Inside the Tuna Can

blackcoot writes "Now folks walking through MIT's Infinite Corridor get to play with the virtual fishies (they react based on sensor data). I don't know if this will end up looking much nicer than the fish tank that used to come with MS Plus back in the day, but anything that requires months of computation to calculate just the raw data is cool in my book."

Comments

Inside the what???

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh the jokes to go along with this are way too easy!

FP mutha-fuckas!

Bored?

[Omikr0n]

--quote--

Short, basic moves should take only a few hours to parse, said Qiang Zhu, a research engineer at the vortical flow lab, and one of the FLEX3D programmers. Long, slow turns, however, may take several days.

"But the net effect should be a more realistic movement of the fish than what you see in a screensaver, for example," he said.

But FLEX3D will yield only numerical data for the flow fields and vortices created by each move. After that, it's up to the iQuarium investigators to bring their virtual fish tank to life.

"That part actually shouldn't be too difficult," said Aaron Sokoloski, a mechanical engineering student in the School of Engineering. Sokoloski said he will be using C++ and Microsoft's Direct3D graphics software to model the fish for iQuarium

--quote--

These students are paying top tution dollars and ahve access to some of the most powerful equipment available to what? That's right. Make a giant SCREEN SAVER that "looks pretty".

Proof that students have waaaaaaaaay too much time on their hands.

Re:Bored?

[balloonhead]

I would disagree in part - it sounds from the article that this is fairly heavy-duty computational theory, with lot of real-world application in boat manufacture and design.

However, I agree with your criticism of the students themselves

"Fish create vortices, which are like teeny whirlpools," she said. "And the vortices create changes in water pressure that move the fish forward. That's what makes fish so cool."

Sounds sort of like the village idiot speaking.

That's what makes fish so cool? Uber-l33t fish. What next?

Re:Bored?

[ergonal]

Yeah, but according to the article it's a $30k grant from Microsoft Research/MIT iCampus. I wonder how much the MIT contribution is? The article also says that they're trying to get the displays (~$16k worth, according to them) donated, which does seems feasible, so it's chicken feed really.

Re:Bored?

[evilviper]

with lot of real-world application in boat manufacture and design.

No, according to the article, they already know how fish move, and this load of computing power is going to recreating that movement, NOT studying it.

Imagine recreating the movements of people in a city. Recording those movements, and analyzing them would be scientificatlly benefitical... but using a supercomputer to duplicate them would be a hi-tech parlor trick, not research.

Re:Bored?

[balloonhead]

My guess is that a grant from the US navy does not come from duplication alone. The screensaver is just eye-candy to raise awareness, do something cool, whatever - the actual aims of the entire project are more wide-ranging.

Re:Bored?

[le_jfs]

"Fish create vortices, which are like teeny whirlpools," she said. "And the vortices create changes in water pressure that move the fish forward. That's what makes fish so cool."

That's what makes fish so cool? Uber-l33t fish. What next?

I agree with you! This is what makes fishes look cool.

Re:Bored?

[thdexter]

Just because it's a technical university doesn't mean art doesn't have a place. I'd rather walk through there than I would walk through Omikr0n's Huge Grey Windowless Towers of Doom and Efficiency, myself.

Re:Bored?

[tunah]

These students are paying top tution dollars and ahve access to some of the most powerful equipment available to what? That's right. Make a giant SCREEN SAVER that "looks pretty".

(Sorry if this is offtopic, i've seen it a lot lately).

You used quote marks. Who were you quoting? Quote marks *mean* something. If you want to emphasise, use emphasis, *emphasis*, emphasis or _emphasis_. What you said made me think that the students didn't see any benefits other than the prettiness of a screensaver, when it was just you who couldn't see what they were actually doing.

Re:Bored?

[slustbader]

iCampus is an affiliation between MIT and Microsoft, but Microsoft provides the funding. Microsoft will supply up to $30,000 for each approved project. The project can still get outside funding, but most of the projects I've seen or read about haven't needed to (most don't even need the fully $30K). Check out http://www.swiss.ai.mit.edu/projects/icampus/index .html.

Re:Bored?

[aWalrus]

Exactly. And I imagine MIT gets a kick out of these things. Think about it: It's in their best interest that cool, showy, if not always useful, projects like these get made by their students. It all adds to the MIT's perceived spirit. The rest of the world sees them as the cool tech types that delve into all sorts of weird stuff, and therefore think MIT must be an incredible place (which maybe it is).

A friend of mine went to study there and worked in the Math labs. He told me most of the really useful investigation took place in the lesser known labs of the university, yet the Media Lab is exactly that, a Media darling, so they get the spotlight. This is not a bad thing. It is a neccessity, and MIT benefits from seemingly frivolous projects like this one.

Re:Bored?

[sparrow_hawk]

Umm... I don't suppose it ever occured to you that she was talking to a *reporter*??? The people who have trouble quoting politicians correctly, much less MIT graduate students who probably have genius-level IQ's?

Some people find it helpful to talk on the level of the people they're conversing with -- "y'see this cable? well, the cable's got this little pointy part that needs to go up, see, and we stick it in *here* like *this*..." instead of "so you put the IDE cable in the HDD, remembering to observe orientation..."

cool?

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't know if this will end up looking much nicer than the fish tank that used to come with MS Plus back in the day, but anything that requires months of computation to calculate just the raw data is cool in my book."

hey, were making something completly useless, but were spending lots of money and time on it. now all tell us how cool we are

Re:cool?

[Harald Paulsen]

This may look completely useless to you, but read the article and the MIT website again. This system will be a playground for research releated to propulsion in water, and the long term results could give more efficient boats and submarines, that move more like fish.

There are a lot of things in nature that looks simple, yet we still can't mimic good enough. How birds fly, fish swim and snakes crawl are some of them.

Re:cool?

[Anonymous Coward]

i was more aiming at the submiter, and his comment that its cool just because it takes a lot of resources to compute.
it might well be that this will have some usefull effect, but then that should be why its cool, and not because it "requires months of computation to calculate just the raw data"

Re:cool?

[Timesprout]

Unquestionably animal movement is more sophisticated than any currently available mechanical movement or propulsion systems. Its debatable though how useful mimicing this sort of movement is in real world vehicles would be.
Take aircraft for example. They are faster but less agile than birds. In transport terms though we really only want them to fly in straight lines from A to B so agility is not an overwhelming consideration in their construction. If we want them to be more efficient we make them lighter and more aerodynamic.
Undoubtably there are niche requirements that will benefit from this sort of research but I doubt the ability to product ships that move like fish (my god think of the sea sickness from the motion of the waves AND the ship itself) will revolutionize transport.

Re:cool?

[AnriL]

Another deceptively simple thing is just trying to keep your balance while walking on two legs. Getting a robot to do that is not as easy as it looks in cheesy SF flicks.

Re:cool?

[furrygeek]

In transport terms though we really only want them to fly in straight lines from A to B so agility is not an overwhelming consideration in their construction.

Isn't that like saying that we shouldn't spend so much money trying to figure out the age of the universe, or how dung beetles reproduce, because there are no immediate, practical applications?

Re:cool?

[addaon]

Half of all Americans have below average intelligence.

Do you have a source for this? Half are below median intelligence, I'm sure, but mean? Or is your confusion of the two just evidence of your categorization?

Re:cool?

[Anonymous Coward]

there are obvious applications of having extremely agile aircraft. think military. same goes for seagoing vehicles...

Re:cool?

[WegianWarrior]

In transport terms though we really only want them to fly in straight lines from A to B so agility is not an overwhelming consideration in their construction.
Isn't that like saying that we shouldn't spend so much money trying to figure out the age of the universe, or how dung beetles reproduce, because there are no immediate, practical applications?

No, that is like saying that you don't need to design your latest mega-jet destined to load aboard half a thousand units of self-loading cargo (aka passangers) to be as agile as a hummingbird. After all, they go up, fly more or less straight ahead for anything from an hour to half a day, then go down again.

The point, as I see it, is that big, boring Boings (or Airbuses for that matter) are designed down to a price, not up to a agilitylevel. Quite the oposite of most military aircraft, but...

Boats, ships and submarines are another matter. As they are relatively slow modes of transportation, and anything that increase speed / reduce the energy needed to keep a certain speed is probaly a good thing - at least from an economic viewpoint.

Re:cool?

[furrygeek]

You are absolutely right. I stand corrected.

another loser hanging head in shame.

I slapped on that sig at 4am without questioning the source, or duh thinking about it. In fact, as I write this, it's past 2:30am. Maybe I should set a cutoff time ;->

But if you consider the source...

Anyway, you're right - it should be median, not mean. Thanks for pointing out my blunder. Another embarrassing lesson.

Re:cool?

[Anonymous Coward]

Thanks for that, dipshit. "Average" is not necessarily a measure of mean.

Re:cool?

[jargonCCNA]

Actually, it should be mean. Using median wouldn't provide a perfect 50/50 split the way mean does.

And in few years:

[Krapangor]

Sony announces Flippo the first mechanical dolphin.
Très useful.

Re:And in few years:

[geeber]

They've already been beaten by the RoboTuna!

months of computation

[jo_ham]

It takes me months of compuutation just to work out my taxes, and there's nowt cool about that.

Re:months of computation

[Anonymous Coward]

Nazi alert!!!

why don't you put some of that computation into spelling.

Re:months of computation

[jo_ham]

why don't you put some of that computation into spelling.

You mean the word "nowt"?

It's an English word, and it means "nothing". Put some computation into your posts before firing them off without thought. You forgot to login too... ah, yeah, I see.

Re:months of computation

[jonnythan]

No, it's not an English word. At least, not according to dictionary.com or my handy desk reference.

Perhaps you wanted to say "naught"?

Re:months of computation

[jo_ham]

Nope, "nowt", used in the Yorkshire dialect, but widely adopted in the UK, at first in mocking, but over time it just grew into a somewhat universal bit of slang.

If you lot can have "yeah" and "dude" then we can how "nowt".

Re:months of computation

[jo_ham]

Or rather "have" as the correct spelling may be in that post.

Spalling is for teh week!

nice

[ergonal]

Sensors on the corridor's ceiling and walls will pick up pedestrians' movements, and the fish will respond by either approaching the "glass" of the tank or darting away.

How cool is that?!

Sharks

[Timesprout]

Unlike other simulated fish, the iQuarium's scaly denizens will be driven by the same forces that manipulate birds and fish in nature,

I reckon they should throw in a few great whites if they want people walking down the corridor to have an experience

Halloween prank

[Harald Paulsen]

I can't wait to see the possibilites for pranks with this system. For halloween there will be monsters on the other side of the wall peaking in whenever someone approaches. Or what about some max headrooms? :-)

Re:Halloween prank

[Banik]

Amen to that. This is just another canvass for even more of our hacks, bwahahahahah! Trogdor Strikes Again!!

Interesting...

[evilviper]

in MIT's famous one-sixth-mile-long Infinite Corridor.

Talk about inflation! Geez!

"Fish create vortices, which are like teeny whirlpools," she said. "And the vortices create changes in water pressure that move the fish forward. That's what makes fish so cool."

Oh really??? So *THAT* is what makes fish cool, eh? I had been going on the shiny, colorful, moving object theory up until now.

Short, basic moves should take only a few hours to parse, said Qiang Zhu, a research engineer at the vortical flow lab, and one of the FLEX3D programmers. Long, slow turns, however, may take several days.
"But the net effect should be a more realistic movement of the fish than what you see in a screensaver, for example," he said.

I see, so incredible ammounts of number-crunching power are going, not to research of anything important, but to making a large, 3D, screensaver. Well, as long as Microsoft's money is paying for it, what the heck.

Re:Interesting...

[Anonymous Coward]

.. what makes fish cool is usually cold water

Re:Interesting...

[Murphy(c)]

I see, so incredible ammounts of number-crunching power are going, not to research of anything important, but to making a large, 3D, screensaver

Hey dad, get off the internet you're getting grumpy again.

Come on, you have accidentally coined the meaning of Nerd. That's what everything most of us nerds think is cool.

And I you read a bit further down you would have read this statement too :

"A lot of people walking down that corridor already love computer engineering," she said. "We want to show them how they can apply those skills to fluid dynamics."

I mean, it's cool, it seems a blast to do, it will require some real understanding of fluid dynamics, and might even spark some interrest for other fields of use for computer science. All you have to do is to get over the fact that they are using a Microsoft grant to do it.

Murphy(c)

Re:Interesting...

[evilviper]

I mean, it's cool, it seems a blast to do [...] get over the fact that they are using a Microsoft grant to do it.

No. The problem is that "cool" has it's place. It's safe to say that MIT is not the place to waste student's time and effort, as well as tax dollars on something that is cool. If it was done completly with private funds, I wouldn't have cared at all... However, I begin to care when Microsoft and MIT are getting primo advertising at the expense of their students, and tax dollars that should be going to some sort of technological advancement... NOT making a screen saver. It's almost like having Microsoft use prisioners as underpaid employees... Microsoft is then using government money for their own gain.

Now if only....

[doogieb]

.... they could do the maths to work out how to realistically show a toaster flying... ;>

Re:Now if only....

[Anonymous Coward]

That's not redundant. I haven't even seen anybody else mention After Dark. Maybe the mod is just too young to actually remember when monitors could burn in and a screen saver could really save you. And the one with the blinking eyes was the best.

Re:Now if only....

[compwizrd]

Monitors still burn in. I have two at the office that permamently display the application they've been running for the last couple years.

Re:Now if only....

[Anonymous Coward]

you want flying toasters? you really should have been at my place last night.

hmmm, on second thoughts...

The goal is a more realistic animation

[arvindn]

I don't know if this will end up looking much nicer than the fish tank that used to come with MS Plus back in the day

The article answers your question:

"But the net effect should be a more realistic movement of the fish than what you see in a screensaver, for example"

Re:The goal is a more realistic animation

[Anonymous Coward]

So, let's hope that along with the realistic movement, that they decide to color their fish (or skin it if you will).

Hi I am webriot3@hotmail.com

[Anonymous Coward]

I saw tuna in the title and I had to comment I mean my extreme and frankly sometimes very ugly sexual practices make me a prime candidate for Tuna. I love if for breakfast, lunch, dinner or even for a snack. If yot too have sexual preferences for extreme BDSM then email me at webriot3@hotmail.com

Cleaning?

[sploxx]

Would be interesting to know what the result of cleaning using magnetic aquarium cleaners is :)

Re:Cleaning?

[greenjinjo]

Just what I was thinking. I guess the fish will soon be invisible because simulated algae and snails start clogging up the screens.

And then the students can start programming to calculate the movements of the famous "belly-up" routine of the fish...

Charlie the Tuna says "God Bless America"

[Anonymous Coward]

1. George Washington
2. Robert E. Lee
3. Charles Lindbergh
4. George W. Bush

The USA is the greatest country on God's Earth. That's a fact.

God Bless This Great Land of Liberty

Sounds like El-Fish

[SWroclawski]

This reminds me of the old DOS game El-Fish (some information on the game can be found at) http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/8350/ . In the game, you bred fish and then you had to "render" them. On my old 286, this took hours. Since this was DOS, that meant the computer had to be used for hours just to "render" the fish.

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

- Serge Wroclawski

Re:Sounds like El-Fish

[Anonymous Coward]

And it came with this cool wristwatch, daughter loved it. Too bad you can't get a replacement battery.

It'll run under Win98, but not Wine.

security

[Evil Adrian]

AFAIK, the Infinite Corridor is open 24/7... are they going to have to beef up security to ensure none of the plasma screens get damaged/stolen, or do the people up there generally behave and not destroy things for fun like at other colleges?

Re:security

[karlm]

Yup, the Infinate Corridor is open 24/7, but at least every couple of minutes you have some weary student or custodial staff member in some part of the corridor.

There's a small computer lab just of the infinate that has an electronic (not Simplex) pushbutton lock. It has a large floor-to-cieling set of windows and is affectionately called the "fishbowl" due to your abilty to observe the students in the lab from the Infinate Corridor. My guess is that they'll either make a sturdy display case or put it inside the fish bowl, facing outwards. MIT students also have better things to do that mindlessly destroy MIT property. Occasionally they accidently ruin some alarm sensor they were trying to bypass, but vandalism is pretty rare and theft is somewhat rare.

Breaking and entering with intent to create something creaive and easily removable is about the most the average MIT student is willing to risk getting kicked out of MIT for.

Re:security

[umofomia]

It has a large floor-to-cieling set of windows and is affectionately called the "fishbowl" due to your abilty to observe the students in the lab from the Infinate Corridor.

BTW, the fishbowl doesn't exist anymore. It was replaced with the new "Student Services Center" in 1997. However, they did create another fishbowl cluster down the extension of the infinite corridor in building 16.

Re:security

[Banik]

Generally we behave. Every prank I've ever seen or heard of here is.... generally non-destructive. Theft is almost non-existant. Ie. Most of our classrooms have the power point-type projectors and many have the flatscreen/touchscreen room controls. And they're left open so we can use them after hours for gaming, movie watching, etc.

moron being herdhead into small .containers

[Anonymous Coward]

assisstdead buy the ever so useless patentdead (buy va lairIE et AL) PostBlock(tm) device?

lookout bullow. run for your options, should you have any left? the phonIE billonly payper liesense stock markup badtoll is almost overt.

nothing but gnu skies, ...

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8& oe =UTF-8&q=microsoft+%22bill+weisgerber%22&btnG=Goog le+Search

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8& oe =UTF-8&q=microsoft+dirty+deals&btnG=Google+Sea rch

about all this other phonIE stock markup payper liesense BugWear(tm) crud, you need refer to trustworthycomputing.com, again, for that.

False Advertising

[spoonist]

... one-sixth-mile-long Infinite Corridor.

Geez... whatever happened to truth in advertising?

What's next? A "Mobius Corridor" that dead-ends?

I miss my Mac...

[madgeorge]

In college I was known as a fish killer. (I couldn't keep the "ultimate in disposable pet technology" living for more than a week or so.) But I fixed that at the end of my freshman year by buying a shiny new Mac LCII and El-Fish, a collaboration between makers of all things Sims, Maxis Software, and Russian research group AnimaTek. It was an absolutely beautiful product, producing not that spectacular graphics, but absolutely astounding motion for a decade ago. 1 million times cooler than Microsoft's scrensaver, and loads more fun since you could catch and breed your own fish.

Watching real fish move gracefully through a tank is one of the greatest pleasures in life. You can easily zone out for an hour or so just staring at the tank. El-Fish was almost as captivating. Cheers to anyone who tries to improve on that early effort.

--madgeorge

Re:I miss my Mac...

[br0ck]

Things have improved since those days. Check out some screenshots of Matrox's reef demo by scrolling to the bottom of this page. There's instructions there to get it working with other video cards.

Oohhh, look at all the pretty colors

[lateralus]

From MIT's IQuarium FAQ: "...Having a combined virtual lab on the Infinite Corridor has these advantages: - Because it is large, colorful, inviting, and fun, it will excite people and attract attention..."

I can see it now; A professor stands in front of the class and begins his lecture:

"Modern science doesn't have to be all boring numbers, bridges and wires. Today we will learn how to make FUN and EXCITING stuff. Be sure to make it COLORFUL and LARGE otherwise investors will take their money else ware!"

What's next, rides? "I'm sorry Timmy, you have to be This High to ride the particle accelerator."

Re:Oohhh, look at all the pretty colors

[maximilln]

I want to ride the particle accelerator first. I'm the best candidate to notice any flaws in the mechanism and ensure its safe use for upcoming riders.

months of computation ?

[Anonymous Coward]

... but anything that requires months of computation to calculate just the raw data is cool in my book.

You must be an EMACS user.

This prooves once and for all..

[Anonymous Coward]

....that programmers are not web designers :-)

-$|{

Police, coming through!

[Anonymous Coward]

Visitors can also use a wall-mounted control panel to manipulate the fish..
And then the fish (intelligent as they are) calls 911 and gets the visitors charged for rape.

Am I suppose to be funny?

heh

[odyrithm]

but anything that requires months of computation to calculate just the raw data is cool in my book

your like my girlfriend then.. I still aint figured her out. ;)

ESR

[Anonymous Coward]

Anyone notice how now that ESR has been fired from VA Software Corporation they don't post his essays anywhere?

Slashdot completely snubbed his new article on the SCO v. IBM lawsuit.

Is it self imposed censoship?

Now that ESR is no longer need by VA to give it open source "street cred" have they decided to pull the plug on the "open source spokesman"?

I won't miss ESR, i just think it's funny how fast VA Corporation will let ESR drop back into usenet kook obscurity now that their use for him has ended.

Oh well that's what happens to sellouts i guess...

Sharks...

[Anonymous Coward]

Don't think I'd want to experience being in a burning rock club.

Am I an insensitive clod? Is it too soon for this?

you just stumbled onto Media Rule #1

[Anonymous Coward]

Everything is paid for. Songs on the radio are paid for, newspaper articles are paid for, nothing gets on /. unless it's paid for.

In a grocery store they're called slotting fees. FritoLay rents the shelf space that displays the Fritos. Every spot in the freezer case is rented space.

Do radio stations play commercial ads for free? Do newspapers print features without being paid for that space?

Nobody is paying for the space that ESR's articles take up, so they don't appear, and he isn't going to fork over the cash himself, he's not as rich as Esther Dyson.

And you thought reporters got space because they're articles were worth reading. You silly boy.

Virtual Fish

[FrostedWheat]

Imagine a Beowulf school of these!

*ducks*

iQuarium?

[Anonymous Coward]

Why does everyone under the sun rip off Apple's scheme of naming stuff iX? I don't like needless litigation but, then again, I think people should show a little creativity and quit being so *blatent* about taking someone else's idea.

PARENT = GAYEST POST SO FAR TODAY

[Anonymous Coward]

parent post = gay. Super gay, in fact.

Re:PARENT = GAYEST POST SO FAR TODAY

[odyrithm]

Anonymous, Homophobic.. look whos talking "in fact".

Won't look real

[jasonrocks]

the truth is that this display won't look real. It will look like a computer. Watching real fish you can perceive the depth and you can move and see another side of the fish. I admit this will look pretty cool, but it will be obvious that it's not real.

On tuna.

[Anonymous Coward]

It just hasn't tasted the same since they made it dolphin safe. :(

Microsoft's Most Generous Contribution.

[titaniam]

I know no facts, this is conjecture: They say the project is funded by Microsoft, which is only a fraction of the story. I'd guess there are a couple of people working on this project, and a hell of a lot of computer time. Figure $100-200k per person (includes pay, tuition, university claimed overhead, etc). Figure $50-100k for the computers or computer time (including costs for administrator?). Microsoft's contribution is nothing, and in reality is probably "market value of zero cost donated software", with a possible condition or expectation that the pretty fish tanks have prettier butterflies pasted onto the corners. That said, the project is real cool, and does have scientific merit in my opinion, as the goal is modeling the actual movement mechanism of fish in a virtual 3-D tank. The added benefit is the projection to 2-D on the corridor walls. And by the way, we're talking a very small section of the corridor, right?

Re:Microsoft's Most Generous Contribution.

[Anonymous Coward]

Okay, some facts: Microsoft's contribution to the icampus alliance is $25 million dollars cash, in addition to staff and software. For each of the past 4 years icampus has funded 4-7 student projects @ ~$50k each ($30k for students to spend, plus university overhead charges). Facutly advisors volunteer their time and students participate for fun, sometimes credit, and sometimes summer wages (each group chooses how to spend it's $30k).

Any Challenger astronauts in there?

[Anonymous Coward]

More old, bad jokes:

Q: Why are the dolphins off Florida so smart?
A: They got a new teacher

Q: What does NASA stand for?
A: Need Another Seven Astronauts.
This one's recycleable, though.

Yes, I know it's cruel, but what the fuck is up with NASA anyway? A big chunk of something hits Columbia's wing on launch and they don't even bother to look at where it hit and even go so far as to cancel a request to the DOD to have some cameras take some pics!?!? Remember the pics they took of Columbia on it very first mission with a ground-based camera that counted the missing tiles that fell off on that launch?

NASA wouldn't do that when it was actually hit by something big? What the fuck is that?

Math is good but Nature is better

[w3weasel]

The need for all those massive calculations has been under debate within the robot builders community for some time.

By using simple analog components from transistor radios and similar hardware, some robotic engineers have built robots that learn on their own 'how' to walk. The movements are never pre-programmed, the robot is just given a simple goal like 'move foreward'. It is then up to the robot to 'learn' what actions best meet that goal.

Seems like this technology applied to Robotuna would be a no-brainer. I wonder if they have considered this approach.

More Fishies!

[gabe]

Yeah, and just across the Charles at the Museum of Science they've had the same sort of system setup as an exhibit for some time now. There are even some fish that you can turn into killer fish .. they wander around the "tank" and eat the other fishies.

A much superior fish tank site...

[nickovs]

I still think that Alien Fish Exchange represents a much superior virtual space for playing with fish than the MIT one! The graphics are much cuter too!

Oh the horror!

[snStarter]

Yet another addition to "The Lurking Horror."

Similar project: view from a fish's perspective

[My Third Account]

An engineering professor at UC Berkeley created a project that uses video cameras to track the position of fish in a tank, then a projector projects onto a nearby wall what the view looks like from one of the fish.

Pretty slick combination of engineering and art.

My Favorite Fishies

[ackthpt]

See my favorite fishies here. Thanks to evil landlord who won't let me have any pet larget than a dust mite, this is pretty much as good as it gets.

Contradiction?

[Anonymous Coward]

You say, "MIT students also have better things to do that mindlessly destroy MIT property." Then, you say they are not likely to do harm. I prefer to believe the latter...
I would think that destroying property at MIT would not be mindless, though.

I loved that phrase, "just of the infinate"...belonging only to the infinite...
Btw, do you spell it "infanity?" I'm curious.

The article glossed over some of the details

[Anonymous Coward]

Anything that propels itself through water creates vortices - it's unavoidable. With propellers, the vortices create drag. With fish, the vorticies create thrust. So fish are more efficient swimmers than propellers. That's what makes them cool.

$16000

[Anonymous Coward]

Did anyone else notice the bit that states that it will cost 'em $16,000 for enough 5ft X 2.5ft flat panels to cover all of the surfaces in a 1/6 mile corridor? That sounds absurdly cheap for flat panels of that size.

Seaman

[Alan Holman]

Sega Dreamcast's wonderful canon of amazing products contains a virtual fish-tank called Seaman. Seaman is FAR SUPERIOR to this fish tank of which you speak...or so I assume. To digress, I can't wait for DCX which is SEGA's re-release of the dreamcast...then I'll be able to play all my discs again.

Re:Seaman

[Anonymous Coward]

umm be able to play them again? whats wrong with your current DC? cant afford to buy one? they can be had for like 20$ on ebay. do you just need a shiney new toy other wise its just not as cool to play?

Wow!

[antdude]

Wow, it looks better than SereneScreen.com's aquarium screen saver. :)

Nowt

[whig]

From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]:

Nowt \Nowt\, n. pl. (Zo["o]l.)
Neat cattle.

Re:You Have No Idea How "Bored" MIT Students Are..

[Banik]

If you can't see the diference between a commercial application of a technology and a scheme (yum, lambdas) to improve the atmosphere, demonstrate a colorful application of this research, and to attract attention so that the research is moved on to your definition of real applications, then perhaps the person who's using the computer for you should commit you? And on to the real reason for the reply- no, we do not have too much time on our hands. no we are not "bored," we just like to have cool applications of our work to distract us from that education we came here to get. You know, kind of like our suicide holidays? We do need an outlet for all that stress that we build up with those endless psets, break-neck lecture paces, and the experience of failing (at anything) for the first time in our life (ever). Don't try and trash things you don't understand.

Just to clear this up

[asoko]

Hey, everyone, This is Aaron from the iQuarium project. After reading the Wired article, I'd like to clear something up. The above poster is right, but there's more. The article didn't explicitly mention the most important aspect of the project, which is that our tank will actually display the fluid flow around the swimming fish as they swim. We'll use tiny particles that act like they're suspended in the water, and they will swirl into vortices behind the fish, so you can see how they are more efficient. The vortices a fish uses to swim are not created by its tailfin, they're caused by the sinusoidal motion of its body. Computing the fluid flow requires solving the Navier-Stokes equations, and THAT's what takes so much computation time. (We're getting help on that part from Qiang Zhu and Yuming Liu, two post-doctoral research engineers)

Anyway, I've never seen a fish screensaver that displays the dynamic fluid velocity around the fish. Also, the fish will be able to react to the movement of people (or anything) in the hall, thanks to a ceiling mounted webcam and some simple computer vision. Finally, we're not planning on spending quite that much on a display if at all possible. We'd like to get a company to donate one in exchange for publicity. I guess that's all. If you've got any questions, post here and Katie, Audrey, or I will try to answer.

Let's run Xscreensaver

[JThundley]

hell yeah, give the illusion of burnination. ;)

Last Post!

[alpg]

Dear Emily:
I collected replies to an article I wrote, and now it's time to
summarize. What should I do?
-- Editor

Dear Editor:
Simply concatenate all the articles together into a big file and post
that. On USENET, this is known as a summary. It lets people read all the
replies without annoying newsreaders getting in the way. Do the same when
summarizing a vote.
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