• Rebooting America
• Print A House
• Personal Manufacturing Units
• DIY Gone Wild

Many people have already seen the commercials with excerpts from the “We choose to go to the moon” speech by President Kennedy (video here) or news accounts. If you haven’t done so  already, you may enjoy an interesting cybertrip over to We Choose The Moon(best seen over a really high speed connection) where there’s a real-time simulation of the Apollo 11 mission.  At the We Choose The Moon site you can follow precisely the activities of the Apollo 11 mission. When you go there you will see a continuously updated map of the flight path and a 3-D simulation of the actual spacecraft. At the same time you will hear the actual conversation between the astronauts and mission control. When I first looked, the mission was half-way through Stage 6 – nearly 115,000 miles from Earth and I could hear Buzz Aldrin singing and talking to folks from mission control. Today as I write, Apollo 11 is approaching Stage 7, over 200,000 miles away and there’s only static in the background although a transcript of conversation shows that the flight crew just went to sleep.

Although I’m talking about the Apollo 11 being in orbit today that’s obviously not true - we know where Apollo 11 is. The command module is at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington D.C. – not 200,000 miles from Earth. And we know the crew is not on board. The rest of Apollo 11 has just recently been photographed on the moon. Still, people all over the world are experiencing Apollo 11 all over again – as though they’ve travelled back in time. Or perhaps as though folks from 1969 had travelled forward in time. Now it’s just a simulation but previously discussed here on the MJ, detailed simulations can be very  persuasive – even to the point of becoming indistinguishable from reality. If that seems a bit far-fetched consider how much detail will be captured for the next moon landing a decade from now. Quite a bit of data, audio and video will be streamed live over the interplanetary internet just recently deployed on the International Space Station. What isn’t streamed live will be digitized and accessible for future browsing and use. By 2050, people observing a 40-year anniversary will likely have radically advanced, bionic interfaces which allow for compelling ways to relive the experience. That’s a very long way from the simple “lunar lander” simulations we ran on calculators when I was an engineering student or even the more sophisticated orbital lander programs we ran when I was an engineer at Hughes Space and Communications. However, with Second Life and an HP41-C X running on my iPhone, it’s not quite as far from where we are today

more videos and media coverage are available on the Contour Crafting media page. And yes, as long-time MJ readers and true funkateers surely know, this is filed under TVIR

Related MJ Links

3D Printing Update

Ponoko

Nanomesh

… is the world’s first platform capable of collecting and analyzing massive amounts of anonymous, aggregate location data in real-time.

At the heart of Macrosense are powerful machine learning algorithms that process time-stamped location data and metadata streams from heterogeneous sources – GPS, WiFi positioning, cell tower triangulation, RFID and other sensors – and empower companies and investors to better understand and predict human behavior on a macro scale.

Sense Networks

This is very powerful technology so the potential is high for both abuse and empowerment. However, the bottle has been uncorked and there’s no putting it back. See also on the MJ Power to the Prosumer and Location Oriented Software

“Look at Minority Report,” Kapor said. “I’m here to say that (technology is) going to be real in the next (few) years.”In fact, he said, he predicted that 3D cameras, which would be built into computers much like regular 2D cameras are today, will be available in as little as 12 months.

Basically, 3D cameras would allow the virtual world software to interpret how users are moving in the real-world and to translate that movement into the software. That could mean, then, that if the user raises his or her hand, so too does their avatar.

Kapor said he wasn’t clear on what the interface would be like, but he suggested it could be based on something like that of the Segway, in which users move their body forward and the Segway goes forward, backward to go backward, and so forth.

“So, if I look to the left in the real world, I just want my avatar to look to the left,” Kapor said. “If I smile, I just want my avatar to smile. The cameras should be good enough to pick that up. I think we’re going to see an amazing jump in the sense of presence.”

Mitch Kapor: 3D cameras will make virtual worlds easier to use | Geek Gestalt – A blog by Daniel Terdiman – CNET News.com

3D is a universal language that will impact all aspects of computing and communications. Just in time for the coming boom

Related Links

Touching the Meshverse

Hacking Reality

Lego Mesh

The 3D Experience – Resistance is Futile

As we move towards the 2008 U.S. Presidential election, we’re going to hear more and more about the loss of manufacturing jobs. This is important – folk have to be able to eat.  However, what the politicians aren’t talking about is the fundamental transformation going on in manufacturing and how that will impact citizens.

Rhythmeering: Manufacturing 3.0

Why they don’t talk about it is a mixed bag – some are just ignorant or don’t care enough, others are being deceptive because they have other priorities or arrogantly believe that people are not able to deal with the subject. The next time the subject of manufacturing jobs comes up, ask people what those jobs will be like just 10 short years from now. We can’t wait until then to start dealing with the realities of Manufacturing 3.0.

You don’t wrap these presents in a box. You can’t wear them, play with them or show them off, at least not in the real world.

Even so, virtual gifts — computer-generated items given and displayed online — are quickly becoming must-haves. And increasingly, people are willing to pay cold, hard, real-life cash to purchase them for friends, family and co-workers.

…Since they were introduced in February, Facebook says its users have purchased more than 24 million of these dollar items, which are sold in limited editions to generate more interest. …

The ease of giving a virtual gift is definitely part of the attraction, he says.

“A few clicks and it’s done. No worries about FedEx or the post office getting it there on time,” Roberts says.

… In a sense, these gifts are supplanting electronic cards, online greetings that are waning in popularity, according to Internet watchers. People are becoming more willing to pay for something you can’t touch or hold in your hand. …

The novelty is driving the market for virtual gifts and goods. So is the frenzy to gain status on social networking and virtual world sites, says Robbie Blinkoff, an anthropologist who studies online trends.

“There’s a lot of money to be made,” says Blinkoff, managing director of Context-Based Research Group in Baltimore. …

“It’s easy to get caught up in thinking that it’s not real because it’s digital. But we have plenty of digital items that have value,” says Jeska Dzwigalski, who works in community and product development for Linden Lab, the creators of Second Life. “Have you ever bought a song on iTunes? Have you ever paid for software?”

… Steve Auerbach, a dad in the Los Angeles area, says he’s realized that the virtual world isn’t something to fear. … “So much of our world is intangible now. (Giving a virtual gift) is still about the act of giving and receiving,”

Associated Press: Are Virtual Gifts Worth It?

As in the early days of Amazon, there are of course many skeptics who are saying it’s just a passing fad, that “there just isn’t a replacement for the tangible gift … and real presents will make a comeback“. However the coming boom has been mentioned in many posts here since the summer and in the first of these I noted the trends “connecting the tangible world of consumers, manufacturers, suppliers, and engineers with the virtual world.”. The foundations for this boom have been evolving for some time as the ever-increasing capabilities of 3d-printing bring a new level of empowerment to prosumers.

American government officials and economists from Secretary of the Treasury Hank Paulson to Senator Chuck Shumer to Paul Kruger have focused on balance of trade issues with China, the RMB-USD exchange rate, and China’s huge foreign reserves. But few mainstream economists or Government officials have looked at new forms of currency emerging in China that already is beginning to greatly affect China’s underlying economy – virtual currency.

Investors should not fail to look at this sector. Xinhua News has reported that the volume of virtual currency has reached several hundred million USD a year in China. My firm estimates the size to grow 30% in 2007.

China’s Virtual, e-Commerce Currency – Seeking Alpha

reBang references an article from the Guardian which quotes Robert Lai, chief scientist of the Beijing Cyber Recreation District talking about virtual worlds capable of supporting billions of avatars(). The Chinese are VERY serious about the meshverse. The Guardian article goes on to say:

… this is a bold attempt to repeat what China has done in manufacturing (ie, conquering the world) in services. Be warned.

… At the moment, Britain and other western economies benefit from cheap Chinese manufactured goods and the low inflation they bring while also benefiting from huge wholesale, retail and distribution markups on the same goods. If they too migrate to China, what will there be left for us to do? That is a very serious question.

Virtual China looks for real benefits

Others have raised this very serious question:

• Whether or not such e-commerce is even feasible may be a moot point. I feel it speaks volumes as to where the country is, culturally. Now, technology futurists are in a sense saying, “You will be able to point, click, and buy anything, just how you want it, directly from any factory in the world”—so much for “Buy American.” The Beijing Cyber Recreation District is being billed as a so-called “online counterpart” to Beijing’s China Recreation District, a physical, real-world endeavor that will boast entertainment and shopping; the center is set to open in time for the 2008 Olympics, according to the AP. And where will this new entertainment center be built? In an abandoned Chinese steel plant. Can’t you just feel the irony?

thefabricator: Point, click, buy anything — from anywhere

• Need a new refrigerator or a pair of pants? Go window shopping (that is, in your Explorer window) online in a virtual world and then buy it directly from the factory in rural Asia where the item is made. That’s what the Chinese government is proposing. According to an Associated Press report (“China Plans Virtual World for Commerce,” October 15, 2007), China’s central government is methodically constructing a vast virtual world, dubbed the Beijing Cyber Recreation District.
  “Some supply-chain experts say the project is impossibly grandiose in its goal to provide direct links between tens of thousands of Chinese manufacturers and millions of individual customers around the world,” AP wrote. But if this turns out to be the surprise hit that no one has foreseen, PLM vendors may need to refashion their sourcing and supply-chain management features.
  CADalyst: CADfidential

The west is going to have to come up with some serious innovation to cope with this but the trends I’ve covered here such as Desktop Manufacturing and DIY Gone Wild indicate that this innovation is already underway. The above-mentioned reBang post is even more expansive.

China may have low cost labor but western desktop design & manufacturing entrepreneurs can ship from down the street and do meet-ups with both creative trend setters(music, fashion, sports) and customers. This competition will play a key role in driving demand for virtual property. The coming boom in virtual property will be more far reaching than the US/USSR space race.

It’s not unlike Facebook, MySpace or any other online community. … CNN instead of going into that[virtual world] and trying to report on it, we’re sort of asking the community, the people who know it best – “you tell us what’s news”

CNN iReport In Second Life

See also, CNN iReport In Second Life: It’s All About Telling Your Story

Reeves: The human brian is not specialized to differentiate between virtual and real. Same neurons fire when an avatar smiles at you as when a real person smiles at you. Seriosity is looking at what happens when you create an opportunity to do serious things with virtual currency attached, such as sending email messages with virtual currency attached. The result? You open the email faster when currency is attached. Virtual money changes real behavior.

3pointD.com » Blog Archive » Virtual Goods Summit: Why Virtual Goods Matter

Roaches it seems, behave like neurons:

“It turns out,” he says, “that roaches aren’t very discriminating” — they’ll accept anything of roughly the right size and smell. In the end, the engineers came up with little wheeled robots shaped like matchboxes and perfumed with eau de roach. They were programmed to have the same likes and dislikes as roaches — that is, to prefer crowds and darkness. When introduced to the real roaches, the robots fit right in — the gathering behavior of the horde was pretty much unchanged. Researchers then reprogrammed the robots to prefer a less-dark hiding place — unnatural for a roach. The insects and the infiltrators were put back into the enclosure, except this time one of their hiding places was more lightly tinted than the other: It was brighter inside. Again, all the roaches scurried around randomly for a while, but the robots eventually settled under the lighter, less shadowy disk — and the real cockroaches followed.

Time: Robot Roaches Do the Trick

As always, remember there is a cure for the Syndrome!