, if they do market the camera, it is expected to be available in the summer of 2011 at a price of about 500 Euros.

If four lenses is not enough for you, then how about the following:

Forecast: the next step is to extend the underlying concept of the PX3D to 16 camera modules. The main advantage of this technology, in addition to the 3D effect, lies within the ability of each module to specifically select an individual exposure and focal point. This allows the user to decide and determine the priority between exposure and sharpness for each shot.

Yes, I can see the marketing people now. “Why view in 3-D when you can view in 16-D! Up to 80 megapixel images!” You can click on the link below to see a video of the conceptual camera.

via : MINOX PX3D – future-oriented 3D camera concept for photography

Science 3d, camera

We told you about this last week, but here is another reminder. Today, Sony released an update, version 3.5, for the Playstation 3 that enables 3-D Blu-Ray support. Not only do you get 3-D Blu-Ray support with this update, but you also get a few other new features as well.

Additional new features in the 3.50 update include:

* Facebook Integration: Developers will be able to create PS3 games that have more interaction with Facebook. Once compatible PS3 titles are available, PS3 users can choose to access public information on Facebook – including user name, profile, uploaded photos and friends list – to enhance their gameplay experience.
* Grief Reporting Function: Users can send claim reports directly from the XMB for any inappropriate messages they receive from other PlayStation Network users. This feature is accessible from the option menu of the messages list in the FRIENDS category.

via : PS3 System Software Update v3.50 Available Soon

Science 3d, bluray, sony

The UC-Berkeley lab that prototyped fast 3D city model generation using airborne lasers now brings us a cheaper and innovative method to map interiors in 3D.

Under the direction of Dr. Avideh Zakhor, lead researcher and UC Berkeley professor of electrical engineering, the scientists have been able to use this more portable method of mapping by way of sensors or lightweight (less than eight ounces) laser scanners.

“We have also developed novel sensor fusion algorithms that use cameras, lasers range finders and inertial measurement units to generate a textured, photo-realistic, 3D model that can operate without GPS input and that is a big challenge,” said Zakhor.

… Using this technology, Air Force personnel will be able to collectively view the interior of modeled buildings and interact over a network in order to achieve military goals like mission planning.

Space Mart | Portable Laser Backpack Revolutionizes Interior 3D Mapping

Hardware 3d, interior, mapping

We begin today with an interactive map from The Guardian showing which countries donates aid, and who receives it. From Meet the Boss comes the opinion consumers from different countries have about Green Brands, and our third pick goes to the Darwinian evolution of Photoshop, by Tech King. To close this up, the facts about Calories, brought by Weight Loss, and ChaCha‘s answer to how can we Levitate.

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Graphics, Science design, economy, environment, infographic, infoviz, Visual Loop, visualizations

Ever since GPU’s began to encroach on the long-held arenas of CPU’s, there has been one realm where GPU’s could not go: Databases.  Inherently complex and problematic, they simply did not lend themselves to the type of atomic massively-parallel algorithms that GPUs excel at.  Many have tried, but most have wound up with hybrid solutions that generally caused more problems that answers.

empulse GmbH, a german company working on database technology, and chosen NVidia’s GTC as the launching pad for their newest product “ParStream” that shatters that stereotype once and for all.  They have the world’s first completely-GPU driven database system, capable of petabytes of storage across massive clusters, all searchable in a fraction of a second.  In a short discussion with Managing Director Micheal Hummel, he told me of a web analytics company that was currently using a process that took approximately 3 minutes to execute a query, that ParStream was able to replicate in a mere 15ms.  Yes, that’s milliseconds.  The results were so astounding that they first thought their original system must be broken, so they compared ParStream against every publicly available columnar database, and found ParStream was still 35x faster than the 2nd-place winner.

Thanks to its use of massively-parallel GPUs, ParStream is unsurpassed in its performance abilities. “Based on the current state of technology, the technological advancement of empulse in the area of GPU-based databases and the complexity of such an endeavour, it is unlikely that competitors will be able to develop a comparable product within the next two years,”

Unlike traditional transactional database systems like Oracle, this is an analytical database.  That means that insert and update operations happen infrequently, and as such it is optimized for queries and reporting.  That makes it perfect for web analytics, stockmarkets, and genome projects which have massive input datasets that change on a regular non-realtime basis (once a minute, etc).

Read the full press release after the break, and if you’re at GTC you can hear more from empulse at their booth (#39) or Wednesday at 4:00pm via their “CEO On Stage” presentation.

Full announcement after the break.

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Science database, empulse, gpgpu, parstream