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You know that burning sensation, the one where you dump crunchy granules of fertilizer all over yourself after the spreader explodes? Yeah, that one. What to do? You’re stuck because you want to finish feeding the nitrogen-depleted grass blades, but can’t. Your afternoon plans have been foiled yet again. Well, there’s no better time to dust off that ol’ 3D printer catalog and start looking for some plastic-layering power to make sure that this never. happens. AGAIN.
A very kind reader and master of SolidWorks surfacing technology sent me a really fun link that plays on the idea of ‘unboxing the box’ – as in, removing the notion that surrounds cars of being boxy and inefficient.
It’s from Audi and produced by 1st Ave Machine. They make shaping cardboard look way easy, like babies could do it. If you’ve actually worked with cardboard however, it can be quite difficult to shape. Painful even, especially when that box cutter slips.
Anyway, what I think is especially cool and significant to our 3D CAD interests, is the idea of creating 3-dimensional geometry around us, or rather on us… or us on the 3D geometry. Sound odd? Watch the video to see what I’m talkin’ about.
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Yes that’s my monochrome body standing there, moving objects around on a very mobile, very modular and yeah, very cool multi-touch display.
It’s the newest in new future technology form none other than MultiTouch, the company. Moving stuff around on a screen with your fingers isn’t new, but theirs is the first completely modular, multi-touch HD LCD display unit and it’s about to slam the potential down on your peaceful afternoon.
You all are gonna flip, or rather, explode, when you see this. I’ve been looking for 3D CAD news out of Siggraph08 that happened last week, but have not found much beyond some announcements about rendering models.
Fortunately, Mark Treadwell from Premier Rides came across some info and filled me in. A team from Berkeley has developed an automated system for viewing interactive 3D exploded views of models. Check out the video after the break.
MCAD is running like heck from the desktop. The possibilities of where CAD data is accessed from and where you are when you access it just keeps on growing I tell ya. First you have laptops coming out sporting the AMD Turion X2 Ultra to integrate processor and graphics card capabilities. That equals more power, anywhere.
Now you have HP bringing thin-client workstations to MCAD, workstations that move that box right off your desk and into the depths a server room.
That’s right, all the 3D CAD data is accessed, not from your hard-drive, but from a data-center somewhere else. Can it possibly work? Lets take a look.
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That atomic rubidium vapor you’ve been storing in those old canning jars may soon be put to good use as a storage medium for images which, in turn, could allow 3D data storage, display and possibly manipulation.
A group of physicists from the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa, Israel… yeah, that place, warmed up some of that naturally occurring isotope, added some light pulses, shifted some phases and got an image to stick for about 30 microseconds. That’s… not long, but hey it’s progress.
Possibility of 3D in vapor?
You add some fancy lasers to provide some volumetric recognition, a couple light sources with different wavelengths and a bit of IR feedback to a control device and you’re pretty much there. A couple million in funding wouldn’t hurt either. The next step beyond this could even be using water vapor as a 3D display medium.
This may not seem all to practical, but it’s one avenue of data visualization research that could make the display technology we actually would use in the near future more likely. 3D holographic displays would be a perfect transition for the display of 3D data via water or gas vapor. The trick is taking it from static to dynamic.
The brand spankin’ new 3D technology magazine, Develop3D, has just gone to print. You’ll definitely want to get your hands on this, because for one thing, yours truly is a columnist for the fine outfit based out of UK.
I gotta say, I’m not a regular industry magazine reader, but the way this is laid out and what I’ve seen of it already totally blows everything else out of the CAD-infested waters. If you want a fresh look at the technologies out there and what’s around the bend, check out the magazine and get your free subscription.
You can get the Free Develop3D Subscription Here.
I’ll agree with you, workstations nowadays are just not cuttin’ it. Our desires for widescreen monitors, THX Dolby surround sound, air filtering, light therapy, web cams, and battery backups are diminished by plain old systems that just ‘get the job done.’ NO MORE!
NovelQuest introduces… to you… in July… the ultimate in killer workstations… THE EMPEROR. Named after it’s resemblance to an Emperor Scorpion, the top lifts to easily attach yourself into the ergo-insect interior. This particular version features (only?) three 19″ screens and strikes with Mac or PC poison.
No word on if they will include auto-tracking missile batteries or an option to encase your self permanently in a life-sustaining goo. Price is also suspect although it’s sure to be high. A similar workstation called the Gravitonus rings in at $7k.
Via GeeksAreSexy
AMD has just been making all sorts of Duo-core, 64-bit waves with their new mobile ‘Puma’ platform release yesterday. There’s a lot of news, but not much meat about what this chipset will do for mobile computing or 3D, so here’s some key points to start a discussion.
Maybe some others, more hardware savvy than I, can give their opinion on how AMD’s technology will make 3D CAD programs like SolidWorks perform better. Some seem to think these new platforms will have the performance of a Mac within a PC with phenomenal HD.
AMD says its chipsets deliver three times better 3-D performance and five times better high-definition image quality than competing models because of the strength of its integrated graphics. Foxnews
Here’s the highlights. What do you think?
Single Source CPU Platform – Processor (Turion X2 Ultra 64), GPU (ATI Radeon), bus interface (AMD’s M780G), and SB700 South Bridge connected via AMD’s Hypertransport 3 bus.
Hybrid Graphics support – Can accept integrated, discreet or combination. Discreet GPU’s render graphics from dedicated video RAM, which helps system performance.
Enhanced HD – MPEG2, H.264, and VC1 playback, lower power/lower noise levels, HDMI, DVI, and DisplayPort support.
Many OEM’s on board – HP, Dell, Acer, Asus, and Toshiba’s Satellite Series. They’ll start showing up next week.
As if Multi-touch technology wasn’t enough to make you sing and dance through the forest of TechBlogs, two developers have been working with Plasma and OLED technology to make whatever displays will be in the future thinner, more flexible… and yes, spreadable.
Flexible Plasma monitor
Shinoda Plasma has create a supper-thin (1 mil), super-flexible (wrap-around) plasma tube array (PTA) that measure at 1 x 1 meter each. They can be linked together to form long screen and they’re working on larger ones. The current resolution is crap-errific, but it’s as light as a 8 lb hamburger. Of course the only thing people can talk about using this for are signs and advertising. puh-lease! There’s other people out there that use monitors!
Spreadable OLED
No good photos here, but imagine accidently spreading some organic light-emitting diodes on your toast. yum. What’s super rockin’ about this is the same technology can be used for solar panels. So, you basically a mobile phone shell could be infused with a self-powered, self-lighting gel. Same with you monitor, watch, lawnmower, etc. Fixed screen OLED Monitors should be out more near 2009 (Sony has one now). Psst… they use a lot less power and have a glorious 1,000,000 to 1 contrast ratio, but are dang pricey now. It’s sad though, the spread-tech is still about two-years out for prototypes.
Via TechNews and PinkTentacle
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