Tag Archive for '3-D'

First 3-D Fly-Through of a Supernova Remnant

Ever wanted to see what a 3-D flight through a star that exploded around 330 years ago looks like? Well now you can.

The combined technologies of three of NASA’s observatories have provided us with this little beauty.

Her name is Cassiopeia A, and a turquoise dot in the middle of the orb is the only remnant of this now dead star. The outer shell represents the rest of the scattered remains. 3-D imaging technology has now provided astronomers and dreamers a fantastic trip through the supernova remnant. Take a look!

The universe is awesome…awe some!

(Read about it on National Geographic. Image found here.)

D.I.Y. Paper Wind Turbine

Marble Mad over at youtube has posted a film of a paper wind turbine. (in 3-D no less!)

The best part is that he also provided a free download so you can make your own!

Free Paper Wind Turbine Kit

Minty.

We were just on the Clockwork Robot website and ordered a very cool walking paper horse kit.

Check it out:

Only twenty smackers.

It feels good to support artist worldwide by buying their wares.

2-D to 3-D

Good Morning All!

We were thinking yesterday about a very interesting development for humankind.
Namely, for the entirety of human history ideas have been communicated in 2-D.

With the exception of human to human teaching, (i.e. “Bend over like this, put this seed in the ground like so, cover and water, and now we’re farming…”) all knowledge, from the Lascaux cave paintings, to the Gutenberg Bible, to Junkyard Wars on our TV’s, ideas have all been as flat as pancakes.*


Flat.

Flat.

Flat.

Until now.

Now, with the advent of the computer, virtual reality, and the refinement of 3-D technology, ideas are beginning to be transmitted in their entirety, in real space, completely unflattened. Super-round, even.

It’s like the difference between looking at a picture of an origami crane and holding one in your hand, able to examine it from any angle, unfold it, play with it.

An enormous paradigm shift in human comprehension is upon us, and it will only get shiftier as more information is added to the web, and the technology for representing it in real space gets cheaper and more accessible.

Here’s the old way:

“Urrmmm, compressed animal skeletons on a flat chunk of rock.”

And, here’s the new way:

“Wheee! I’m flying through ideas!”

Now, that helmet is bulky and ridiculous. But that’s just Version 1.
Version 10 will be either a laser spraying images directly onto the surface of your eye, or a little wire in your brain. Either way, the idea is seamless and elegant transmission of intelligence from one human to the next.

The children being born now will have access to an mountain of information so high and wide, it makes us seems like 13th Century peasants.

Very exciting times.

We are at the very beginning.

Love to all,

Team SF

*(With the exception of sculpture, but sculptures are singular things, unsuited for mass distribution,1 so sculpture don’t really count.)

(chalkboard image via aspirecommunity.co.uk)
(VR helmet image via techliberation.com)

  1. there’s only one Venus De Milo, []

3-D Camera Has 12,616 Lenses!



(image via Stanford News Service)

The Stanford News Service has a great article up this morning about their incredible new 3-D camera.

Dan Stober has this to say:
“The camera you own has one main lens and produces a flat, two-dimensional photograph, whether you hold it in your hand or view it on your computer screen. On the other hand, a camera with two lenses (or two cameras placed apart from each other) can take more interesting 3-D photos.

But what if your digital camera saw the world through thousands of tiny lenses, each a miniature camera unto itself? You’d get a 2-D photo, but you’d also get something potentially more valuable: an electronic “depth map” containing the distance from the camera to every object in the picture, a kind of super 3-D.”

Cool! One step closer to the Holodeck.