physics
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Razorfish ports DaVinci interface to Kinect, makes physics cool (video)
Razorfish is a little marketing company that has done some impressive things on Microsoft's Surface, things you may or may not have seen because that particular brand of pedestal hasn't exactly become a threat to the global dumbtable market. One of Razorfish's cool things is a so-called Surface Physics Illustrator called DaVinci, which lets a user doodle on the screen and turn those doodles into balls, boxes, levers, and fulcrums. Now that code has effectively ported that code over to Kinect, as you can see in the video below, letting you do the same sort of things but with thine own two hands floating in mid-air. You can cause shapes to levitate, create gravity between them, make things orbit, even enable magnetism that alternately pulls and hurls your little doodles across the screen. The company is said to be continuing to refine the experience and maybe, if you all ask nice, they'll even release the app when they're through so you can try it for yourself. [Thanks, Luke]
Caltech research could lead to quantum hard drives, networks, parallel universes
Quantum anything has typically fallen into our oft-used category of 'awesome things that'll never happen,' but if a crew of researchers at the California Institute of Technology have anything to say about it, they'll soon be changing the fortunes of that segment. The team has recently demonstrated quantum entanglement for a quantum state stored in four spatially distinct atomic memories, and while that probably just blew your mind a little bit, the breakdown is fairly interesting. Essentially, they've uncovered a quantum interface between the atomic memories, which is said to "represent something akin to a computer hard drive for entanglement." If extended, it could pave the way toward quantum networks, and in turn, massive webs of quantum computers. We're obviously decades out from understanding what this all means for the common computer user, but just remember this: "for an entangled quantum system, there exists no objective physical reality for the system's properties." And you thought The Matrix was deep.
Vindictus entices players with a dynamic new trailer
The creators of Vindictus, or Addictus (as it's been called by certain Editors-in-Chief), have thought to inspire us to play their action MMO by launching another trailer. The free-to-play game launched two weeks ago as the first real-physics based MMO. This game that features constant twitchy combat, also, recently announced a new ranged-class giving the gameplay a completely different dynamic. The trailer magnifies the intensity of this unique gaming engine by slowing down and reversing much of the in-game shots in the video. All creatures and player characters affect the environment, as well as their intended target. Walls are mashed. Buildings fall. The earth is crumbled beneath mighty weapons. If violence and passion fuel your gameplay then Nexon invites you to try out Vindictus for yourself at the official website. It will cost you nothing to try it out for yourself, and you may just find a new world you'll love to explore. Fix your eyes on this film featuring a frenzied flash into this fantasy realm after the break.
More info about the physics of Angry Birds than you need to know
If there's anything I love to read, it's analysis of the commonplace items in our lives by physicists, engineers, and mathematicians. That's why I was attracted to a recent Wired Dot Physics post by physicist Rhett Allain in which he did a Tracker video analysis of the most important characters in Angry Birds -- the birds. By using the official Angry Birds walkthrough videos on YouTube with Tracker, Allain was able to determine several important factors -- that the birds exist in a drag-free world (no air resistance), that the sling shot is huge (5 meters -- 16 feet) tall, and the birds are good-sized as well. Y'know that little red bird? He's about 70 cm (27.6 inches) tall. That's a big bird! To see how Allain used Tracker to plot the horizontal and vertical motion of the birds in flight, follow his analysis, and review his assumptions, be sure check out the original post.
Nobel Prize in Physics awarded to pioneering graphene researchers
Last year's Nobel Prize in Physics may have been somewhat belatedly awarded to the inventors of the CCD, but this year's prize couldn't be more timely -- it's just been awarded to Russian-born researchers Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov for their "groundbreaking experiments" with graphene. Graphene, as you may well be aware by now, is the thinnest and lightest material there is, and could well pave the way for whole new generation of smaller, better, faster electronics -- among a host of other things. What's more, like so many great inventions, this one also had something of an inauspicious beginning -- the researchers kick-started their research just six years ago by peeling some flakes off a chunk of graphite with a piece of Scotch tape. [Thanks, Eddie]
TUAW's Daily App: Saving Private Sheep
Saving Private Sheep is a fun one, especially if you like Angry Birds (and there are plenty of you out there who do). Saving Private Sheep is another physics-based puzzler. This time, instead of throwing birds at pigs, you have to save sheep from wolves by tapping various wooden objects in a scene and blowing them up to try and land the pentagonal sheep safely on the ground. It may sound confusing, but once you play the game (which you can do in a free trial), it makes much more sense. The game's 80 levels will have you exploding crates, breaking ice, dropping pulleys, tossing objects around, and trying to earn as many gold medals as you can (by exploding as few items as possible as quickly as possible). And the best part is that the game's on sale for just 99 cents right now. It's not exactly the same as Angry Birds, but the game has a very Angry Birds-style feel to it, so if you like that one, give this one a shot as well.
What would happen if you put your hand in the Large Hadron Collider? Er, well, um... (video)
Scientists, they've made our lives infinitely easier, healthier, and longer, but sometimes even their giant intellects can be stumped. Here we have a perfect example of such a scenario, where the seemingly innocuous question of what might happen if one were to dip a hand inside the Large Hadron Collider has generated a wide range of hypotheses, none of which sound particularly assured of being correct. The trouble is that, aside from the known unknowns -- such as whether the accelerated protons would crash and explode upon contact with your hand or just pass through -- there are surely unknown unknowns that will likely become apparent only once you try to do the act itself. So, any volunteers?
Garry's Mod out for Mac
Valve has released another Steam Play Mac title, and this time it's Garry's Mod, the wild sandbox physics editor that uses assets from Half Life 2 to create whatever you want. The mod is probably most famous for its Rube Goldberg-style creations, but it's also very handy for machinima and other graphic model design as well. It's not so much a game as a way to just create all kinds of wacky machines and computer characters, and have them interact in whatever way you'd like. If you already own it for the PC, then you own the Mac version as well, so you can head into Steam on OS X and download away. If you don't own it yet, Steam has a 50% off discount up right now, so you can pick it up for just $4.99. And no, because I'm sure you're wondering, there's still no Left 4 Dead. Soon, we hope. Soon.
TUAW's Daily App: Rocketeer
Nope, this isn't a movie adaptation (though I'd like to play that game, too). Instead, it's a physics puzzler that has you tossing little rocket-riding guys around planets of various sizes, with gravitational effects to match. The graphics are simple but effective, and the game is surprisingly forgiving -- you get as many chances to try and throw the little guys around as you need, but fewer tries means a better score. There are 80 levels to go through, but play will go pretty quickly. This game has "just one more try" written all over it. It's only 99 cents on the App Store, and for a cheap, physics-based thrill, it delivers. There's also an iPad version available (also for 99 cents) if you'd rather play it there. It could probably be a little more polished (there were times when I thought the puzzle solving was more about random placement rather than actual trial and error), but when you do finally figure out the solution of where to throw your little guy in between the planets, it always ends up being very satisfying.
Galaxy shocker: laws of physics may vary throughout the universe
Oh, brother. Just when you thought you had everything figured out, along comes a team of astrophysicists based in Australia and England to turn your world upside-down. As the story goes, a new "report describes how one of the supposed fundamental constants of nature appears not to be constant after all," with the fine-structure constant actually varying throughout testing. The crew measured the number, dubbed "alpha," in about 300 faraway galaxies, and they consistently found that it measured differently than on Earth. Professor John Webb from the University of New South Wales even stated that it "seemed to vary continuously along a preferred axis through the universe," which effectively means we're back to square one on figuring just about everything out. Burn the books, kids.
Physicists create tiny ruler to easily measure nanoscale contraptions
How do you measure items constructed on a nanoscale assembly line? Why, using a plasmon ruler that measures how much the structure's surrounding gas resonates, of course... and it just so happens that science has theoretically built a better one than ever before. Researchers at China's Wuhan University discovered that by using nanospheres "to modify surface plasmon coupling of a nanorod dimer" -- yes, that's a little over our heads, too -- they could create a linear plasmon ruler that allows one to read how far apart the particles are using a far simpler calculation and modify the range of measurement more easily too. None of this may seem important to you at the moment, but remember: nobody wants imprecisely-sized nanites crawling through their tubes.
Lagoa Multiphysics 1.0 blows our minds with a shockwave of charcoal dust (video)
This is quite possibly the single greatest argument we've heard for owning a 3D graphics workstation. It's hard to believe we're even looking at something generated by a computer. Hit the break for the best three minutes of video you've seen all day.
World Cup ball gets NASA's official mark of disapproval
If you've been following World Cup tourneys through the noughties, you'll have noticed that criticizing the official tournament ball has turned into something of an unspoken tradition. The latest offender of football purists' stringent standards is the Adidas Jabulani ball, which was introduced especially for World Cup 2010. That wouldn't be notable in itself, but this time it's apparently gotten bad enough for NASA to pipe up and drop some science on the subject. The aerodynamics experts (at least we hope they're experts) of the American space agency have said that the 440-gram ball becomes unpredictable when propelled at over 44mph, resulting in the unnatural swerves and deviations that have been plaguing footballers this year. So there you have it, England, Italy and France: a rock solid excuse to pin your lackadaisical exhibitions of mediocrity this year -- it was the ball's fault.
Physicist fight: how heavy is a kilogram?
Physicists are currently hotly debating a topic some of us never think about -- or if we did -- surely we'd think 'there's an answer for that, even if I don't know what it is.' The question? The question at hand is 'how heavy is a kilogram?' The currently accepted answer is the mass of a cylinder of platinum and iridium called the International Prototype Kilogram. The problem with that definition, of course, is that not just anybody can measure it -- since most of us don't have an International Prototype Kilogram laying around, especially since every time the thing is picked up a few atoms rub off of it making it a little bit lighter. Because of this, the actual International Prototype Kilogram (yes, there does only seem to be one in existence) is stored in a vault in Sevres, France, limiting the lay person's ability to determine the actual weight of a kilogram. There are other options on the table, of course, including one involving a two-stories high piece of equipment that costs around $1.5 million -- which isn't much better, when you think of it. Enter Ronald Fox and friends over at the National Institute of Standards and Technology. They're suggesting a rather shocking solution: make the kilogram equal to the mass of a certain number of carbon-12 atoms (2250× 28148963^3 of them), also known as a cube of carbon measuring 8.11 centimeters on each side. This would mean, of course, that pretty much anybody could determine the weight of a kilogram at home. But we wouldn't want that, now, would we?
German physicists working on quantum interface between light and atoms
Physicists at Johannes Gutenberg University in Germany are developing something which they call the Mainz interface, and which could eventually lead to a quantum computer -- a whole new way of communicating information. For now, though the Mainz interface is seeking to use laser light traveling through a tapered glass fiber, trapping cesium atoms at the thin center. This center of the fiber is actually thinner than the wavelength of light, meaning that it protrudes into the space surrounding the fiber, "coupling" with the atoms trapped there. Sounds pretty complicated, right? Well, it is, but the researchers are moving along toward the goal of quantum computing. We'll keep you updated on their progress.
Large Hadron Collider to search for God Particle using 7 TeV proton collisions, via live webcast (update: first collisions, video!)
The Large Hadron Collider is about to turn useful, people. Having recently jacked up its particle acceleration power to create 3.5 TeV (trillion electron volts) collisions, the researchers are today pressing ahead with plans to go to a full 7 TeV, which -- you won't be surprised to hear -- has never been done before. Provided the requisite 3.5 TeV per beam is reached, sustained and properly channeled into creating useful collisions, CERN will finally have the data it needs to start its long-awaited physics program based off the findings provided by the LHC. Best of all? The latest world record attempt is being broadcast live over the web right now so why not hit up that link below to witness some history in the making? Update: The momentous first protonic collisions at 7 TeV have just taken place, at just past 1PM CET. Now the time comes for researchers to parse all the incoming raw data, pore over it, analyze it, etc. We'll leave that to them, it's not like you can expect the God Particle to be discovered instantly. To fill the time, we invite you to come past the break for our blow-by-blow updating adventure from this morning plus video of the big moment.
Video shows CCP's incredible cloth and hair simulation
We've known for some time that CCP planned to use physics simulation to make the clothes in EVE Online's Incarna expansion and their upcoming World of Darkness MMO more realistic. They even gave a talk on using NVidia's APEX cloth simulation at the 2010 Game Developer's Conference. Until now, all we've seen are technical details and the occasional screenshot, which makes it hard to work out how the end product will look. NVidia have released a new video this week of CCP's cloth simulation in action, giving those of us that are interested a sneak peak at the incredibly impressive results. Although APEX cloth simulation will be introduced to EVE when Incarna is released, the video looks much more like something out of World of Darkness. As an added bonus, the system seems to simulate realistic hair and not just clothes. Hair in most MMOs has always been limited to shorter styles which would look alright without animation. The ability to simulate complex clothes and long hair styles make character customisation in World of Darkness and EVE's Incarna expansion look very promising. Skip past the cut to watch the video in HD. [Thanks for the tip, Patrick!]
GDC10: Nexon's Vindictus revealed
I'll admit to being somewhat of a Nexon fanboy, and someone that considers them to be in the toy business rather than in the MMO business. They manufacture joy in my eyes. Bright, shiny joy. But the recent announcement of their new title "Vindictus" shows us a game that we are not used to seeing from Nexon. While it will follow the same business model that other Nexon games do, it promises to be a "sexy" game: a game that will make players feel like a hero. It promises to be more of an action game, or as Nexon America's Vice President Min Kim put it when he sat down with us for an interview, "an mmoACTIONrpg, epic, fierce and intense." Want to know more? Want to see the killer trailer? Join us after the jump. %Gallery-88064%
Black Prophecy networking physics explained
Reakktor Media Technical Director Cyrus Preuss is back with his fourth and final dev diary regarding Black Prophecy's game physics. This time around, the focus is on the networking side of the equation, and the article does a good job of presenting the Reakktor team's networking challenges to the lay person. "It must be noted that we are talking about a real first-person, respectively third-person MMO. So no server-sided dice play but real physical hit detection," Preuss says. "All of these mechanisms serve to determine what actually happens as precisely as possible. Every parameter adjustment has "logical" consequences as well as side effects that you can only track down with precise analysis." Whether you're a physics major, or your eyes gloss over at the thought of balancing your checkbook, it's clear that Black Prophecy is a labor of love for Reakktor. Hit this link to jump to the original article, as well as the first, second, and third parts of the Game Physics dev blog. Also be sure and stick with Massively all week as we will be interviewing the Reakktor team at GDC 2010.
Zen Bound 2 for iPad out by April 3rd, looks great
We've heard from Secret Exit (creators of Zen Bound) a few times about the new version of their game coming soon, but Touch Arcade has some brand new pics and insight about the game itself. Kotaku also has a few preview pics, and the game looks terrific -- not only is it due out in the App Store soon, but we know for sure that it'll be before April 3rd, because they're aiming to have a day one iPad version ready to go as well. As you can tell from the pics, it's going to be just gorgeous -- high resolution, a crisp UI with lots of room to breathe, and the same physics-based rope-twisting gameplay as the first game. Of course, there will probably be at least a few kinks -- unless Secret Exit is super lucky, they probably haven't run the code on an actual iPad just yet, so even if the app is in the store on day one, it might still need a few adjustments once they actually get a production device to run everything on. But these pics only make us even more excited at the possibility for gaming on the iPad -- just like we'd never had a mass-market touchscreen device before the iPhone came along, we've never had a widespread touchscreen device of this size before, and the bigger screen is going to make a big difference in games like this one for sure.
