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

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]

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.

And in few years:

[Krapangor]

Sony announces Flippo the first mechanical dolphin.
Très useful.

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: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.

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? :-)

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.

Now if only....

[doogieb]

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

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

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: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.

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

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."

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. ;)

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?

[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?