VizWorld.com

The New York Times has a nice writeup on the visualization of slave populations that resulted from the 1860 Census, which is believed to be the first time shading was used to indicate the concentration of slavery.  Regions like the Mississippi River are almost entirely black, while states like Missouri and Tennessee are almost entirely white.

The map reaffirmed the belief of many in the Union that secession was driven not by a notion of “state rights,” but by the defense of a labor system. A table at the lower edge of the map measured each state’s slave population, and contemporaries would have immediately noticed that this corresponded closely to the order of secession. South Carolina, which led the rebellion, was one of two states which enslaved a majority of its population, a fact starkly represented on the map.

Unfortunately, the NYTimes “blowup” of the map obscures it’s natural beauty with some interactive icons and features.  I managed to find a slightly higher-resolution version at JimZellArt.com , shown below.

Click for Larger Size

via Visualizing Slavery – NYTimes.com.

Graphics historic, map, nytimes, slavery

Porsche, makers of high-end sports cars famous around the world, has teamed up with Designboom and the Scuolo Politecnica di Design in Milan, Italy to offer a full scholarship to one lucky designer in the ‘Radically Porsche’ contest.

PORSCHE S.P.A. Italy (the Italian subsidiary of the Stuttgart sports car manufacturer), invites you to submit your innovative and original pattern designs for the PORSCHE CAYMAN model range that enhance the visual appeal of the sports vehicle.

We want to be surprised by your refined ‘all-over’ designs, repeating or non repeating patterns, whose motifs will translate well into a design covering the entirety of a PORSCHE CAYMAN car.

From January 10th – 31st, 2011, designboom.com readers will select the top four designs from the shortlisted entries. Winners from this first selection will have their designs translated onto the PORSCHE CAYMAN model range sports cars.

Then from February 20th to march 30th, 2011, designboom.com readers will vote to determine the overall winner among the four patterned PORSCHE CAYMAN cars. The designer of the highest ranking submission, who fulfills the guidelines of applying for a masters degree at the Scuola Politecnica di Design, Milan, Italy, will be offered a full paid scholarship for a masters degree in visual design in collaboration with the Scuola Politecnica di Design. the program will start on October 11th, 2011

Even if you’re not interested in the scholarship, you get the chance to see your design translated into a real car if you are one of the top 4 ranking designs.  Get the full details at the contest website linked below.

RADICALLY PORSCHE scholarship contest.

Graphics automotive, contest, porsche

Here’s a great idea from the mind of xkcd, a hierarchical map of Tic-Tac-Toe moves.  With differing maps for X and O, simply pick the map that corresponds to your side and follow the directions.  It takes a minute to get the hang of it, but it’s a great layout for a timeless classic.  The maps are made assuming X goes first.  Simply put your symbol in the largest red position of the position corresponding to where your opponent put their mark.  For example, X starts with the upper left, while O needs to first find the section of the board where X put their mark and follow the map correspondingly.

It’s Friday, and we selected some entertaining – and revealing – infographics today. First, a look at the Mixed Martial Arts world, made by Total Sports. Then, the amazing numbers behind the Halo video game franchise, from Visual Economics, followed by the flow of money through the film industry, brought by My Space. And because Christmas is almost here, we finish this week with Milo‘s subjective timeline of the best gifts ever, and the iPhone’s role in Holiday shopping, by Mobclix.

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

The OptiTrack Insight VCS Motion Captures System, demonstrated at SIGGRAPH, is now shipping to customers. For a price as low as $199, their hardware and software solution introduces inexpensive high-quality motion tracking with plugins for Maya, MotionBuilder, and other popular packages.

“Not only does the Insight VCS allow us to service the needs of VFX supervisors and directors, but also the art department,” continues Hameed. “Production designers are finding it a useful tool to help design film sets and demonstrate ideas on the fly. It’s like virtual set building in real-time!”

Get all the details after the break.

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Hardware "motion capture", optitrack

It is always difficult for Hollywood to adopt a book into a movie. If you make too many changes to the story line, then fans of the book will howl in protest. On the other hand, it is difficult to take 500 page novels and adapt them to run within a 2 hour, self imposed time limit. Fortunately, C. S. Lewis’s The Voyage of the Dawn Treader is a short 215 pages. It shouldn’t be too hard to make into a movie without too many changes, right? Apparently not. James Sanford reviews the movie Dawn Treader and says that the movie is enjoyable. However, he also cautions that it is better to see the movie in 2-D as the 3-D effects are poorly done.

And now a quick word of warning: If you have an opportunity to see “Dawn Treader” in old-fashioned 2D, do so. The 3D effects are erratic at best, and the occasional impressive moments are far outweighed by shots that are disorienting (at one point, the crew is shown sleeping on a beach and their bodies seem to be hovering above the sand) or downright sloppy. While “Dawn Treader” looks somewhat better than “Clash of the Titans” and “The Last Airbender,” like those films it gets murky in its darker scenes and distracting double-imagery sometimes pops up to disrupt action sequences. Aslan would surely advise saving a couple of dollars and saving yourself a potential eye ache.

via Sailing seas of ‘Narnia’ is enjoyable enough, but watching ‘Dawn Treader’ in 3D is not @ MLive.com

Graphics 3d

Mark Changizi has put up a blog post talking about what 3-D movies are missing today. My take on what many are missing is a good story. I do not care how good the special effects are, or how good the 3-D effects are. If the movie cannot tell a good story, then I do not care to watch it. Mark takes a different point of view, literally.

And that’s the point that 3D movies are currently missing. What everyone appreciates about 3D movies is the more realistic view of the world it provides. What is not appreciated is that 3D movies are capable of simulating for viewers what it really looks like to view out of the eyes of the story’s hero.

The greatest experiential advance 3D movies might provide may not be the 3D depth at all, but, I submit, the body-transport powers that bring us to stories of all kind in the first place.

In other words, he wants the movie to be shot in first-person mode, where the camera is the hero, and we see the world through their eyes. I am not so certain that this would be a good move. It could be achieved with a a well written script, I will concede that point. However, many movies have action that spans across time and space involving different characters. Personally, I do not think that it would work except in rare cases where the script was written with this effect in mind.
via 3D Movies Are Missing the Point…Of View | Psychology Today.

Graphics 3d

The Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) was launched February 11, 2010 which produced a spectacular Sonic Boom Meets Sun Dog. One of the instruments on the SDO is the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA). The AIA is a collection of four telescopes which will photograph the Sun’s surface and atmosphere. The AIA uses a 4096×4096 CCD to capture the images of the Sun. The AIA will take these images across 8 different wavelengths (out of the 10 available wavelengths) every 10 seconds. In other words, that is eight 16.78 million pixels images every 10 seconds. On December 8, 2010, SDO captured some images of the Sun and its solar flares that give the Sun the appearance of a smiley face.

NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory has captured what appears to be a giant smiley face looking back at Earth.
Credit: NASA/GSFC/SDO

Did you ever feel like you were being watched….by the Sun?! @ Flickr

Science astronomy, nasa, SDO

On January 5th at the Consumer Electronics Show, Intel will announce Sandy Bridge. Sandy Bridge is a 32 nm CPU which is combined with an on-die GPU. This on-die GPU shares the L3 cache of the CPU, and doubles the performance of Intel’s HD Graphics today. CNET News is reporting that future MacBooks will be using Intel’s Sandy Bridge for at least some of the models. They are also reporting that AMD might be used in the higher-end models of the future MacBooks.

MacBook models with screen sizes of 13 inches and below are expected to switch to Sandy Bridge-only graphics, while higher-end MacBook Pros are expected to use graphics from Advanced Micro Devices, according to sources. Whether Nvidia will still be present in higher-end models is unclear.

via Apple to tap Intel’s graphics for future MacBooks @ CNET News

Hardware amd, apple, intel, nvidia

Moving to a new house can be a great thrill – but also a painful task. eBay‘s infographic analyzes if it’s worth to move your stuff when going to the new home. Our second pick of the day goes to Wilson Electronics’ breakdown on how the World is using cellphones, and we move on to three food related data-visualizations: GOOD brings eight food recalls that spurred the latest food Safety Bill, eLearners alerts for the consequences of feeding students on the cheap, and Registered Nurse looks at the caloric intake of America.

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