Microsoft's World Wide Telescope is a web connected desktop app that renders a tiled tour of high resolution, zoomable images of the entire night sky, woven together from a number of different telescopes and satellites. It leverages a "3D teraserver visualization engine." Robert Scoble's first interview at Fast Company TV is with Curtis Wong and Jonathan Fay, who worked on the project.
We've embedded the demo video below because the product is likely to be one of historic proportions and we thought our readers would appreciate the opportunity to see it.
The whole thing is pretty remarkable and worth a look. The scaling of huge images down to something that users can watch and navigate on a laptop is the crux of the innovation. The program isn't available yet but should be soon. User generated tours should produce some fascinating education.
The video below gets into the action with live screens of the Telescope about 25% of the way through. A basic discussion of the technical requirements, with engineer David Fay, starts about 80% of the way through (sorry, the FC video player is awful so now time stamps are available). Full screen view, in the bottom right, is pretty good.
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Not only is the state of the education system in the US so poor, but more and more kids are choosing not to go into science and engineering fields just as they become most needed. US companies are now, and will in the future, be increasingly forced to look outside our national borders for qualified scientists and engineers to fill jobs and replace retiring workers.
Wouldn't it be great if the WorldWide Telescope inspired a new generation of scientists and engineers? Something like the moon walk for this generation. I think this program is great, and I hope every child in every school has access to it.
Posted by: Dan Grossman | March 3, 2008 9:38 AMScoble cried after watching this? My god! Its interesting but it didnt not bring me to tears.
Pussy
Posted by: jason | March 3, 2008 11:48 AMPersonally, I find this project extremely interesting, but DUDE THE FREAKING CAMERA GUY SUCKS! My head hurts from watching this "Zoom IN, ZOOM OUT, ZOOM REALLY FAR IN! now jump out and zoom other places"...
Posted by: Jonathon Hibbard | March 3, 2008 7:39 PMLet me be another who is "blown away" by this marvelous project and technology. I want to thank Segate for making this video available. The pitful information about the WorldWideTelescope(WWT) on the http://worldwidetelescope.org site left me wondering what it actually is. Again, thanks to Segate, I am not only blown away by now understanding what it is, but also anxouis to enjoy learning about the universe in a way never thought possible. I hope this will bring more intelligent minds into the field of astromomy. I agree that the camera man could have used a tripod and less zooming in and out.
Posted by: William Houck | March 30, 2008 9:51 AM