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Projecting Data on a Sphere

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Tue Jun 13, 2006 02:29 PM
from the higher-def dept.

necro81 writes "The NYTimes has an article in today's Science section that describes a four-projector system that displays images on a spherical screen. The Science on a Sphere system, developed at the Goddard Space Flight Center and used in some planetariums, can display and animate vast amounts of visual data from the Earth, Moon, Sun, and the other planets. The sphere is suspended by thin wires, and animating the image data gives the illusion of a free-floating, rotating world."

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Perfect for mission briefings (Score:2, Funny)

by amliebsch (724858)

That's just what I need to show my pilots where the shield generator is located.
- Re:Perfect for mission briefings (Score:4, Insightful)
  
  by Tackhead (54550) on Tuesday June 13 2006, @02:35PM (#15526916)
  
  > That's just what I need to show my pilots where the shield generator is located.
  It's a planetarium turned inside-out. Or the offspring of a mating of a planetarium and a Klein bottle. In other words, it's a light trap :)
  
  Parent
- Re:Perfect for mission briefings (Score:5, Funny)
  
  by Rob T Firefly (844560) on Tuesday June 13 2006, @02:37PM (#15526937) Homepage Journal
  
  Many Bothans died for this post...
  
  Parent
  - Re:Perfect for mission briefings (Score:2)
    
    by ozbird (127571)
    
    Many Boffins died for this post...
- Have some respect! (Score:2)
  
  by DanTheLewis (742271)
  
  Many Bothans died to bring us this four-projector spherical diagram apparatus.
- Re:Perfect for mission briefings (Score:2)
  
  by R3d M3rcury (871886)
  
  But it's not that useful for detecting traps [wikipedia.org].
  - - Re:Perfect for mission briefings (Score:2)
      
      by ScottLindner (954299)
      
      Jeez man.. don't post that stuff without telling us it's not cool for viewing while at work!
      
      I expected something comical...
why not from inside-out? (Score:4, Insightful)

by WinEveryGame (978424) * <wineverygame@gm[ ].com ['ail' in gap]> on Tuesday June 13 2006, @02:34PM (#15526908) Homepage

Isn't best projection on a sphere done from the center of the sphere?
Since the application of this thing can easily require building a custom sphere, this seems a more cost-effective way to me.
- Re:why not from inside-out? (Score:2, Insightful)
  
  by Anonymous Coward
  
  Since the application of this thing can easily require building a custom sphere, this seems a more cost-effective way to me.
  
  Assuming a requirement was the ability to hang the sphere to make it appear to float, then you'd have to figure out a way to have a fairly strong internal structure to support the projectors without creating seams from within the structure itself. Also you need to get power and video signals to the projectors and still keep your "disappearingly thin wires". Then there is always th
- Re:why not from inside-out? (Score:2)
  
  by bunions (970377)
  
  the wires would have to go in somewhere, which seems nonoptimal.
  - Re:why not from inside-out? (Score:2)
    
    by Otto (17870)
    
    Gotta hang the thing from something anyway, run them in the top.
    
    I don't think it could easily be done without shadows from the internal structure though.
- Re:why not from inside-out? (Score:4, Insightful)
  
  by Chirs (87576) on Tuesday June 13 2006, @02:47PM (#15527021)
  
  How would you support the translucent screen? Any structural members would cast shadows.
  
  Parent
  - Re:why not from inside-out? (Score:2)
    
    by drinkypoo (153816)
    
    A pole from the top could run in and hold the sphere and projector, but the sphere would have to be self-supporting; either pretty heavy or very light plastic. I suppose it could be inflatable...
  - Re:why not from inside-out? (Score:2)
    
    by russellh (547685)
    
    spherical paper made in space!
Seattle Sci-Fi Museum. (Score:5, Informative)

by 9gezegen (824655) on Tuesday June 13 2006, @02:36PM (#15526921)

There are not one but two such displays at Seattle Sci-Fi Museum http://www.sfhomeworld.org/ [sfhomeworld.org] One of them uses four projectors to project movie clips on a large sphere. I'm not sure about the second one since there are not projectors around (I suspect there is one inside) but it shows the surfaces of famous sci-fi planets. You can see this one at http://www.sfhomeworld.org/exhibits/brave_new_worl ds/index.asp [sfhomeworld.org]
- Re:Seattle Sci-Fi Museum. (Score:2)
  
  by twistedsymphony (956982)
  
  Glad someone else mentioned on this... Lots of good stuff in that museam
  
  The first sphere you come across is definitely projected from the inside... there isn't an external projector in sight. If I had to guess they're using 3 for that one though...
Funding (Score:2)

by neonprimetime (528653)

The idea has come a long way since it came to Dr. MacDonald in 1995.

"I was driving down a road and the thought came to me: Why don't people display things on spheres?" he said. "When I got home, I painted a beach ball white and projected pictures on the ball.

So, I wonder if he took that beach ball to his presentations when he was trying to get research / grant money for the project?
Ooo Pretty.... (Score:3, Funny)

by JayDot (920899) on Tuesday June 13 2006, @02:49PM (#15527039) Journal

Birthday Trip to the planetarium...

Who wants to open the pinata?
Ehhh? (Score:2)

by CODiNE (27417)

Hasn't the Haunted House in Disneyland had this for ohhh... 50 years or so? In one room there is a crystal ball with a fortune tellers head projected on the inside somehow. As you ride all the way around it the face somehow matches every angle even as a dozen people are looking at different spots. I always figured it was some kind of multiple projectors, but how they got the overlapping and made it so smooth I never could guess.
- Re:Ehhh? (Score:2)
  
  by asuffield (111848)
  
  In one room there is a crystal ball with a fortune tellers head projected on the inside somehow. As you ride all the way around it the face somehow matches every angle even as a dozen people are looking at different spots.
  
  I've never seen the thing, but you just described an effect normally created with a hologram. You don't see it often because there isn't normally much point. Presumably they thought it would look spooky because it's so uncommon.
- Re:Ehhh? (Score:2)
  
  by Otto (17870)
  
  In one room there is a crystal ball with a fortune tellers head projected on the inside somehow. As you ride all the way around it the face somehow matches every angle even as a dozen people are looking at different spots. I always figured it was some kind of multiple projectors, but how they got the overlapping and made it so smooth I never could guess.
  
  The illusion has to do with reversing of the depth of field. There's several good illusions like this, this Einstein one is truly awesome: http://www.grand- [grand-illusions.com]
suspended by thin wires (Score:3, Interesting)

by llZENll (545605) on Tuesday June 13 2006, @03:00PM (#15527124)

"suspended by thin wires"

Come on now, can't they use some kind of magnetic levitation system? Or even an air cushion, that would be pretty cheap and cool.
- Re:suspended by thin wires (Score:4, Insightful)
  
  by MustardMan (52102) on Tuesday June 13 2006, @03:04PM (#15527161)
  
  Either of those options is gonna be some sort of elastic force - the sphere will bounce. Even a slight bounce in a normal projector screen is quite noticable. I can only imagine it would be a lot worse when you're worrying about the alignment of three projectors.
  
  Parent
  - Re:suspended by thin wires (Score:2)
    
    by Penguin Programmer (241752)
    
    That's why you make the projectors bounce in exactly the same manner. Duh.
- Re:suspended by thin wires (Score:2)
  
  by peragrin (659227)
  
  well an air cushion would be noisy as you could hear the air moving.
  
  Now a mag lev system that could rotate and spin the ball would be cool. a Linear accelerator combined with brushless motor style controler surround the outside of the maglev system in the center with the ball just above it. A circlar linear accelerator(yes I said that and I mean it) with a center section for the actual levitation. come to think of it you would need 16 or 32 linear accelerators in a circular pattern. Computer controled an
Google Earth (Score:2, Interesting)

by Wormholio (729552)

wow, this would be a cool output device for Google Earth.
- Re:Google Earth (Score:2)
  
  by Johnny Mozzarella (655181)
  
  That was also my first thought.
  I'm tempted to build a small scale one just to play with google earth.
Snakes on a Sphere? (Score:2, Funny)

by JLavezzo (161308)

Use this technique with a showing of "Snakes on a Plane".
You'd get ... "Snakes on a Plane on a Sphere"
the actual earth (Score:2, Funny)

by fred fleenblat (463628)

is an ellipsoid.
is that too much to ask?
Yeah but... (Score:2)

by exp(pi*sqrt(163)) (613870)

...if you need to display something on the surface of a cube then you're screwed. But have no fear, exp(pi*sqrt(163)) is here. Later today I'll file my patent application for a cubical screen and in a few years time you'll be able to purchase one of my cubical screen projectors for a reasonable price.
Brilliant (Score:3, Funny)

by GimmeFive (978590) on Tuesday June 13 2006, @03:56PM (#15527621)

There are some arses here at the office that could now be used for IMAX.
On a sphere, eh? (Score:2)

by FuturePastNow (836765)

It's for advertising...on the moon!
Soo,,, Anything I want... (Score:2)

by Aladrin (926209)

So, basically, you can display ANYTHING you want on it, as long as that thing is perfectly spherical. And you only want to show the surface.

Hope that they got a patent on that. Man, the uses... This will be SO in demand.
Doesn't that making zooming in unrealistic? (Score:3, Insightful)

by Retired Replicant (668463) on Tuesday June 13 2006, @04:33PM (#15527856)

The cool think about something like Google Earth is how you can zoom way in to see tiny details. If the display is an actual sphere, wouldn't you be kind of limited in showing anything at a scale other than that which can be represented on a physical sphere the size of the projector-screen?
I made of of these (Score:2)

by I Like Pudding (323363)

The hardest part was grinding a lens into the shape of pi
- Re:I made of of these (Score:2)
  
  by gkhan1 (886823)
  
  What the hell is "the shape of pi"?
NOAA Science on a Sphere (Score:3, Informative)

by zefram cochrane (761180) on Tuesday June 13 2006, @05:31PM (#15528226)

All jokes about the Deathstar attack aside, I actually had the privilege of seeing this display firsthand this past year. I was attending the Annual Meeting of the American Meteorological Society in Atlanta, and NOAA was showing this display with information about the 2005 hurricane season. It is quite a large display, but it has the capability of showing large amounts of data in an entertaining and easy to understand way.

Here are a few pictures of the actual display in operation...

http://community.webshots.com/album/551340290QQkDQ E/ [webshots.com]
- Re:Halograms (Score:2)
  
  by MustardMan (52102)
  
  Wow, if that wasn't the weakest attempt to post early in hopes of getting modded up, I don't know what is.
  
  My cat sleeping on the keyboard has typed more insightful posts.
  - Re:Halograms (Score:2)
    
    by justkarl (775856)
    
    Wow, if that wasn't the weakest attempt to post early in hopes of getting modded up, I don't know what is.
    
    No, no, wait, I know! It's "imagine a beowulf cluster of these running Google Earth. SWEET."
    
    Or, "I wonder if this thing can run X Windows"
- Re:Halograms (Score:4, Interesting)
  
  by w33t (978574) on Tuesday June 13 2006, @02:39PM (#15526952) Homepage
  
  actually, by combining this technology with this technology [physorg.com] you could have a pretty cool visual representation of the earth and it's current space traffic.
  
  Parent
  - Re:Halograms (Score:2)
    
    by liliafan (454080) *
    
    Pretty cool, now if they could just combine that technology with this [masterreplicas.com] and heat up the plasma a few thousand degrees.....no one would ever mod me down again for fear of a lightsaber enema.
- Re:Halograms (Score:2)
  
  by mph (7675)
  
  You misspelled "hagiographic."
- Halo graphics (Score:3, Funny)
  
  by tepples (727027)
  
  Could this be giving birth to the beginnings of 3D halographic techonology?
  
  No, that was the Xbox.
- Re:Halograms (Score:2)
  
  by nsayer (86181) *
  
  I don't think that's how you spell that word, Dave.
  
  This sort of thing has cropped up before, and it has always been atributable to human error.
  
  This comment can serve no useful purpose anymore. Goodbye.
- Re:Shouldn't they be able to do with 2 projectors? (Score:5, Informative)
  
  by avalys (221114) on Tuesday June 13 2006, @02:40PM (#15526962)
  
  Let's say you had two projectors, one pointing at the north pole and one at the south. The resolution would be terrible near the equator, because a very small part of the projected image would cover a large part of the globe surface.
  
  In order for the resolution to be consistent over the entire globe, you have to either intentionally reduce the resolution of the projection near the poles, or add additional projectors.
  
  Parent
  - Re:Shouldn't they be able to do with 2 projectors? (Score:2)
    
    by TomorrowPlusX (571956)
    
    Actually, I'm impressed they did it well with four. I expected six.
  - Re:Shouldn't they be able to do with 2 projectors? (Score:2)
    
    by Lord_Slepnir (585350)
    
    that would work if we could put the projectors at a distance of infinity. But digging a hole infinity feet deep or getting a pole infinity feet long to mount the projectors would be too expensive. Basically, if a projector positioned directly over north pole shining down, there exists a band in the northern hemisphere that the projector can't 'see' because of a point at a higher latitude that blocks it. put another way: Next time you are outside, look around and note how you can only see less than half
- Re:whats the point (Score:2)
  
  by bunions (970377)
  
  I am never let down when I depend on the kneejerk cynicism of the slashdot crowd.
  
  No, it's not some sort of major breakthrough.
  
  And yes, the 'hole' idea is limited to showing things happening on the surface of a sphere. As it turns out though, there's a lot of interesting things that happen on the surface of spheres. Our lives, for instance. Also weather. And geography.
  - - Re:whats the point-spherical lining. (Score:2)
      
      by gardyloo (512791)
      
      Don't be too hard on him. His job as slashdot poster is being outsourced.
      
      I hope the replacements he has to train do as good a job!
- Re:hmmm (Score:2)
  
  by Slithe (894946)
  
  Thank you for following Quinn's Law [wikipedia.org]!

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Projecting Data on a Sphere

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Perfect for mission briefings (Score:2, Funny)

Re:Perfect for mission briefings (Score:4, Insightful)

Re:Perfect for mission briefings (Score:5, Funny)

Re:Perfect for mission briefings (Score:2)

Have some respect! (Score:2)

Re:Perfect for mission briefings (Score:2)

Re:Perfect for mission briefings (Score:2)

why not from inside-out? (Score:4, Insightful)

Re:why not from inside-out? (Score:2, Insightful)

Re:why not from inside-out? (Score:2)

Re:why not from inside-out? (Score:2)

Re:why not from inside-out? (Score:4, Insightful)

Re:why not from inside-out? (Score:2)

Re:why not from inside-out? (Score:2)

Seattle Sci-Fi Museum. (Score:5, Informative)

Re:Seattle Sci-Fi Museum. (Score:2)

Funding (Score:2)

Ooo Pretty.... (Score:3, Funny)

Ehhh? (Score:2)

Re:Ehhh? (Score:2)

Re:Ehhh? (Score:2)

suspended by thin wires (Score:3, Interesting)

Re:suspended by thin wires (Score:4, Insightful)

Re:suspended by thin wires (Score:2)

Re:suspended by thin wires (Score:2)

Google Earth (Score:2, Interesting)

Re:Google Earth (Score:2)

Snakes on a Sphere? (Score:2, Funny)

the actual earth (Score:2, Funny)

Yeah but... (Score:2)

Brilliant (Score:3, Funny)

On a sphere, eh? (Score:2)

Soo,,, Anything I want... (Score:2)

Doesn't that making zooming in unrealistic? (Score:3, Insightful)

I made of of these (Score:2)

Re:I made of of these (Score:2)

NOAA Science on a Sphere (Score:3, Informative)

Re:Halograms (Score:2)

Re:Halograms (Score:2)

Re:Halograms (Score:4, Interesting)

Re:Halograms (Score:2)

Re:Halograms (Score:2)

Halo graphics (Score:3, Funny)

Re:Halograms (Score:2)

Re:Shouldn't they be able to do with 2 projectors? (Score:5, Informative)

Re:Shouldn't they be able to do with 2 projectors? (Score:2)

Re:Shouldn't they be able to do with 2 projectors? (Score:2)

Re:whats the point (Score:2)

Re:whats the point-spherical lining. (Score:2)

Re:hmmm (Score:2)

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