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Sneak Peek at Microsoft's WorldWide Telescope
Ted.com has a great sneak peek at Microsoft's new WorldWide Telescope project. In this video, presented by Roy Gould and Curtis Wong, you are able to see a combined view of satellites and telescopes from all over the planet and nearby space. The compiled image is rendered using Microsoft's new high-performance "Visual Experience Engine" that allows users to pan and zoom across the night sky seamlessly.
why don't they just combine it with DRM and get the full packages - watching us, watching them, watching us...
How is this different from Google Sky?
where?
So it's kind of like Google Earth, but not as useful. Seems these days, Microsoft is trying real hard to be altruistic.
Thanks Microsoft for *inventing* this!
Linux is only free if your time has no value. Windows is only free if you threaten to use Linux.
This article has got to be a hose. I mean, Microsoft doing something both useful and cool?
Well, as they say: even a blind squirrel finds an acorn now and then...
"Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket." -- Eric Hoffer
D00d, I luv the way you say "Linuzz" instead on "Linux", and "Abble" instead of "Apple" (even if I don't really get "Abble") but you missed the obvious and oh-so-original "Open Sores" line that cracks me up everytime.
Back on topic, Google have already done this, Celestia have already done this (and Celestia is free software - sorry, "open sores"), so what's *not* to bash about Microsoft (damn, that should be M$) arriving late to the party? What does Microsoft bring to the party that we don't already have - in spades - already? Fanbois?
I know, I shouldn't feed the troll, but it was so cute, sitting there under the bridge...
This is where the serious fun begins.
How is this different from Google Sky?
Google sky is from Google and the worldwide telescope is from Microsoft.
hth
A. The WorldWide Telescope (WWT) is a rich visualization environment that functions as a virtual telescope, bringing together imagery from the best ground- and space telescopes to enable seamless, guided explorations of the universe. WorldWide Telescope, created with Microsoft®'s high-performance Visual Experience Engine(TM), enables seamless panning and zooming across the night sky blending terabytes of images, data, and stories from multiple sources over the Internet into a media-rich, immersive experience. Couldn't find the same about Google Earth (Sky): Explore the sky with Google Earth
Whether you're an astronomer or stargazer, Sky in Google Earth brings millions of stars and galaxies to your fingertips.
Curtis Wong explains what you can do, 5.15 into the video. Before that it is a load of boring talk about how it will allow us all to explore the universe and increase our understanding, etc but with some cool pictures of what you can expect to see from the world wide telescope. It will be a free download this spring from http://worldwidetelescope.org/
I for one, am looking forward to this. I'm sure someone will ask if it can run on Linux. I've no idea, but I can't see it being that hard for Wine to get it working.
In related news Microsoft has issued a press release indicating that users looking up are taking revenue from Microsoft, who now owns the copyright to 100% of the sky. "As we all know DRM is a critical issue today. If people could just look up any time they pleased there would be no need for our new software. Innovation would be stiffled and we have scientists who say the sky might fall." said Microsoft product manager I M ATwat. "For many years we at Microsoft have endured casual astronomers looking up at the sky, and focused our efforts at prosecuting only professionals. However, today we will be launching an education campaign aimed at educating the public about the legal dangers of looking up. We are launching a new tool SGA - 'Sky Genuine Advantage' which will inform the user that piracy is illegal and won't be tolerated. Delivery will be via Microsoft Blimp. We at Microsoft look forward to providing our users with legal computerized views of the sky for a very reasonable price."
These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
Looks a lot like the also free Celestia:
http://www.shatters.net/celestia/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celestia
Firstly they act like a Vogon Constructor Fleet http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vogon_Constructor_Fleet and destroy all competition to their plans...
Second they try to take over the internet like Infinidim Enterprises http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mostly_Harmless#Infinidim_Enterprises took over the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Worse, Steve Ballmer starts performinghttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vogon_poetry as can be seen here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMU0tzLwhbE
Now they come up with this... Their very own version of the Total Perspective Vortex http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Total_Perspective_Vortex
Rumour has it that after the Vista debacle, MS is going to rename itself to MyCrowSoft and their next OS will be far more powerful than any other ever released. Fully optimised for mobile applications, it will ship in an innovative new format with a shock proof coating of black feathers...
Apologies for the urls, formatting etc. but I'm not used to this yet.
Jesus was an invention of the Romans - watch "The Pharmacractic Inquisition" for something more credible...
Microsoft searching for heavenly inspiration on what to do with Vista?
Take Nobody's Word For It.
Well, it seems they can't beat Google on Earth, so they gotta think big...
A. For 16 years, Microsoft has invested, and will continue to invest, in long-term, broad-based research through Microsoft Research. WorldWide Telescope is built on work that started with Jim Gray's SkyServer and his contributions to Sloan Digital Sky Survey. Sky Server (a portal to the Sloan Digital Sky Survey) was first released in 2001. Aside from the poor grammar in the question, reading that answer just made my skin crawl...
I've been very lucky to see this project from alpha to present because one of friends interned with the group and introduced me to them - its gone through some amazing development - I remember seeing this I think early 2007 - it looked more like Stellarium than anything else but just plane black with solid circles for stars and galaxies. It took forever to load images when you zoomed in. Must have crashed about 30 times in a five minute demo.
Jonathan Fay (of MaximDL fame) showed it off at Table Mountain Star Party last year and they'd moved from that sky to a synthetic pre-rendered sky that would transition to real images from Hubble or other sources as you zoomed in.
Saw it again at the American Astronomical Society Meeting this January in Austin and really got to play with it since they were right alongside the Harvard IIC booth. It was the first time they were using real imagery for the entire sky and it looked amazing and Jonathan was touting the tour facility.
Its biggest trick in my mind though you didn't see in the video - one little slider that takes you from the Optical to the Infrared and Microwave and X-Ray sky. Simply blew me away.
It already supports VOTable and FITS images and dozens of other formats that astronomers use and are becoming standards for enthusiastic hobbyists. You can take your own images and put them up on the same sky as data from Chandra or Swift or the best ground based data from MMT or Magellan or Keck. Now it starts to get really useful. The CfA at Harvard has been digitizing its old plates of sky images, Pan-STARRS will start operating sooner rather than later, SDSS has a ton of data already and LSST will be up in a few years imaging the entire sky every few nights. This is a monstrous amount of data and the system really gives you a way to search through it all very intuitively. I'd love the ability to click on a star in the sky and have all known spectra of it pop up along with references. Not quite there yet but it will be.
This also makes it the best educational tool. There are projects like Las Cumbres and several schools and colleges have access to telescopes so this gives you a great tool with which to look at data and take your own data and do it in a way that doesn't require you learning how to use NED and SIMBAD and looking for papers on ADS. But I think the biggest thing it does is just blow you away with a sense of how large everything is, or perhaps how small you are in relation and I think that is a very powerful idea. I remember the first time I saw the Eames Power of Ten video - this takes that to a different level and is genuinely thought provoking.
Quite simply the best thing I've ever seen out of Microsoft.
Reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled.
...kindly RTFA: it consists of actual imagery, not a model of the imagery like Celestia... (karma whoring: off)
This is funny, not a troll.
"You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows." - Bob Dylan
RTFS
Privacy is terrorism.
They lost me reeeeaaaaalllllllll quick on the video. When he said that this project will as profound an impact as did Galileo's telescopes, that's when he lost me. No, I didn't watch the video and this isn't an anti-microsoft rant. I'm interested when it comes out but I don't have time to watch videos that make claims like that. Galileo's invention was universe-shattering and people 400 years later know who he was and talk about him. Do you really believe that in 2408 people will be discussing the WWT? Me thinks not.
I'm not sure if that was just a lame demo, but that "telescope" is really not a big deal.
It's basically one of the application I already had installed in my Linux box for years, but only with a bigger database. That can surely not be accounted as an invention, and certainly not as big an invention as the telescope 400 years ago.
Google Earth has had something like this for a long time now. Is this any better or is it just an expression of Microsoft's fear of Google and need to "me too" everything Google does?
As the island of our knowledge grows, so does the shore of our ignorance.
The guy who founded the company has been filing a dozen patents on obvious ways of doing image zooming and multiple level of detail rendering. Buying the company, Microsoft got the software, the patents, and they also established that the patents are valuable.
These people are real sleazeballs.
http://www.google.com/patents?q=Blaise+Aguera+y+Arcas&btnG=Search+Patents
exactly how will this help me find and/or download porn? Wake me up when Microsoft buys the guys who invented the worldwide porn telescope, then I'll be impressed.
This MS product does indeed sound very similar to Google Sky.
I think the difference between both of these and e.g. Stellarium/Celestia is the database that sits behind them. Usually "planetarium" software consists of a bunch of points for stars, with perhaps a few objects represented by pixels. You can upload images but you have to do it yourself.
In contrast, Google Sky (and presumably the MS telescope) show you pixels from large databases such as the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. The latter covers roughly 1/4 of the whole sky.
Google is heavily involved with the LSST project.
MS has been involved in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey for quite some time via the late Jim Gray.
Its great for astronomy that both of these companies are competing in an area with little prospects for "monetization".
On a related note, Jim Gray, the researcher behind the WorldWide Telescope, recently went missing on a sailing expedition. The search has already been suspended.
LS
There is a fine line between being a cultivated citizen and being someone else's crop. - A. J. Patrick Liszkie
I don't see MS using patents as a weapon, only for FUD and defense. I know that's kind of like saying the dragon only uses his teeth when close, but it's still true.
Personally, I'm not that worried about patents. Being sued usually presupposes a certain level of affluence and comes with the territory. As a citizen of the USA, I'm am worried. The patent for 'Scanning a check and exchanging information about the scanned check' is going to cost everyone money and make a few people rich. It about makes me sick.
"mummy, why is that galaxy shaped like a chair"?
I can't wait til they start changing the constellations.
LoB
"Anyone who stands out in the middle of a road looks like roadkill to me." --Linus
Are you suggesting burning the land and boiling the sea are also in MSFTs plans?
Support the 30 Hour Work Week!!!
LoB
"Anyone who stands out in the middle of a road looks like roadkill to me." --Linus
I hate to be so reactive to the things I have recently seen, but I wonder what would happen if you exposed this system to the autistic community? It seems like a lot of data that would do well to be digested by someone predisposed to taking it all in at once.
You are checking your backups, aren't you?
> Make no mistake about it Photosynth is a world changing technology.
Finally! The cure for cancer? No? What, solves world hunger? Peace for mankind? Not even a better aspirin? What you say, a neat imaging trick? Your world must be very small.
I tried it, but all I could see was the Blue Sky of Death !
I've got to try that sometime.
"Are you suggesting that [bad thing]"
More like Microsoft DRM Information wants to be free FUD You cannot steal an idea, only infringe on it SCO Intellectual Property is evil P2P They stole Apple's idea and manipulated them into giving them copyrights OOXML Convicted Monopolist! So yes, [bad thing], for quite some time.
Call me a luddite, but I really don't like flash.
The Russians have won. They have made the world a cesspool of distrust, greed, fear and hate.
"We can see all the way out to the edge of the observable universe." ...is that so? Amazing.
Check out the home page of the WWTelescope.
Is anyone else feeling absolutely creeped out by the "kids react to WWT" video?
And in terms of user experience, this is different from any of the leading planetarium software in what way?
Do anything, anywhere, anytime.
Will it run on Linux? No?
Ho Hum.
Sweet zombie Jesus, it's the Anti-Twitter!
I do believe you meant "Sorcerer's Stone."
It doesn't mean much now, it's built for the future.
Don't worry, it'll all be Silverlight soon enough!
It doesn't mean much now, it's built for the future.