The Future of our Past

Autodesk's Tatjana Dzambazova recently gave a TEDx talk about some projects and technology she's been working on at Autodesk. Pretty cool stuff!

If you aren't familiar with Tatjana, as a reader of this blog, you are very likely aware of a product she worked on at Autodesk. She was the Product Manager for Revit Architecture from 2005-2007. The following is some of the information provided on the YouTube page for her talk:

Technology Whisperer, Tatjana Dzambazova, shares her passion for the latest developments in technology that offer new, exciting ways to archive, help protect, and experience our vulnerable cultural and natural heritage. From photo cameras and scanners, to drones, 3D printing and interactive online exploration, Tatjana introduces the concepts of RIP FIX BURN and RIP MIX LEARN.

Tatjana Dzambazova is Senior Product manager and Technology Whisperer at Autodesk Inc., where she focuses her energy on promoting powerful design technologies to make them accessible to a wide range of audiences. Tatjana passionately evangelizes and teaches internationally.

For more information on some of the covered projects:

http://www.africanfossils.org
http://www.3d.si.edu
http://www.tii.se/inside
http://www.hydro.us

Revit and Your Computer Network

Is my Network optimized for Revit? Maybe? A real answer is more than a brief post can cover. These are a few things to avoid.

Don't...

• Put Voice over IP (VOIP)on the same server
• Put Exchange Server (email services) on the same server
• Put any other resource hungry applications on the same server
• Assume that because accessing Word and Excel files work great that Revit will be
• Buy expensive hardware (like Riverbed equipment) without investing in the implementation of it too
• Ignore server side patches and updates
• Trivialize computer networking and technology

For example, I've occasionally run into small offices that are using a workstation as their server (peer to peer). This is usually a bit taxing on its resources and the OS of a workstation is not optimized for concurrent users and sharing data as well as a server OS. It can be even worse if that workstation is expected to run Revit too. If that were the case then I'd expect to run into saving and "access" conflicts quite often.

Assuming we're using a real server for Revit project files we can still benefit from putting Revit projects on a dedicated server. Don't make Revit compete with resource hungry applications or, if using a dedicated server, any other applications. That's a recipe for "muffins that won't rise". Hopefully your firm has a great EyeTee admin looking after your computers and Network. If not, then consider changing your current situation soon.

Nano Copters

I imagine this video is going viral to some degree by now. First thing I though of was how CGI and movies could harness these things to create even more realistic flight sequences like in Star Wars for example. I particularly like how the one copter can flip. I started imagining our own flying saucers one day. Or...one night, as a prank, these guys head for farm country, hook LED lights up and fly over Old MacDonald's farm and generate some UFO sightings? Cool and fun!

M6 or M-Six

One is a great car, one of the most fun/pleasing auto's I've driven so far.

Another is a potentially great new technology offering. There is a little bit more information on their Linked In page. You might recognize a couple of the people that are part of the company? Phil Read placed a teaser on his blog yesterday.

I wrote about a minion doing design work for a Lord and Master (maybe evil) recently. There are some videos on You Tube which if you look closely carry the "M" brand on the dialogs that are visible at various times. I think they are connected. You be the judge... check them out again!

And another...

Augmented Reality - Check this out at The ANT Group

Jim Balding (The ANT Group) tweeted about this the other day and I just didn't get a chance to mention it as quickly as I wanted. Robert Manna posted about it today too.

AR Media provides a free authoring plug-in, with limited functionality, it doesn't cost much more to take it up a notch. Jim's site has big button on the left of his logo to download his demo kit. AR has more demo files on their site too.

Here's a photo of paper "plans" (printed and cutout) for hotel rooms on a table (printed out and placed by hand), like cutouts that you can move around to experiment with the best arrangement.

Then you can run the AR tool to see how they work in 3D too.

I'm not sure if Jim is planning to include it during the Glorious Gadgets session at RTCUSA or not, but sure looks like a candidate to me.

Watch this video for a quick demo too.

Glorious Gadget - A Better "Mouse...trap"?

Have a look at what a "mouse" might be for you in the near future? Check out the Celluon evoMouse.

Autodesk University - Neat Item of the Show

While people were having their heads scanned and visiting other sundry exhibit booths I visited the folks at Infinite Z. They were right on the back of the Imaginit booth.

From their product page
...snip
Infinite Z’s revolutionary virtual-holographic computing platform is an intuitive way to experience information, using virtual-holographic imagery and a multi-purpose stylus to directly explore, examine, explain and exemplify. The zSpace platform is comprised of innovative hardware and software, working together to greatly expand human perception by presenting unprecedented lifelike images appearing above and below the display surface.
...snip

You don a pair of glasses, grab a stylus, (laser sort of pen) and you point the pen's beam at the 3D holographic object on screen. It appears to be right there in front of you, floating. In the example I saw they had a robotic hand assembly loaded and I could select different parts and move them around, spin the part, zoom in and out to get a closer look. You pick different tools by pointing the pen's beam at them. Imagine your holding a pen and a yellow shaft of light extends from the tip toward whatever you point it at.

What can I say other than my words aren't doing it justice, wow!

It is still early days for their product and they weren't even sure how much it might set you back yet. Keep an eye on them!

Cloud Computing - Advance 2000 Cloud 2.0

I heard about this company last May while attending the Revit Technology Conference in Sydney. I promptly forgot to mention them because I was told that their focus on Revit wasn't that public, or at least that what I remember.

In their own words...snip
Advance 2000, Inc. is a full-service information technology firm dedicated to providing you with endless technology solutions your company requires to continue to grow to its fullest potential. Our unique process of Technology Teaming joins together your company's existing qualified team with our skilled professionals to assist you with every aspect of your technologies. Our four step process of Strategic IT Audit, Architectural Design, Implementation, and Management lets you focus on your business goals while we take care of the rest!
...snip

For a project that needs to collaborate across geographical and business boundaries this concept of Cloud computing starts to really resonate. With Advance 2000 they serve up the software to you through thin client workstations, which according to a Video I just watched cost about $500. The purpose of the video is to demonstrate how much better their approach is compared with standard cloud (the video doesn't exactly explain what standard is though). Pretty impressive performance difference even if the video doesn't really explain the underlying differences.

Something to consider as your firm wrestles with big projects and managing the data across various consulting firms and locations.

Mind Control and Revit

Watched a demonstration of some interesting technology this evening at the Revit Technology Conference (RTC 2010) here in Sydney. Emotiv is a combination of software and electrodes that receive impulses from a headset and then uses this to provide information about your brain activity. It can be used in many ways including learning facial expressions and other gestures to interact with a computer. There are more important medical related uses for this technology that certainly supercede its relevance to Revit but it is quite a concept.

We saw the Emotiv EPOC Brain Activity Map feature and the site says this about it:

This application displays a real-time map of your mental activity in four significant brainwave frequency bands. Adjustable gain allows you to see detailed information and relative strengths between different brain regions. Adjustable buffer size allows you to see instant responses or average activity over longer periods.

Here's a picture of it in action that Jim Balding posted on Twitpic.

Check it out!

Oh, this was part of the Glorius Gadgets session that RTC has run at each conference for the last few years. This year also featured Phil Read demonstrating the virtues of the iPad and various apps for it. It also featureed Chris Needham (he also found and introduced Emotiv) showing off a stylus that permits you to use a "pen" on practically any surface to interact with your computer.

VisionStation

I visited my old boss at WATG yesterday for lunch, Jim Balding. He showed me a piece of technology they have been using for some time now. It is called VisionStation and it is made by elumens. They acquired it from eon Reality.

Here's a screen capture from the website I visited:


It is technology aimed at providing a way to "experience it before you build it"
At first glance it looks like a satellite dish without the electronics at its focal point. A PC runs the show through a projector with a special lens hidden in a desk. It is really a pretty simple setup.

I managed to get "stuck" in a wall at one point and Jim said that it is possible to configure the model to prevent going through walls and such but the model I was working in wasn't. Eventually I got out of my predicament.

It was pretty interesting and I could see how a client might get jazzed about a proposal after visiting it this way. Thanks for sharing it with me Jim!

I took a couple pictures of it with Jim and while I was using it but the image at their site was so much better than my camera work I opted to use it instead.