It is Alive in the Lab

FORA.tv: MythBusters Co-Host Adam Savage on Obsession with Dodo

2013-05-24T04:00:00-07:00

Educational TV show MythBusters co-host, Adam Savage, tells a tale of how, without the aid of any software, he manually crafted a complete Dodo bird skeleton by looking at thousands of web sites and photos.

Oh Adam, if only you had considered Autodesk ReCap Photo.

Learn more about ReCap Photo

Many of you may recall photogrammetry technology when it was on Autodesk Labs as Project Photofly. ReCap Photo allows anyone to use the cloud to create 3D models from photographs via Autodesk 360. Since no one complete Dodo bird skeleton existed in one place, Adam could have used pictures from separate locations to create separate 3D models. He could then 3D print the individual parts that he could have then assembled together.

Check out the Discussion Forum

MythBusters is filmed on the old Alameda Naval Air Station which is walking distance from where I live. I guess I should have reached out to him. What a Dodo I am for not doing so.

Photogrammetry could have been alive in his lab.

Autodesk Gallery Powers of Design Exhibit: 10**15 Cat's Eye Nebula

2013-05-23T04:00:00-07:00

I work out of our office on One Market Street in San Francisco. My standup-desk is right across from our Gallery at One Market. One of our newer exhibits is called Powers of Design. It was first featured at the Technology Entertainment & Design (TED) conference last year. Powers of Design depicts the size of everything from the inconceivably small to the mind-blowingly large. I thought I'd cover the exhibit elements, one at a time, over the next few months. I started small and am working my way up.

Cat’s Eye Nebula as photographed by the Hubble Space Telescope. Image courtesy of NASA, ESA, HEIC, and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA).

10¹⁵ MAGNITUDE
1,000,000,000,000,000 m
1 trillion kilometers

Cat’s Eye Nebula

9.5 Trillion Kilometers

The Cat’s Eye Nebula (NGC 6543) resides in the constellation Draco (Latin for “dragon”), about 3,300 light-years from Earth. Coincidentally, dragon eyes look just like cat eyes, although this is really just a guess since dragons are mythical.

With a diameter of nearly 9.5 trillion kilometers, NGC 6543 is one of the most complex nebulae known, revealing remarkable structures such as knots, jets, bubbles, and sinewy arc-like features. In the center of the Cat’s Eye (the pupil if you will) there is a bright, hot star approximately 10,000 times as luminous as the sun. Nearly 1,000 years ago this star lost its outer envelope, producing the nebula.

This thing is 10 times the size of our entire solar system!

Thanks to Global Content Manager, Matt Tierney, for the images and text that comprise the exhibit element. This is just one of the many exhibits in the gallery at One Market in San Francisco. The gallery is open to the public on Wednesdays from 12 pm to 5 pm, and admission is free. Visit us.

Previous posts on this topic include:

Future blog posts will cover:

10¹⁶ Pillars of Creation
10¹⁷ Great Orion Nebula
10¹⁸ M15 Globular Cluster
10¹⁹ Sagitarius Dwarf Galaxy
10²⁰ Trangulum Galaxy
10²¹ The Milky Way
10²² IC 1101
10²³ Local Group of Galaxies
10²⁴ The Local Supercluster
10²⁵ 3C 273
10²⁶ Outer Limit of the Universe

Measurement is alive in the lab.

The Infinite Resource: the case for GMO instead of organic farming

2013-05-22T04:00:00-07:00

I have no desire to eat pesticides. I really don't. Actually when I was a child growing up in New Orleans, a "fog truck" used to come down our street weekly and spray huge plumes of insecticide to kill mosquitoes. All of the neighborhood children would ride our bikes immediately behind the truck because it was like riding in the clouds. I kid you not. I guess what they say is true, that which does not kill you makes you stronger.

I don't go out of my way to eat organic food. Many of you recall my review of The Infinite Resource by Ramez Naam. Chapter 18 of that book makes a strong case for genetically modified food instead of organic farming because organic farming cannot scale up to meet the food demands of the future. I decided to make an infographic of that chapter.

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People often ask, "Isn't Organic food more nutritious?" "The answer isn't yet clear. A recent study examined the past 50 years' worth of scientific articles about the nutrient content of organic and conventional foods. The researchers concluded that organically and conventionally produced foodstuffs are comparable in their nutrient content. Research in this area is ongoing." ^{source: Mayo Clinic}.

Many people are unaware of the limitations of organic farming. That which does not inform you makes you weaker.

Food science is alive in the lab.

My ConnectMyDNA Results

2013-05-21T15:09:21-07:00

my unique gene ring

I was born and raised in New Orleans. I know a little about my family history. As part of an honors history course in college, I had to research my family tree. For example, I know that Joseph Sheppard came to New Orleans in the 1800's and worked as a sugar boiler. The location of the sugar plant eventually became the site of Tulane Stadium where the Sugar Bowl college football game was originally played. Though Sheppard is an English name, Joseph emigrated to New Orleans from Northern Ireland. As my grandmother's maiden name was McGittigan, I suspected that I should be pinched on St. Patrick's Day. On my mother's side, with last names like Broussard and Boudreaux, it was no stretch of the imagination that I would be of French descent.

I recently had my DNA tested. I took advantage of a GroupOn offer. I got a kit, swabbed my cheek, and sent it to the ConnectMyDNA lab where my sample was analyzed. The results are not intended to represent my family history. Instead the results show where it is likely that I may have ancestors because my DNA has characteristics similar to people who live there now. Here is what I got.

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I have likely heritage from France. Makes sense. I have likely heritage from Morocco. Really? On a recent visit to New Orleans, my wife, Sheryl, and I took a carriage ride through the French Quarter. This scenic ride includes the consumption of alcohol. In addition, our driver/tour guide told us about the Barbary pirates, privateers who operated from North Africa (including Morocco) and their role in helping General Andrew Jackson defend New Orleans against the British in 1815. So perhaps I should not have been so shocked to see that I have Moroccan genes? I guess I'm just a pirate at heart — well part pirate.

Ancestry is alive in the lab.

Autodesk Gallery Powers of Design Exhibit: 10**14 The Solar System

2013-05-21T04:00:00-07:00

"The fireball that we rode was moving
But now we've got a new machine
Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah the freaks said
Man those cats can really swing
They got music in their solar system
They've rocked around the Milky Way
They dance around the Borealice
They're Space Truckin' everyday"
— Deep Purple

I work out of our office on One Market Street in San Francisco. My standup-desk is right across from our Gallery at One Market. One of our newer exhibits is called Powers of Design. It was first featured at the Technology Entertainment & Design (TED) conference last year. Powers of Design depicts the size of everything from the inconceivably small to the mind-blowingly large. I thought I'd cover the exhibit elements, one at a time, over the next two months. I started small and am working my way up.

10¹⁴ MAGNITUDE
100,000,000,000,000 m
100 Billion Kilometers

The Solar System

287 Billion Kilometers

It’s been said that it’s sad when someone leaves home unless they’re just going out for cookies. We are indeed leaving our neighborhood as we continue our journey, but alas not for cookies.

The solar system comprises the sun (99.86% of the system’s mass) and the objects orbiting it, formed from the collapse of a molecular cloud 4.5 billion years ago. The inner planets—Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars—are primarily composed of rock and metal while the outer planets (gas giants) are composed mainly of hydrogen and helium (Jupiter and Saturn) and ices (Uranus and Neptune). Formerly the ninth planet, Pluto is now one of the five dwarf planets in the system.

Previous posts on this topic include:

Future blog posts will cover:

10¹⁵ Cat's Eye Nebula
10¹⁶ Pillars of Creation
10¹⁷ Great Orion Nebula
10¹⁸ M15 Globular Cluster
10¹⁹ Sagitarius Dwarf Galaxy
10²⁰ Trangulum Galaxy
10²¹ The Milky Way
10²² IC 1101
10²³ Local Group of Galaxies
10²⁴ The Local Supercluster
10²⁵ 3C 273
10²⁶ Outer Limit of the Universe

Measurement is alive in the lab.

Life of Pi shows why Robots will one day have emotions

2013-05-20T03:03:35-07:00

"I love my computer
you make me feel alright
every waking hour
and every lonely night"
— Bad Religion

When I attended Design Night on robotics, there was a discussion as to whether or not robots would ever have emotions. The audience was split about 50-50 in terms of answering yes and no. Last night I watched the movie, Life of Pi, via Netflix. In my opinion it contained a related conversation between a father, Sanosh, and his young son, Pi, who almost lost an arm while attempting to feed a tiger by hand:

Sanosh Patel: You think tiger is your friend. He is an animal, not a playmate.
Pi Patel: Animals have souls. I have seen it in their eyes.
Sanosh Patel: When you look into his eyes, you are seeing your own emotions reflected back at you.

And there it is — why robots will one day have emotions. Robots will mimic physical characteristics that we humans will interpret as emotions. They will make smiles or frowns with fake lips, have wide-open or droopy mechanical eyes, and perhaps even tears. In the same way Pi believed that animals have souls from what he perceived in the tiger's eyes, people will project emotions on to robots.

As was presented on Design Night, researchers discussed the following:

Panelist: How would you feel if someone took a baseball bat to your refrigerator?
Respondent: I would not like it, but not so bad.
Panelist: How would you feel if someone took a baseball bat to your robot?
Respondent: I think I would feel the same.
Panelist: Then explain this. We had people play with a robot dog. After a short while, we gave them a bat and asked them to destroy the dog. They could not do it.

They say communication is defined by the receiver, not the sender. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I guess it's the same with emotion. People will see physical characteristics that they associate with human emotions and believe that the sender has these emotions when in fact it is they who are projecting the emotions on to the sender. Whoa! In the Design Night example, people believed the mechanical dog had feelings because it acted like a dog even though it was the equivalent of a blender or toaster.

Let me guess. He's angry?
source: fxguide.com

At the start of the Design Night, Adviser to the CEO/CTO, Jonathan Knowles, introduced the panelists and also recognized Dr. Don Greenberg who was in the audience. Dr. Greenberg is a professor at Cornell University and pioneer in computer graphics. Back in the early days had anyone asked him, or anyone else for that matter, if we'd ever see computer graphics that were so good that one could not distinguish them from a photograph, the answers would not have been split 50-50, but 100% no. But just look at visually striking movies, such as Life of Pi, today. No tiger was harmed in the making of the movie, because the tiger was computer-generated. Robots are indeed in their infancy, but just give them time. One day we'll say "They're Gr-r-reat!" One day we might not be able to distinguish them from people — much like computer renderings and photographs.

Getting emotional is alive in the lab.

Augmented Reality for Showcase retires from Autodesk Labs

2013-05-17T04:00:00-07:00

Scanning and photogrammetry are ways to get something in the real world into the computer. 3D printing is one way to get something out of the computer into the real world. Augmented reality is a way to visualize something in the computer in the real world without having to physically create it.

Augmented Reality allows the ability to overlay semantically in context information (graphics, text, video, sound) on to a live video feed of the real-world in real-time. Autodesk Showcase is already a gold standard for photorealistic high quality interactive 3D real-time rendering. With the Showcase 2013 Augmented Reality plug-in, it was easy to visualize showcase 3D models in the real-world as viewed through a web or video camera. The technology preview has ended. The add-in has a time-bomb that stopped its operation on April 30, 2013. Thanks to everyone who downloaded the technology preview:

and provided feedback:

The augmented reality team is considering another technology preview at a later date.

Retirement is alive in the lab.

Full Scale 3D Printed Motorcycle: Is our wheel backwards?

2013-05-16T09:00:41-07:00

At AU 2008 I happened to be nearby when our team was hoisting the 3D printed motorcycle for display. Autodesk had given me a FlipCam to take some video, so I did. I got this comment on my YouTube video today.

So is the front wheel mounted the wrong way? I took this picture in the Autodesk Gallery today.

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Here is the back wheel:

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The gallery is open to the public on Wednesdays from 12 pm to 5 pm, and admission is free. Visit us and check out the wheels for yourself.

The search for correct orientation is alive in the lab.

Autodesk Gallery Powers of Design Exhibit: 10**13 Voyager 2

2013-05-16T04:00:00-07:00

Artist rendering of the NASA Voyager 2 spacecraft. Image courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech.

10¹³ MAGNITUDE
10,000,000,000,000 m
10 billion kilometers

Voyager 2

10 billion Kilometers

Despite what you may think, Voyager 2 did not have a sibling, Voyager 6, which nearly destroyed Earth before being stopped by the robot-stumping James T. Kirk. Designed to study the outer solar system, Voyager 2 was launched in 1977. Its primary mission ended in 1989 after encountering Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune—the four gas giants—and it is now on extended mission beyond the heliosphere.

Voyager carries an audio-visual disc (if discovered by intelligent life) containing photos, scientific information, spoken greetings, and a medley of Earth sounds and music. It is currently 10 billion kilometers from the sun and is expected to transmit until 2025.

Voyager 2's Solar System Tour:

Closest approach to Jupiter occurred on July 9, 1979.
Closest approach to Saturn occurred on August 25, 1981.
Closest approach to Uranus occurred on January 24, 1986.
Closest approach to Neptune occurred on August 25, 1989.

Despite Voyager 2's impressive itinerary, that's only one-tenth of the Solar System.

Previous posts on this topic include:

Future blog posts will cover:

10¹⁴ The Solar System
10¹⁵ Cat's Eye Nebula
10¹⁶ Pillars of Creation
10¹⁷ Great Orion Nebula
10¹⁸ M15 Globular Cluster
10¹⁹ Sagitarius Dwarf Galaxy
10²⁰ Trangulum Galaxy
10²¹ The Milky Way
10²² IC 1101
10²³ Local Group of Galaxies
10²⁴ The Local Supercluster
10²⁵ 3C 273
10²⁶ Outer Limit of the Universe

Measurement is alive in the lab.

Updated FABmep Import for Revit MEP Now Available via Autodesk Labs

2013-05-15T10:38:32-07:00

Autodesk Fabrication CADmep supports detailing, fabrication, and installation workflows for mechanical, electrical, and plumbing (MEP) contractors, and provides tools that extend design-intent to create more accurate, intelligent, constructible models of building services systems. Autodesk Revit is specifically built for Building Information Modeling (BIM), empowering design and construction professionals to bring ideas from concept to construction with a coordinated and consistent model-based approach. The flavor of Revit that adds capabilities for mechanical, electrical, and plumbing is Revit MEP.

The FABmep Import for Revit MEP is our free technology preview that enables users to import Autodesk Fabrication CADmep models into Autodesk Revit MEP, providing round-tripping capabilities for as-built/record drawing purposes.

The latest update includes changes based on your feedback:

Improvements to MEP fitting alignments on imported systems
Mapping Definition file now saved to ProgramData directory to resolve accessibility issues

You can download it now:

Download FABmep Import for Revit MEP via Autodesk Labs

The technology preview started in July 2012 with support for Revit MEP 2013. The latest update also adds support for Revit MEP 2014. So now both sets of users can weigh in.

So how is the interoperability? The team welcomes your input. You can contact the team in a variety of ways.

Expanding the audience for feedback is alive in the lab.