Postcards From Google Earth:
"I collect Google Earth images. I discovered them by accident, these particularly strange snapshots, where the illusion of a seamless and accurate representation of the Earth’s surface seems to break down. I was Google Earth-ing, when I noticed that a striking number of buildings looked like they were upside down." [more inside]
posted by Room 641-A
on Apr 6, 2013 -
37 comments
We've all seen it. The off-white UAV is seen side on, nose tilted slightly down, a stubby missile caught at the moment of launch beneath it, a blue and grey landscape of treeless mountains behind it. There's no motion blur and none of the markings on the aircraft have been obfuscated. It's a perfect shot. Except for one or two details.
[more inside]
posted by mwhybark
on Mar 19, 2013 -
56 comments
This is the story of an artist who was able to take numerous photos of a sculpture of a horse's head, "Head of a horse of Selene" now found in the British Museum - but originally from near the Acropolis in ancient Greece (circa 438-432 BC) - and who then fed the said photographs (taken from many different perspectives) to a revolutionary (free) software/app called
123D Catch (by AutoDesk, makers of AutoCAD),
which then created the wireframes needed to print out exact replicas (in pieces that must then be assembled) on a 3D printer. The artist makes it
available on Thingiverse, if you'd like to make one on your own on
your 3D printer. If
the demo video for 123D Catch doesn't blow your mind, your mind has probably already been blown.
With apologies to Dr. Hook
posted by spock
on Mar 7, 2013 -
38 comments
100,000 Stars [SLInteractive3DVisualization] (
Seems to run best on Chrome or Safari and a decent graphics card)
posted by gwint
on Nov 14, 2012 -
18 comments
These days, it's easy to take visualizations of biological molecules for granted, what with the
easy availability of an ever-increasing supply of high-resolution
X-ray and neutron crystallography data, as well as
freely available software that render them into beautiful and useful images that help us understand how life works. The lack of computers and computer networks in the mid-1950s made creating these illustrations a painstaking collaboration, requiring an artist's craftsmanship and aesthetic sense, as well as, most importantly, the critical ability to visualize the concepts that scientists wish to communicate. One such scientific artist was
Irving Geis, who painted the first biological macromolecule obtained through X-ray data: an iconic watercolor representation of the structure of sperm whale myoglobin, as seen in the third slide of this
slideshow of selected pieces. His first effort was a
revolutionary work of informatics, including coloring and shading effects that emphasized important structural and functional features of the myoglobin protein, simultaneously moving the less-important aspects into the background, all while stressing simplicity and beauty throughout. The techniques that Geis developed in this and
subsequent works influenced the standards for basic 2D protein visualization that are used today.
posted by Blazecock Pileon
on Aug 8, 2012 -
6 comments
Cube: navigate a rolling ball down streets towards a goal by tilting the entire world, like a cross between a balance-ball game and
Katamari Damacy.
(Browser with WebGL support required, Chrome recommended at this time). Part of the new
Start Here guide to Google Maps.
posted by Bora Horza Gobuchul
on Apr 30, 2012 -
25 comments
The Previous And Current Lives Of A World-Class Joke "At first, it was limited only to the Chinese-language Internet. More recently, it has appeared among foreign media. I just watched a clip of director James Cameron being interviewed on a talk show during which he said: "They were afraid that the Chinese men will reach out to touch the screen." When Cameron emphasized that "This is true," I knew that this is one of the most successful fake stories in recent years."
[more inside]
posted by Kirth Gerson
on Apr 21, 2012 -
19 comments
WebGL, the 3D technology that's associated with HTML5, continues to make giant strides in diverse areas:
Exploration of human anatomy: Zygote Body, released yesterday, and BioDigital Human, the successors to Google Body (previously)
World Visualisation: WebGL Earth, Nokia's 3D Map of the entire earth (previously). WorldWeather and The WebGL Globe, a Google project that displays all kinds of data. Also: Where Does My Tweet Go?
Games: browser ports of Team Fortess 2, Quake 3 and Rage (a developer’s diary). SkidRacer, an entire game in WebGL. Mini Mass Effect (not yet playable, sadly).
Musicals: Lights.
Tools: 3Notes.js, a visual scene editor. Developer documentation. More resources. [more inside]
posted by Bora Horza Gobuchul
on Mar 28, 2012 -
27 comments
Arkitypo — Using the 26 letters of the alphabet as the starting point, the curators selected a specific typeface that began with each respective letter to develop a 3d alphabet of alphabets. After thoroughly researching the history of each letter, they set out to represent each individual character graphically with elements of its history serving as the foundation.
Arkitypo: letter rotations on Vimeo.
posted by netbros
on Feb 11, 2012 -
3 comments
Woman, 83, Has World’s First Lower Jaw Replacement – In 3D [abc.com] In what has been called the first operation of its kind, an 83-year-old woman in the Netherlands has been fitted with a custom-made artificial jaw that was created by a 3D printer.
The titanium implant, which weighs less than 4 ounces, was created by taking a CT scan of the woman’s lower jaw and duplicating it with a 3D printer that lays down titanium powder instead of ink. The printer followed the pattern of the woman’s jaw bone layer by layer, fusing the titanium powder in place with heat. In just a couple hours, the 3D replica was ready.
posted by Fizz
on Feb 7, 2012 -
43 comments
ROSA (vimeo) A sci-fi short animated film created by a new Spanish artist, Jesús Orellana. This was a year-long, solo project created without a budget.
[more inside]
posted by zarq
on Nov 11, 2011 -
8 comments
Photofly is a cloud based service that will construct 3D models of objects based off of a handful of digital photographs.
The NYT ran this story in June providing a bit more detail. Photofly can be used to capture
People (
more,
more, and
more),
Places (
so on, and
so forth), and
Things (
etc.,
etc.,
etc). It's also been used to create unreal effects in
this music video. Shaan Hurley, of autodesk,
explains the technology in this video.
posted by codacorolla
on Sep 21, 2011 -
15 comments
Artist
François Abelanet has transformed the courtyard in front of Paris' City Hall into "a new masterpiece of Land Art," on display until July 15.
Who To Believe? is a giant, living
anamorphosis -- a three-dimensional optical illusion that requires the viewer to stand at a specific vantage point to truly appreciate the work.
[more inside]
posted by bayani
on Jul 8, 2011 -
7 comments
Lightfield cameras capture the
entire photonic information of a scene with essentially infinite depth of field, meaning that pictures can be focused
after the photo is taken, and low-light conditions do not require a flash. Lightfield images are also “3D” without the need for stereo lenses.
Lightfield (aka “plenoptic”) technology was developed in the 90's: the first working prototype required dozens of separate cameras and a supercomputer.
Professional plenoptic cameras have been available for the past year; the
Lytro startup intends to release a consumer-ready shirt-pocket lightfield camera later this year.
[more inside]
posted by Bora Horza Gobuchul
on Jun 22, 2011 -
54 comments
The official Google Earth plugin is one free download that makes all sorts of cool stuff possible in your browser. There's
a full screen version of the program (complete with underwater views and 3D buildings) which can be searched by entering queries at the end of the URL. There's
a framed version with support for layers, historical imagery, day/night cycles, and the Google Sky starmap.
Less useful but more fun are Google's collection of "experiments" demonstrating the possibilities of the Earth API, including
a "Geo Whiz" geography quiz,
an antipode locater,
a 3D first-person view of San Francisco,
a virtual route-follower, and
MONSTER MILKTRUCK!, a crazy fun driving simulator that lets you careen a virtual milk truck through the Googleplex campus, ricochet off the Himalayas, or explore any other place you care to name.
Lots more can be found in the
Google Earth Gallery -- highlights include
a look at mountaintop removal mining,
a real-time flight tracker,
a guide to trails and outdoor recreation,
a 360 panorama catalog,
geotagged Panoramio photos,
and the comprehensive crowdsourced
Google Earth Community Layer.
And while it's too large to view online, don't miss loading
the Metafilter user location map into a desktop version of Google Earth!
[more inside]
posted by Rhaomi
on Jun 9, 2011 -
15 comments
Hambuster: when your lunch goes berserk. Vimeo; Warning, funny, violent, and gory as Hell, so maybe NSFW. Also available in 3D.
[more inside]
posted by bwg
on May 21, 2011 -
18 comments
