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Visualizing Data Inside the 30-ft Allosphere
TEDChris writes "The Allosphere, being created at UC Santa Barbara, is the most ambitious attempt yet at creating powerful 3d visualizations of raw scientific data, such as the structure of a crystal, or how quantum effects take place. Researchers watch from a bridge inside the 30-foot sphere, looking at data projected 360 degrees around them and listening to 3D sound. The first major public demo of the facility has just been posted at TED.com. Optimists would argue that many of the greatest scientific breakthroughs happened through a new visual way of imagining data. Penicillin and relativity come to mind. So this is either a killer new research vehicle, an incredible toy, or just an insanely expensive art project."
What I want to know is if it can find people with powers. If it can, then I need to build myself an awful looking hat.
Because they're afraid you may try to eat the data from a case of the munchies.
What they need is the Infosphere!
I've got your sig, right here.
Mac: Hi, I'm a Mac.
PC: And ... I'm ... a ... PC.
Mac: Wow, PC. You're really slow today.
PC: Yes ... I'm ... running ... AlloSphere ... research ... for ... UCSB ... ... today.
Mac: What exactly is the AlloSphere useful for?
PC: Scientifically, ... it ... is ... an ... instrument ... for ... gaining ... insight ... and ... developing ... bodily ... intuition ... about ... environments ... into ... which ... the ... body ... cannot ... venture: ... abstract, ... higher- ... -dimensional ... information ... spaces, ... the ... worlds ... of ... the ... very ... small ... or ... very ... large, ... and ... the ... realms ... of ... the ... very ... fast ... or ... very ... slow, ... in ... fields ... ranging ... from ... nanotechnology ... to ... theoretical ... physics, ... from ... proteomics ... to ... cosmology, ... from ... neurophysiology ... to ... the ... spaces ... of ... consciousness, ... and ... from ... new ... materials ... to ... new ... media.
Mac: Wow, that ... that sounds pretty amazing.
PC: It ... is.
Mac: Anything else?
PC: 42.
Mac: What does that even mean?
PC: I ... have ... no ... idea.
A programmer is a machine for converting coffee into code.
Of course there is no such story. Don't be silly. In fact, forget the whole thing...
So this is either a killer new research vehicle, an incredible toy, or just an insanely expensive art project.
All three, you got the superego, the id and the ego all in one machine.
Don't blame me, I voted for Baltar.
Didn't you get the memo? All colleges in California are now just adjunct campuses of USC, by order of the Governator himself. He said he'd be back if it wasn't done.
I would have expected just over a dozen and a half steradians myself.
Early reports indicate that the facility is also useful for tracking down mutants.
Yeah, but head-mounted displays were Dominion technology. They were the bad guys. That's probably why the UCSB folks went with the astrometrics lab from Voyager (only better).
Simple, the ones who invested the millions of dollars required for this data visualization, failed to do the thought experiments necessary to see what a collasal waste of money it is was going to be.
Well.. maybe. Or Maybe not. But Definitely not sort of.