NASA's new virtual tours of the Space Station and new Mars Rover exactly approximate the sensation of not being in space
By Paul Miller 
posted May 8th 2009 9:43PM
posted May 8th 2009 9:43PM
[Via PhysOrg]
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Photosynth is a good idea, but it always makes me dizzy. Its just not quite as polished yet.
Why are they advertising Photosynth like it's something amazing? All of the ones I've seen look terrible and ghosted, just like the screenshot. I'd rather see a 3D panoramic animation than this.
I see a lot of dandruff surrounding the space station.
who knew? while mac was making photo album of his vacation, pc was making an album of space
Silverlight Rocks; beats flash by miles when it comes to resource usage especially on high resolution screens. :)
Yeah, silverlight is nice (Netflix streaming, etc.)
I agree silverlight is way better than flash. Fullscreen play very well too.
Add to that it's very easy write App (in c#) for it. it the same .NET programming experience.
Shame it doesn't run in Opera.... the best browser currently available....
doesn't work in Opera or Chrome.. so it infact doesn't "rock".
@ Ahmed: Exactly! I downloaded the demo of MS's Expression suit and using only that suit anyone could build any app for Silverlight from a - z.
@ fairlight: Actually it does in fact work on Chrome; I'm using it right now. :)
Actually it works in Opera too- at least in Opera 10 Beta here. Like Flash in Opera, though, performance is a bit sub-optimal.
Almost, but not quite, entirely unlike mars.
It's absolutely amazing to see what all this looks like but come on. Was this done by a 12 year old. Remax does a better job.
doesn't work in Google chrome on XP SP2
That's odd. Are other silverlight web applications working? Maybe you need to update.
(I'm running Windows 7 and it works in Google Chrome).
"NASA's new virtual tours of the Space Station and new Mars Rover exactly approximate the sensation of not being in space"
Isn't exactly approximate an oxymoron?
Very underwhelming. Lots of dots in a random 3D space, some photos tacked onto those dots, and nothing really spectacular. Bunch of 400x300 Jpeg's with a loose spacial organization? Meh.
aw man! you had my hopes up there! i thought they had photosynthed pictures taken from INSIDE the ISS so you could "walk" around. this is just no better than 1 hi res image. like this one, for example.
http://fhsukams.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/iss_after_sts-124_06_2008.jpg
Wow, i actually reloaded my browser the first time to check it had loaded this "virtual tour" software properly at first - i don't understand how Microsoft could develop something so blatantly bad, whats with all the white dots and confusing method of use? I would rather just see an array of regular images...
its depend who take the pictures and how much there is... its a good tech really.
http://photosynth.net/view.aspx?cid=0ef05319-4b7b-491a-8e75-040c1af4ce56
noooooooo not silverlight.. I refuse to install it.
Why? its a step forward. Are you living in a cave??
o yeah o yeah
the Japanese Laboratory has 2 thinkpad A31's!!
go Japanese, they know what kind of computer to bring on board.
actually.. they are all using the same ones. hmm
i guess its easier to have them all be the same computer, atleast this way they can have
starcraft lan games
Like hell I am infesting my MacBook Pro with anything Microsoft related...
Hahaha my Dell mini 9 have a better screen than your big shinny expensive macbook pro!! hahahahahaha!
Good thing then that Silverlight isn't at all useful and lightweight, unlike Apple's miracle programs like Quicktime.
@ Bobsley
You also have a Dell! :-D If you had the money and had the choice, which would you pick: a Ferrari or a Honda. ;-) Guess which one I am paralleling with the Honda.
@ blarvh
It is also made by Microsoft. Should I list all the "great" Microsoft advancements in the past couple years? The 66% failure rating for 360s in the first year or so, the all-mighty Windows Vista...sorry, I have to go get my mom a mother's day gift. If I had a couple days, I'm sure I could list the other million failures that Microsoft has produced.
exactly the reason i refuse to install itunes on my windows 7 laden toshiba
apple fanboys got nothin on microsoft's quality control my friend's macbook pro died of malfunctioning videocard, and he had to fork over 2grands and five monthes to get it fixed
@ Jon Graft: Why are you even asking the question? He already said he picked the Ferrari.
Don't bitch silverlight, its better than anything for streaming content. Image is super clear and playback is incredibly stable and you can scroll with ease. Way better than flash.
When you install Quicktime, you get tons of crap, useless processes and it load with a page full of publicity. Silverlight is a lot more discreet.
Photosynth is a terrible, terrible idea, it's hard to navigate and it gives you absolutely no feeling of looking at real 3D objects.
i can see they have modelled 3D points all over the place, why don't they get rid of the photos after processing them and create a 3D scene based exclusively on those points? i mean how hard can it be?
Alright then, you write the algorithm and I'll provide the pictures. (since it's so easy)
Yeah, guess they could have used any 3D stiching software - like QuickTime VR, or any onther of the gazzilian Java based ones. But they insist on using this shitty, crapy - ohh my gooood, it's bad, 'technology'.. gee... waste of money!
it looks like they already have an algorithm to make those 3D points. now they would just have to make little surfaces between neighbouring triangles of points and give those surfaces appropriate textures (gained from the photos)
it wouldn't be an exact match of the scene, but anything would be better than this
Silverlight....?
So.... microsoft isn't the only site that uses that.
There's been other sites too like NBC, Netflix, CBS, Vertigo, Hard Rock Cafe, YouTube, Fox, EA, etc.
That's just some of the major sites. There's lots of small sites too. http://silverlight.net/Showcase/
I'm sitting in a plastic chair, and that feels exactly like not being in space. And it doesn't even need Silverlight!
Sorry, previous article got submitted twice. My Bad.
http://jamesmsingleton.com
Silverlight? no thanks, and shame on the NASA (an US government org.) for helping MS push their propriety crap, didn't they write whole books of regulation to NOT do that? I guess money talks louder than words eh.
Name a better alternative to Silverlight for rendering a 3D spatial panorama like this. Flash doesn't count because it's also proprietary.
Java.
or Python even.
How much money do we throw at Nasa? I'm sure they could set aside a couple million and produce their own product. Give them a day and a half and it would probably be 10x better than whatever Microsoft would spend a year working on...
"I'm sure they could set aside a couple million and produce their own product."
People would be up in arms that the government is competing with the private sector, or at the very least wasting money by re-inventing the wheel.
Microsoft could straight up invent sliced bread and there would still be people on engadget and slashdot trying to convince everyone else that unsliced bread is more reliable and that it gives you more freedom.
Silverlight clearly penetrates a market that flash is sucking at (streaming content). I think someone above even recommended Java as an alternative. Java? Seriously??