Browsing the Body
ColdWetDog writes "Google Labs has an interesting new line of business — human anatomy. The Google Body Browser is a 3D representation of the major parts of the human body. Based on the well known and very expensive Zygote 3D artwork, you can zoom in, rotate, view the various organ systems (bone, internal organs, nerves) in various states of transparency. Very much like Google Earth in both execution and concept. Written with HTML5, it requires WebGL to work. The Firefox 4 beta seems to work fine. Google, of course, recommends Chrome."
Which, ironically enough, cannot load the page at all for me.
Firefox 4b7 no workie.
Why, then, not enlighten us with this information?
Every experiment which ends in a big bang is a good experiment.
quick question, does it show breasts and genitalia? The images on the "you need chrome"-page suggest otherwise. Which would be a great step backwards in terms of biology education, but completely intelligible from an america-centric self-censorship perspective.
Every experiment which ends in a big bang is a good experiment.
The bodybrowser page links you to http://khronos.org/webgl/wiki/Getting_a_WebGL_Implementation which gives you WebGL information and, for Safari, links you to http://nightly.webkit.org/
I live in constant fear of the Coming of the Red Spiders.
Why, then, not enlighten us with this information?
Send me teh codz?
Actually it doesn't even work in the standard Safari. It looks like you have to also down load the nightly build from webkit.org and then run "defaults write com.apple.Safari WebKitWebGLEnabled -bool YES"
So I should apologize to Apple in *this* case
I am Slashdot. Are you Slashdot as well?
And it won't install because I don't have the requisite privileges. Most installers ask for my administrator's password.
Nate
... doesn't work.
But then again, neither does submitting a /. comment.
Should I be relieved or worried that I'm not the only one who checked that out immediately?..
- These characters were randomly selected.
Firefox 4.0b7 works, yes, but it's slow as hell. The Chrome 9 beta is about 10 times faster. At least on OSX.
My other account has a 3-digit UID.
Indeed!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2osExsJR9Q&feature=related
Women used to say that men need a map to find the clit. Now they have one.
This is because WebGL is an experimental feature. It is not meant to be easy or obvious! WebGL is not read for general use yet.
Note: This page requires Chrome to view. There are alternatives available, but nothing for pre 4.0 beta Firefox.
Well, since you didn't go "Rats, she doesn't have a penis," then we know you don't spend all your time on 4 Chan.
While I think this is awesome, and biology teachers all over the world will love it, the transparency rendering is quite terrible.
The problem is that some surfaces are rendered, while others are not, which looks very wierd. You can reproduce the effect by only displaying the skeleton and setting transparency to 50% or so.
There are two generally accepted solutions:
1) To a topological sort and render all triangles back to front
2) Use a so called depth-peeling algorithm to render the scene in multiple passes
Unfortunately, they do neither right now, but there's always hope for the next version.
Personally, I favor 2) since you can offload all the work to the GPU. I had to implement this once for a CAD/CAM system for hearing aids (they are often custom-built, and you want to render the exterior semi-transparent so you can place the battery and electronics inside perfectly, before sending the thing to the manufacturing machine).
I got it to work and it's pretty cool and reasonably fast and I looked at all the forbidden things but it also locked up my machine at the "pull the plug from the wall level" twice. I used Chrome beta on a 2007 Aluminum iMac running the latest Snow Leopard.
from chrome
the button said chrome for windows xp 7 vista.
clicked it
got a list of linux packages
downloading 64bit.deb
now has google just got a default chrome for Windows graphic or something they use for the button? it ain't right.
thank God the internet isn't a human right.
I like how the first dozen or so comments are just about the browser compatability, and not the biological fidelity.
This is seriously cool.
-chris
I was kinda thinking it was an internal inverted penis...
Besides, I live in the territory between DFC and traps so 4Chan does not provide.
- These characters were randomly selected.
Cut & paste to be added in a later release.
Distributed Denial of APK: It takes 15 seconds to reply to him anonymously, but wastes tons of his time if we all do it.
Safari is a supported browser on Snow Leopard *after* you open Terminal and run a command line to set a flag in the (normally not seen) configuration file. Totally obvious - NOT.
WebGL is not part of the standard Safari on Snow Leopard. It's still in beta and you have to grab the nightly builds, THEN set the default com.apple.Safari WebKitWebGLEnabled to YES.
You're on the cutting edge man, don't expect it to be automatic just yet. If you take a look at the WebGL spec that I linked you'll see that it says "Working Draft", not a released spec. WebGL is not yet ready for the masses who don't know how to set a hidden default.
Sapere aude!
On Ubuntu 10.10 I had to uninstall Google-Chrome (not to be mixed up with Chrome) and THEN install the Google-Chrome Beta. Then it worked fine. If you want to check this, install the Chrome Beta, then go to Synaptic and look for google-chrome. You will see the standard version is still installed and the beta is not. At least this his my experience as of this morning..
Have you fscked your local propeller head today?
Does anyone else wonder why they put clothes on her? Is clothes part of her anatomy? Noooooo.. So you have to look at clothes instead of the human body. Typical sex hangups..
Have you fscked your local propeller head today?
when is the firefox team going to release ff4.0?? i don't wanna use an unstable beta and i also don't wanna miss out on cool stuff like this. why is it taking so long anyway? chrome is releasing real fats updates. they're on 8 already and probably 10 by the end of january. and look at firefox. still struggling to get to 4. even ie is ahead!!!1
Wealth is the gift that keeps on giving.
There isn't a single released browser (according to the page) that supports it. WebGL isn't baked yet.
Maybe they can work out a deal with the TSA.
[I might get modded offtopic for not bitching that it doesn't work for me.]
I have a friend who's struggling through her anatomy and physiology course (becoming a physical therapist). Something like this would be a great study aid if the labels had more resolution. For example, the vertebrae are all labeled "{cervical,thoracic,lumbar} vertebra" when it would be more useful to label them individually, e.g., "5th thoracic vertebra".
I can only see the model with lycra shorts on; however, on firefox at least, however at a distance, the clothes partially disappear due to Z granularity.
Now I can exactly tell my tibial ligament is paining...
I just took a look at the Zygote site linked to in a comment above, it it is wicked expensive. $500-$1000 for a model with textures (slight discount for without). If you're just fine with the exterior of the body, Makehuman, despite having a horrible interface and dog-slow rendering, is free and has a damn fine body generator. (I once heard that it also generates a skeleton and musculature, but I didn't see it when I played around.)
Try searching for heart or brain Google, did you forget to include some terms in your search index?
Missing and unidentified anatomy:
- I don't see any lymph nodes or ducts in this model, or the subclavian venous junctions.
- At least one important and complex configuration of vessels (the Circle of Willis) is visible, but not named or searchable.
But it's beta, and probably not meant for me...
Beware: I believe all are created equal, and have the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.