Direct DC

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by Fred Abler

The summer I was 11, my cousin and uncle helped me build a large scale model of a tug-boat. I have always loved Tug boats. Who doesn’t.. they just look Tough!



     Fig.1 –  FormFonts 3D Model of Mr. Darby Tugboat, by Gabriel Concha.

Both my cousin Dave and my uncle are world class model builders. So we made the custom-designed hull from hand laid-fiberglass (way before carbon fiber). And after weeks of hard work, huffing VOCs from the resin, and repeated wet-sandings of the hull, my Uncle Bud said.. “Hey.. Let’s test it!”

Before I could say “no”, he sprang up like a cat from the back stoop, put the hull keel-up on the concrete patio, and proceeded not just to stand on it.  No!  He jumped up-and-down-repeatedly on my precious!!  I nearly died, until I saw it was unharmed.

This was my first introduction to the strength of composite materials; real multi-channel radio control; negative steering; and small electric motors and batteries. We even used a car’s windshield-wiper motor to equip the Tug with real bow-thrusters. Like I said, world class.

I remember clearly buying my first real battery for the Tug at SEARS. It was a small 9V motorcycle battery, about the size of 5 packs of cigarettes. This was my first real introduction to electric batteries and Direct Current, and DC has since become something of a fascination for me.

(we will return to boats shortly)

— DC now—

Years later, as an architect and home-moaner, I’m increasingly aware of the extent to which Direct Current now confronts me in my everyday life.  Anything with a transistor inside it uses DC, electricity that flows only in one direction.

This means that every PC, laptop, iphone, flat panel TV ( all 3 of them) in the house has it’s own in-built converter box, to convert AC from the wall into DC. This is horribly inefficient. But then it’s not just electronics.. there are electric cars, and LED lighting.

The advent of affordable LED lighting is really starting to change the balance of power. To the point I find myself asking, “Do residences even need AC for anymore?”. And for about the past three years, I’ve asked myself:

“Why didn’t I just wire the whole house with DC circuits??”

Just use one big DIEHARD battery (or more likely an AC-to-DC converter) in the garage for everything. Think about it. You’d never have to change those damn smoke-detector batteries ever again!

—– Direct DC —–

I am not alone in my latent appreciation of;  efficiency,  Direct Current, or even  ‘productive laziness’. Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania,  have recently done some valuable ‘What If’ scenarios on DC-powered LED lighting.

They ran several lighting scenarios on a 48,000 s.f. building using either a central DC power supply, or AC from-the-grid. Using DC on fluorescent lighting did not result in savings. However, with DC-powered LED lighting, CMU researchers found a savings of $24,000 per year.

Of course, if the LED lighting is powered directly from a PV solar array on the building, savings are even greater (no AC-to-DC converters required). It should also be noted that to sell solar PV power back to the grid, an DC-to-AC converter is required. Use the juice …directly, and both converters are obviated.

There are a few drawbacks of course. Permitting DC wiring (the full safety of which is not fully known) and installation costs (higher than AC) all need to be addressed.  But these are relatively minor and can be designed-away. What I’ll call Direct DC is coming soon.

——– All On’Board —–

It’s not hard to see a ship as just a floating building. And if you do so, the future of Direct DC is already here. This February, ABB, the huge Swedish-Swiss power and automation technology group, won an order from ship owners to build the first OnBoard DC power grid.

The OnBoard DC grid will provide all power and propulsion systems for the vessel – a 93 meter long 5000 tonne multi-purpose oil-field supply and construction vessel currently being built in Norway. The ship is slated for operation starting the first quarter of 2013.

In traditional propulsion systems, the electric thrusters and propulsion drives are powered by AC converted to multiple DC circuits, and together account for more than 80% of the vessels electrical power use. ABB’s OnBoard DC power system saves energy by distributing power through a single DC circuit.

In Short :  The future is electric!  Get OnBoard with Direct DC.

Thanks for reading and subscribing!    FormFonts 3D Models

Sources:

ABB to Supply Onboard DC Grid to Shipowner

Edison’s Revenge: The Rise of DC Power

FormFonts 3D Model of Mr. Darby Tugboat

Land8

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by Fred Abler

It’s Sunday. Now that we can’t get the New York Times Sunday print edition, and the LA Times is downright anorexic, I find Sundays much longer than they used to be. The interwebs are largely dead on the weekend, so it’s a good time for catching up with family, friends and colleagues.

If you don’t already know about Land8, (L8) it’s a brilliant site for Landscape Architects to hang, chat, and share knowledge of their craft. L8 was started by Andrew Spiering in June of 2008. Andrew is a landscape architect (and fellow Cal Poly-SLO Alum) who lives and works in Sausalito, CA.

I really envy Andrew because he can go to Cibo for breakfast anytime he wants. It’s an amazing cafe/restaurant and they serve batch roasted BlueBottle Coffee – made right.  It’s Sunday, so why not read the story of BlueBottle coffee. (after this post please).

If I could, I would have Sunday breakfast there every week, and coffee at Cibo every morning. Last time I was there, I even took a picture of my breakfast (unusual) it was so amazing..

Fig 1 – Breakfast at Cibo Sausalito. Frittata $9.75. Eggs, Cream, Fresh vegetables, Cibo Hot Sauce, and creamed beans (with a splash of Marsala wine?) on toast.

I also envy Andrew because Land8 is a genuinely beautiful website. It’s stylish without being too hip, and it’s just loaded with Land8-types doing social media – the way it should be done.

I wish as a young man, I had had the gathered wisdom of a community that you find at L8. For example, this post ‘ Should I major in Landscape Architecture?’… with 80 replies. Wouldn’t you like to know what they said? I did.

In Short – It’s Sunday. Get yourself over to  Land8 for some quality multi-slacking. You might even win yourself some free One2One SketchUp consulting with Daniel Tal and FormFonts 3D!


Thanks for reading and Subscribing!   FormFonts3d Models

SketchUp 3.0

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by Fred Abler

Yesterday was a hugely exciting day in the SketchUp community. John Bacus announced a major reboot for the SketchUp team. They are leaving GOOGLE and being acquired by Trimble Navigation (TRMB).

This was a big relief for SketchUp watchers. We had been worried for weeks. Google recently told beta-testers that the next version would not be released. It had in fact been “postponed indefinitely”. Rumours were flying, and none of them appetizing.

Then, while signing up to follow FormFonts 3D on Twitter, I saw a tweet from John Bacus. “I’ll be in San Francisco with the family for a 3 week vacation, anyone know of fun things to do there?” it said. “Who the heck takes a three week vacation at Headquarters I thought?”

I confided in a few that I was now really worried – “Google may kill SketchUp and Layout, and pull John Bacus, Aidan, Bryce and others onto other “more important” Google projects!”. But luckily, my internal GPS was just ever-so-slightly off.

Trimble Navigation Inc. is just down the street from the Googleplex in Sunnyvale, CA. And I’m willing to wager that John spent more than a few days while “on vacation” at their offices. But the point of this post is – when it comes to positioning, close doesn’t count.

Thankfully, we were all wrong. Even those predicting SketchUp would soon be sold to Dassault!

Now it feels like the clock has been rolled back to the heady days of 2005. Everyone, including the SketchUp team, is genuinely excited… and we can’t wait to see what comes next!

As an architect, I couldn’t be happier to see SketchUp move to Trimble Navigation, a Silicon Valley company started 35 years ago as a provider of Global Positioning Systems (GPS) receivers. If you’re a surveyor or own a small boat or plane, you’ve known Trimble for years.

Over the decades Trimble has expanded aggressively into four core markets; Engineering and Construction, Field Solutions, Mobile Solutions, and Advanced Devices. Trimble now earns 55% of their $1.6 Billion in annual revenue from Engineering and Construction.

Lately, Trimble has been on a serious acquisition jag – buying companies both large and small (nine in 2011, and SketchUp is the 4th acquisition so far this year). Strategic acquisitions include companies as diverse as RFID provider ThingMagic,  the BIM Brainiacs at TEKLA, and several laser scanning companies ( LIDAR).

—-  the power of position-ing —-

Trimble currently has two unfair advantages. It controls initial-capture of what the military calls “mission critical” information (i.e. position). Furthermore, Trimble leverages this precise information-advantage from its natural market – Engineering and Construction.

(Warning: Purple Comment) So many companies have been trying to sell BIM to Architects instead of Constructors, and with such middling results. Trimble is not a company making this mistake. It will succeed organically by just ‘baking BIM into its product pipeline’.     The’ Desk should be very scared…

Trimble’s acquisitions appear to all share a common strategic objective – to simultaneously expand_and_harden its ‘positioning pipeline’. It seems to me that Trimble’s meta-mission is to “own positioning” as an existential (constantly changing) attribute of all things.

—- @ Last! —-

Given Trimble’s brilliant.. positioning, it’s highly likely they intend to use SketchUp as the web-friendly super-glue that will hold all of their strategic acquisitions together. This would appear to be the perfect challenge for SketchUp.

At Last! Trimble is likely to take the advice long-given on SU BetaForums, to use the Ruby API and C++ SDK, to enable many different flavors of SketchUp. If true, this new product-line practice will enable SketchUp (and its partners) to finally reach full potential.

If SketchUp is near “cloud ready”…(a personal speculation), it could soon support a lightweight web client – or viewer. Trimble will likely accelerate development of SketchUp as a SAAS platform, internet-enabling their extended user workflow.

Given that SketchUp has 30 million registered users (sincere thanks to The Google), and that Trimble is likely to promote SketchUp_As_A_Platform (SKAAP?) – SketchUp may soon be in a position to actually deliver the BIM’plimentation others have only promised.

—- Hu-man Relationships —-

Finally, as founder of SketchUp’s first free 3D model library – ObjectiveNetworks in 2002  and FormFonts 3D (2005) – the world’s largest living library of professionally created 3D components (both forerunners of Google’s 3D Warehouse) –  I can tell you, it’s been a rough decade living in the SketchUp Ecology.

My personal hope is Trimble is one of the few technology companies that actually values human relationships…business partners..and users great-and-small. It will be so nice not to mine ‘Tweets and Rumors’.. just for clues about SketchUp’s future!

In Short,  SketchUp 3.0 is a major reboot! Trimble will @Last, give SketchUp the resources it deserves (including a new building), more staff and hopefully some autonomy – and very likely gain a THIRD unfair advantage in the bargain.

Thanks for reading and subscribing!  -  FormFonts 3D Models

Holo’ Tek – Glasses Free 3D for Tablets

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by Fred Abler

You have to love StarTrek if only for the tech… phasers, transporters, tri-quarters, replicators, holodecks… You name it, Star Trek’nology was some cool kit!

In one of my favorite tech segments, Captain Picard orders “Earl Grey- HOT!!”, but the replicator keeps making a wet mess. It’s later discovered that the replicator software has a bug. It’s mindlessly replicating the tea before the teacup.

Obviously the show’s creators want us to know, that even in the future, computers still won’t have any common sense.

The all-time coolest tech (besides the transporter) was the HoloDeck ‘simulated reality’ facility on the Enterprise-D. Here again ‘the computer’ would run “programs” in ‘first person’ subjective mode, in which the person usually interacts with the program and it’s characters.

The Enterprise HoloDeck was typically used by some lonely, lost, or libidinous.. Starfleet officer in need of some virtual “shore leave” -  to attend the Klingon tea ceremony, host a simulated BetaZed marriage, or even haunt  jazz-filled bars on Ye’Old Earth.

The truly great thing about HoloDeck was it was immersive and interactive. You could safely spar with Klingon Batliffs, kanoodle with an old girlfriend, or talk to Spock’s father -  all in a cathartic kind of waking dream.

And that’s the sucky thing about today’s HoloTek. It’s static. After taking three Excedrin 3Ds, and donning a bad-pair of Ray-Bans, we have to sit still for hours – getting poked-in-the-eye  repeatedly by some moviemaker-cliche. Swords, Flying Dragons, etc. etc.

—  Synesthesia —

3D movies may be immersive… but they’re hardly interactive. This creates real drag on suspension of disbelief needed to enjoy them. Not only do you have to willingly enter the filmmakers’ world –  your autonomic nervous system has to come-along for the ride as well.

Yet interacting in 3D is a much more engaging experience. Why? Because your brain is actively providing the narrative, and is thus distracted. Plus, the haptic movement of your own body reinforces the experience. Theme parks are built on this very understanding.

Obviously today’s 3D Tek is still mostly concerned with optics, and far less so with the synesthetics (adding two senses or more together). But this is likely to change, and faster than we might think.

—-Holo ‘Decks’ —-

New 3D tablets will be commercially available next year. The LA Times recently test-drove a new 3D tablet from Qualcomm. It uses something called “Cell-Matrix Parallax Barrier Technology” to deliver a very convincing  ‘glasses free’  3D from a tablet.

At first I thought, what a great way to sell shoes! I bet Zappos is already working on this, but wait, that would be on the Kindle (groan). But after some deeper consideration, I believe the unique form-factor of tablets may do more for 3D than you would think.

Video 1 –  Video of the “MasterImage 3D” tablet. NOTE: 2D video is incapable of showing 3D video, so this video is a pretty lame video. But, the saving grace is that even in 2D, you can see the tablet uses fairly stunning HiDef 2D video, which will save this device from being a gimmick.

—- 3D Tablets —-


Fig 1 –  FormFonts 3D figure illustrating of one of our future subscribers – browsing             our expansive 3D model library on a 3D Holo ‘Deck.


– Natural User Interfaces —

The Qualcomm 3D tablet requires no glasses,  so it’s already miles ahead. But the real advantage of the tablet is that it is directly manipulated itself, both as a physical formfactor, as a “multi-touch” 2D slate, and, as a Holographic 3D object.

They key is that from any inertail frame, the user can manipulate the ‘objects’ directly. Because no indirect manipulation of a software menu in required, Direct Manipulation is a subset of what User Interface designers call – NUIs, or Natural User Interfaces.

NUI’s are incredibly easy-to-use because they design-away explicit constraints (which people seldom enjoy) and replace them with implicit constraints. Implicit constraints are hugely important because they’re not perceived as constratints, and complex interactions can be offloaded to muscle memory.

This gives the user transparency, and enables them to focus on their own design intent. Perhaps some day, well-designed interfaces will cease to be a cause celeb, and we’ll just be able to “do things”.


Fig 2 –  Closeup of FormFonts’ future 3D Interface. The ‘Holo-Browser’. Concept by author. Illustration and 3D models by Alan Fraser.

Referencing the illustration above, it’s clear that 3D tablets will convincingly project NUIs into 3D space itself. The user can rotate the tablet itself to see ‘around’ the vehicle, or rotate the virtual car to see the undercarriage, or even touch the hologram to open the hood.

Collectively these haptic, interactive, and natural cues give the user the visceral experience of reality, and therefore the user is much more willing to suspend their disbelief. In fact, all the perceptual cues enforce this perception by cooperating synesthetically.

IN SHORT:  NUIs are ready for their closeup… the Holo’Deck’.


Thanks for reading and subscribing –   FormFonts 3D Models

Sweet Genius!

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by Fred Abler

The Food Network has a new show called Sweet Genius. At first I was skeptical, but the strange charisma of Master Pasty Chef, Ron Ben-Israel (judge), his wacky IS’ray-lee accent, and, the shows design-school-studio format, have won me over.

            
Fig 1 – (left) The ‘Sweet Genius’ – former Israeli military-ballet dancer-pastry chef Ron Ben-Israel, and one of his amazing chocolate wedding cakes (right).

As the studio master, Ben-Israel challenges three contestants with two mandatory ingredients and an offbeat “InSPI’ray-shun” (design motif) that have to be used to make chocolate, candy and cakes. The chef that wins all three challenges, becomes the… “Z’weet Gene-Yuz”!

Chef Ron keeps things interesting by throwing in a wildcard ingredient, midway  through each challenge. So there are some spectacular failures. This only adds to the fun. Especially because it’s the loudest, trash-talkin, and most obnoxious chef, that inevitably gets his or her just desserts.

There are only two problems with the show. First, the chef-test’ants have not yet risen to the level of say.. Iron Chef.  I suspect that will change as the show continues to succeed. And second, the show is filmed in the ‘cooking studio’ that is well, but not fully…equipped.

For example, it currently lacks the very latest in Sweet Genius – the World’s first commercial 3D Chocolate Printer announced last week. And once again university researchers from Britain’s University of Exeter, have made the world a better place.

The research team, called ChocALM (Chocolate Additive Layer Manufacturing), has borrowed heavily from the rapid-prototyping of plastics that we all know (Shapeways, Stratasys, etc.) to rapidly layer molten chocolate.. with a 3D plotter.

Video 1 – World’s first commercial 3D Chocolate Printer – Choc Creator.

One of the research group’s leads,  Dr. Liang Hao, has recently engaged in some delicious techa-Lol’ogy transfer, and is now selling the commercial version – Choc Creator for a mere $3,330 per machine. A great product, but really.. that’s the best name you could come up with??

  

Fig 2. – A brave new world of 3D printed chocolates? (Left) – Japanese Chocolate “blocks” for your favorite City and Regional Planner, and (Right) – Modernist chocolates, from the wonderful world of Italian design for your favorite architect.

FormFonts 3D got in early on 3D printables, now called ‘physibles’, when we teamed up with Stratasys, Inc. to test their early on-demand 3D printing facilities in 2008. We converted several FormFonts 3D models into water-tight models that could be ‘additively manufactured’.

At the time, I suggested to Stratasys that there would soon be a 3D printer on every desktop. They had never heard this before, but they liked it!  And we had great fun converting Alan’s Army figure and some of Gabriel Concha’s adorable intercity buses into printed miniatures.

Fig 3 – FormFonts 3D chocolates. By Gabriel Concha, 3D Genius!!

FormFonts’  experiments in 3D printing will be the subject of future posts, but for now, check out these physible models that Gabriel made for the blog.  3D Chok’ropolis !! or to use cocoa-latin correctly, Chokropoli…!?

In short, 3D physibles are now edibles!  Now that’s… S’weet Genius!!

Thanks for reading and subscribing !   FormFonts 3D Models

Deep Dive

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by Fred Abler

Some people are hard to like. Obsessives can be interesting, but they’re seldom likeable. So, I’ve never really been a James Cameron fan. Until recently that is.  It’s becoming clear that now there are at least two James Camerons.

We all know the Canadian filmmaker: ridiculously successful, bombastic, insanely rich, married to a lovely environmentalist wife, lots of kids, etc. You know, the really-hard-to-like James Cameron.

But lately there’s James Cameron, the National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence.  This is the royal ‘world-is-my-OysterRolex’.. Sir’James! And it’s this new Cameron, the modern day Jacques Cousteau, I’m starting to like.

—- Sir’James  —

 Recently, after literally voyaging to the bottom of the sea (and back), Sir’James the explorer emerged from his submersible, the DeepSea Challenger, and sheepishly admitted that things had been, well… a bit cramped!!

“I probably should have made the cockpit about 3” larger.. so I could have at least stretched out my legs!”.

I found this admission winning. His DeepSea ‘vertical torpedo‘ cost well over $5,000,000 U.S.. The project was privately funded with a corporate sponsor, Rolex. But the sub’s architect? Cameron himself, right down to the ‘kawasaki-green‘ paint job!

Fig. 1- FormFonts 3D model of the DEEPSEA CHALLENGER and Sir'James. Modeled by the amazing Alan Fraser. Process image shows how FormFonts models everything - from scratch!

So honestly, my very next thought was … “If only Cameron and his aqua-nauts had known about Google SketchUp and FormFonts 3D Models!!” With some previz, we could have surely saved him some very real physical pain.

Cameron who is 6’2”, folded his frame into the 43” ID spherical-steel cockpit, and stayed crouched there for a little more than 3 hours. At-depth, the hydraulic arm and ‘slurp gun’ malfunctioned, So Sir’ Cam could only just…look around.

He stared out into the Alien Abyss, quietly eating his Scuba Snacks TM – a single banana and granola bar – the only two things inside the cockpit besides James.  But it was as they say…     A Good Day!

—– Luck Counts! —-

Had this Deep Dive lasted the full 10 hours (as planned), things could have come out differently. In fact, they would have had to suck Sir’James from his bathy-sphere, with his own slurp gun.  Resurfacing 6 hours early was, in retrospect, Lucky!

Fig. 2 - FormFonts 3D model of DeepSea Challenger and Sir’James in-the-bubble.

—- the 3D Design Process —

So sure, you’re skeptical and I don’t blame you. “Mr. 3D! James Avatar Cameron, didn’t make any 3D models, mock-ups, or even full-on prototypes of the cockpit”. He just made the world’s first solo-dive to the ocean’s deepest point, without any models at all!

Well of course not! But see for yourself how the cockpit was designed and tested. Below, CNN’s Jason Carroll interviews Cameron about his ‘tiny sub’ (ouch!). Be sure to watch the video to the end. Wait for it!!

Fig 3 – Note: the pressure at-depth is so great, the cockpit actually contracts 3” in interior diameter. So What ID (surface or depth) did they use for the physical prototype?”

—- Coming up for Air —

But let us not forget that Sir’James after all, is still that 3D movie-guy.    So of course…     Mr. Camera-on! had to shoot the Deep Dive in High Definition 3D video. So soon we can re-experience it, courtesy of NatGeo. Oh Natty-G!

In short, the DeepSea Challenger is either – A world-class science submersible, or, just the world’s biggest GoPro camera!  A tool for DeepSea Science or Infotainment?  Maybe both!

Thanks for reading and subscribing!  - FormFonts 3D Models                           *Canadians _can_ be knighted by HRH, the Queen of England. However Canadian law currently prevents peers from using the title ‘Sir’ if knighted.

—- PostScript —

Mr. Cameron, Some of us (yourself included) are old enough to fondly remember the Space-food craze. Tang(TM) powdered orange drink, and those pitiful foil-wrapped extrusions ‘Space-Food Sticks’. So next time, take along Sir’James Scuba Snacks (TM)!

Towards a ‘Sixth Sense’

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by Fred Abler

I admit to a weakness for GeoPorn. I am not ashamed. I subscribe to all the cable channels : Discovery, NatGeo, Science Channels (both 1 and 2), The BBC, and the Travel Channel.

My all-time favorite shows are about electro-magnetism. But my real kink? How some animals can track the earth’s geomagnetic field. And last week, it was unusually good viewing for my kind of GeoPorn.

 —–

On NOVA’s ‘Hunting for the Elements’, superbly hosted by David Pogue, I learned a clever chemist and fisherman in the Bahamas has discovered that sharks not only dislike magnets (old news), they also hate rare-earth elements.

     

 Fig 1.  These images illustrate how I imagine sharks “see” geomagnetism – a synesthetic ‘force field’. Images from Our Magnetic Earth by Ronald Merril.

Stroud is currently developing fish-hooks made of a magnetized mix of neodymium and praseodymium. So far they have been very effective at repelling sharks, and thus saving their lives.

Sharks never sleep, so they are probably roaming the oceans in a sleep-drunk state – a kind of ‘continuous partial attention’. Stroud actually proves his point by first suspending sharks upside down, until they enter a passive state that he calls “tonic immobility”.

It’s likely sharks use their magnetic senses as a kind of ‘snooze-control’ (cruise control + alarm clock). They simply awake to strike any ‘magnetic signature’ that triggers their ‘Shark Vision’. If correct, this may explain their striking humans, whom after all, are very rarely eaten.

—–

It really doesn’t get much better than sharks (with frick’en magnets in-their-heads). But once again during my own hazy state of CPA -  I call  it multi-slacking ( the Internet + TV in parallel ) – my focus suddenly snapped to the ‘big’ screen.

A shaggy dude on BBC2 was walking around a large polygon taped onto some platz’ in Europe. Must be German I thought. But wait, he was blindfolded!

                      

Fig 2.  BBC2 – “Seeing is Believing”. Udo Wachter test drives his new ‘Sixth  Sense’ – while temporarily blind.

Ahh…. no one does GeoPorn like the Germans! Given der’ blind-goggles, Udo was navigating surprisingly well. His secret? The ‘feelspace’ belt fitted with vibrating sensors around his waist. Wearers can navigate via the earth’s magnetic field and without sight.

The belt is the brainchild of the FeelSpace Magnetic Perception Research Group at the University of Osnabruck in Germany. Yet after wearing ‘the belt’ for only a short time, test subjects become almost addicted to their new “sixth sense”.

But When asked to describe their new found sense-abilities – they simply couldn’t. Of course we architects and designers can sympathize. We have our own in-built ‘feelspace’, and a professional language barrier that makes our work largely inexpressible to outsiders.

——

So then… blindfolds, vibrating leather belts, magnetic sensors, feelspace, and indescribable sensory biology. Yes, it’s kinda sexy! But what does all this synesthezia have to do with 3D and digital design? Once again, we go to Germany.

The Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Engineering is currently working on a 3-D planning tool that lets GeoDesigners easily visualize noise, pollution, and traffic – so that they don’t accidentally build a structure that will have nearby residents enraged. Germans are very sensitive to noise!

Fig. 3 – Data in this image corresponds with the different colored boxes. High levels of noise could be green,for example, while low levels could be blue. There is a distance of just over 16 feet between data points. Image courtesy of FIIT.

What is encouraging here is that researchers are making solid progress towards describing the inexpressible -  l’espace indicible as Corbu called it. This is the privileged potential of digital design environments, their ability to give us virtual ‘sixth senses’ and blended data (qualitative + quantitative) in a single model.

In short, our sensory biology is becoming another additive reference layer to better inform our design of the natural and built environment.

 Thanks for reading and subscribing! -  FormFonts 3D Models

Reference Links:

Approval from City Hall – May the Force be with You!

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by Fred Abler

The Wall Street Journal reported last week that George Lucas of Star Wars fame has finally given up on Marin County. In a bitterly worded letter, Lucasfilms pulled all of its building plans out of Marin, the notoriously politically correct enclave just north of San Francisco, CA.

The rife politics of local development of the Grady Ranch was just too much. Having fought since 1978 to develop Skywalker Ranch and other studio facilities in Marin County, Lucasfilms understandably decided to take it’s “evil empire” elsewhere.

Ironically, the very digital technologies Lucasfilms and ILM invented – are now being used to engage community members and help get other terrestrial building projects through City Hall.

The VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, hopes to even the odds with AR (Augmented Reality) that can show 3D models of proposed building projects on mobile screens and  devices -  as if they had actually been planted into the environment.

This is no longer the most mind-bending application of virtual 3D, but while architects continue to adopt Virtual Building Design  and Construction (VBDC), it’s good to know the Finns are keeping pace with virtual community building.

P.S. We invite Mr. Lucas to bring his high-creative, high-tech, and high-income industry to beautiful San Luis Obispo County.

Source: The Atlantic

Hey Algorithm, It’s a flat plane

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By Marc Fredrickson

Okay, I’m trying to be positive because I’m very excited about the emerging technology, and it will get there–there, being good enough to actually use–but I’m tired of seeing scanned buildings and interiors that are in reality flat and the algorithm doesn’t have the programmed smarts to just make it a plane flat in the virtual copy.

I know programmers don’t like to hear this kind of thing and its a challenging task to make software but, can’t ya just have a tunable tolerance and anything under it is made flat?

It’s easy for me to type, but it would sure make looking at videos of technology of 3D capture seem like its got something going on that’s relevant to environmental designers work.

Okay, that’s my rant for today.

The company Matterport is developing technology for capturing 3D space and objects:

For more information: Matterport