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."

Comments

What is a USC Santa Barbara?

[isBandGeek()]

I've heard of a UC Santa Barbara and a USC, but I've never heard of a USC Santa Barbara.

Find people with powers?

[Again]

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.

Amazing(not)

[Zerth]

So it is just two CAVEs stuck together? Yup, real advanced technology there.

I hope nobody tells them about head-mounted displays.

Mac vs. PC

[inertia187]

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.

Re:Mac vs. PC

[Anonymous Coward]

Why is PC running Shatner OS?

Penicillin and relativity come to mind?

[TheRaven64]

Really? From what I recall, penicillin was discovered by noticing that mould contaminating a bacteria sample caused the bacteria to die, and relativity came straight out of the mathematics (you can derive special relativity in about one sheet of A4 - general relativity is much harder). Is there some story that everyone except me knows about?

Re:Penicillin and relativity come to mind?

[PolygamousRanchKid]

Before Einstein started scribbling stuff down on paper, he performed "thought experiments" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gedanken_experiment, which are like a form of visualization. For instance, while he was at the Swiss patent office in Bern, he started to try imaging what the world outside would look like, if the street tram he was riding in, was traveling at the speed of light. He imagined that if traveling away from a clock, the hand would never move from his perspective.

No cats were injured in Einstein's experiments.

I'll have to pass on the penicillin, although I regularly "visualize" a form of it in my breadbox every week.