Re: PHOTO-3D digest 2174

[P3D Andrew Eskind <andy@xxxxxxx>]

> >Those who saw today's explaination by Dr. Carol Stroker of the
> virtual
> >modeling being
> >done from Mars images (I saw it via VXTREME video linked to CNN.com)
> may
> >have
> >had the same question I did.
>
> Would you consider summarizing it, for the benefit of those of us who
> didn't see it?



> John R



John,

Your request touches on a sensitive area - or maybe even 2 sensitive
areas.  The given
sensitivity is my own limited ability to recap this kind of stuff even
though it wasn't even
a particularly technical presentation.

The larger sensitivity is my irritation that these press conferences
presented via CNN.com
even with the web's primitive ability to deliver on-demant TV are still
FAR more interesting (to me, at least) than the various reportorial
recaps presented by those I
typically check in on - cnn, NY Times, Time, Newsweek, etc.

Yet, for reasons I can't at all fathom, CNN.COM only seems to keep the
vextreme
version of the press conferences up for a day (if they're capturable in
cache, I haven't
figured out how to do that).  Seems to me JPL, or CNN, or some source
with a bit
of archival foresight might collect the whole set of news
conferences/briefings for those
of us who are slow on the uptake to review in retrospect.  Then again,
there's no shortage of things I don't understand - some of which more
excusable than others.

Getting back to Dr. Stroker's presentation - in its 2 inch square glory
on my computer monitor, it appeared she was demonstrating their current
state of development on a
VR navigable world built out of lander and rover's images received so
far.  She described
how they treat the lander as point (0,0,0) in a virtual 3-d space into
which image data
somehow gets fed after they've somehow mapped where the given stream of
pixel values
belong on the 3 axes.  Her VR engine could clearly navigate in any
direction including
driving over and looking from behind at the backside of things (implies
usage of ROVER
getting out far enough to look 'back').

She did make reference to the individual who 'invented' the VR methods
they are using
saying that this person was there working with them.  He wasn't
identified as representing
Apple or any particular VR technology.  Just a name that I didn't note.

She also made reference to the USEFULNESS of the VR representation in
terms of
the engineers/scientists facility in planning, analyzing, etc.  i.e.
this isn't just a frivolous
exercise to razzle daz the general public.  It did, however, razzle daz
this individual member of the gen pub even though I could barely make it
out.

Only other comment:  I presume those interested have by now discovered
this morning's
arrival on the jpl's pathfinder page of a couple dozen anaglyphic jpgs
varying in size and
covereage with no clue as to which to stitch together in what sequence
to make the 'monster' panoram.  Some are quite impressive as individual
images.  I haven't yet taken
the time to try stitching them together.  The site implies that for size
considerations, they're
doing us the favor of providing it in pieces.

Maybe among us list participants we should collectively figure out which
constitute the
whole, and share the solution to the puzzle.  I've got some partental
chores, but I'll do my
bit - just can't get to it right away.

ahe



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