visualization
Latest
Visualized: Google searches around the globe
You've already seen Android activations mapped around the globe over time, now how about some Google search volumes? Using WebGL and different color crayons for each language, the coders at Mountain View have put together the above Search Globe, which presents a single day's worth of Google queries in a beautiful, skyscraper-infused visualization. Jacking yourself into the source link below (your browser can handle WebGL, right?) will let you twist and turn the model world for a closer exploration of global Google use. And if you get tired of that, there's an alternative map showing world populations over 1990s -- that's available at the second link.
Visualized: Android activations mapped geographically, chronologically, breathtakingly (video)
Do you ever wish for an easier way to show your uninitiated friends what you mean when you say Android is growing? Well, here's the video for you: a Google-produced map of the world that throbs with Android activations over time, highlighted by some truly eye-opening flourishes in the immediate aftermath of marquee handset launches. The Google guys have even given us handy countdown timers -- "Droid launch in 3, 2, 1..." -- and broken things down by continent for easier viewing. Only thing missing is a soundtrack, so just have your Tron: Legacy OST loaded up and ready before jumping past the break. [Thanks, Leo Z.]
New York subway schedule turned into a beautiful, musical visualization (video)
HTML5, JavaScript and a tiny pinch of Flash. Those are your ingredients for building one of the neatest, simplest websites we've come across in a long time. Conductor, as its maker Alexander Chen dubs it, is a visualization built on New York's publicly available subway schedule API. It shows the progress of the Big Apple's underground carriers throughout the day and garnishes the experience with a delightful musical trick every time two lines cross. You can see it on video after the break or just hit the source link and experience it for yourself.
Macintosh Plus celebrates 25 years by becoming ultimate DJ headgear (video)
Don't have $65,000 and / or seventeen months to build yourself a Daft Punk helmet? Here's the next best thing: crack open a Macintosh Plus, add an iPad, an old bicycle helmet and some electroluminescent gear, and get to soldering. Originally a school project for design student Terrence Scoville, this visualizer helmet now sits atop the cranium of DJ Kid Chameleon. Because there's nothing like a few digital fireworks to celebrate an old computer's birthday. Video after the break.
Christie creates baffling 3D HD CAVE 'visual environment,' or your average Halo display in 2020
Whenever the word "Christie" is involved, you can generally count on two things: 1) you can't afford it and 2) you'll want to afford it. The high-end projection company is at it once again, this time installing a truly insane visual environment at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York. The 3D HD CAVE is intended to help researchers find breakthroughs in biomedical studies, and while CAVE itself has been around for years, this particular version easily trumps prior iterations. For starters, it relies on eight Christie Mirage 3-chip DLP projectors, all of which have active stereo capabilities and can deliver a native resolution of 1,920 x 1,920. Yeah, that's 3.68 megapixels per wall. The idea here is to provide mad scientists with a ridiculous amount of pixel density in an immersive world, but all we can think about is hooking Kinect and the next installment of Bungie's famed franchise up to this thing. Can we get an "amen?"
Intel Infoscape HD wall brings real-time web visualization (hands-on)
We hate to dampen your excitement right from the get-go, but Intel confessed that it has absolutely no plans of commercializing something like this itself -- but that's not to say someone else couldn't grab a Core i7 and run with the idea themselves. The Infoscape was generating quite a bit of attention at the chip giant's CES booth, boasting twin 7-foot touch panels (each with a 1,920 x 1,920 resolution). The entire installation was powered by a single Core i7-based machine with Intel's own graphics, and it was seen rendering 576 links of live information. Users could touch any individual panel in order to dig deeper and bring up more information on each link, and it had absolutely no trouble pulling up dozens of boxes at once when legions of onlookers decided to touch boxes simultaneously. Hop on past the break to check out a video, and feel free to drop your wildest ideas of where this could be used (like, your den) in comments below. %Gallery-82532%
Nine HDTVs form 3D visualization rig, but only in the name of science
If you're the kind of person who happens to have a number of LCD HDTV's lying around, we suggest you give University of California, San Diego's Calit2 Visualization Team a ring. Researchers from the group have constructed a three-column, nine-panel 3D display using flat screens from JVC, stereoscopic glasses, and "game PCs with high end NVIDIA game engines." Dubbed NexCAVE, it's a much more inexpensive version of the its projector-powered StarCAVE used for data analysis, although its range is more limited -- on the plus side, however, since this is LCD, it can be used in bright rooms. At 6,000 x 1,500 pixel, the resolution isn't as mind-blowing as we'd hope, but the team is currently building a version for Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah University for Science and Technology (KAUST) that's 7 columns (totaling 21 panels) and 15,000 x 1,500 resolution. If nothing else, any chance we can play Mirror's Edge on this? Video demonstration of the nine-panel rig after the break. [Via PhysOrg]
Malwarez project grows virtual 3D organisms from vicious code
Ever had an urge to really get a visual on what masterfully written predatory code would look like if allowed to grow into a 3D organism? Okay, so maybe that hasn't been on the forefront of your mind recently, but there's no denying that Alex Dragulescu's Malwarez project is quite the source of eye candy. According to its maker, the aforementioned initiative is a "series of visualization of worms, viruses, trojans and spyware code," and their "frequency, density and grouping are mapped to the inputs of an algorithm that grows a virtual 3D entity." Who knew viruses could look so dreamy?[Thanks, Danger Mouse]
TDVisor-HD: world's first "portable" 720p 3D visualization system is still impractical
CES 2008 brought us plenty of gimmicky 3D-related gadgetry, a bit that was respectable, and apparently, the TDVisor-HD. Nearly three weeks after the show concluded, TDVision Systems has just now gotten around to tossing out a press release boasting about how much fun was had by folks stopping by and checking out the "world's first portable, all digital, high-def 3D visualization system." Unfortunately, we're left to ponder on precisely what this thing is, but as best we can tell, it's yet another Virtual Boy-esque device, 'cept this one does 720p (and 3D). Per usual, a price and release date are conveniently absent, but considering that we can't even recall the last time we wore anything with "visor" in the product name (well, besides that one time...), we suppose it'll be alright.
Music visualizations in 3.00 kick butt [m]
I captured this quick video of the PSP running music on 3.0 firmware just to show off how impressive and varied they are. This is a feature that I certainly didn't see coming, and it's great to see Sony adding such a valuable tool. You can watch the video above, or download it to your PSP's 100ANV folder here:
