I really enjoy this sort of stuff: using what they presently know, scientists have made educated – and now computerized – guesses about what life looks like on other planets. The results are fun and remind me of one of those books you sometimes find where they do something similar, only no hard science; just imagination. You can read the story and marvel at the slideshow over on Wired (Link).

Here’s the thing that gets me about this story though. Okay, so they used complex algorithms and “applied the principles of natural selection and adaptation”, but doesn’t that stuff look like something from an old pulp novel? I mean, I’ve seen the “Gulphog” somewhere and it probably wasn’t on National Geographic. And doesn’t the image above of the “Pagoda Tree” look equally familiar? I’ve seen that thing somewhere else. I’m sure of it.

Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s a good sign when scientists exercise their creative muscles to fill in the gaps. It’s just a shame when they don’t seem to acknowledge what part of the science is still just that – imagination (aka: informed conjecture). If they did mention it, Wired appears to omit that part. Personally, I could see these results at the cineplex.

Y’know, it’d be a kick to take their computerized results and explanations and see how other artists and designers re-interpret the solutions – all under the same constraints, of course. Why not make this a social computing activity? That way, we might better gauge how much we don’t know simply by seeing the range of ideas that spring from our own minds.

For example, the Gulphog is shown with a UV-detecting eye on top of it’s toothy skull (see image below).

Why not make it a compound eye? More like a fly. Or in multiples like a spider? Or maybe the Gulphog has a uv-blind cousin with skin that forms rock-like armor plating to both protect it from a nasty sun burn and hungry predators. All that extra weight probably makes it less mobile so it’s a bit like a slug. But it might still have that same toothy-tusky grin and look something like … well … this … a concept I did for a long-dead indy videogame that does all that and then rolls itself up like a roly-poly millipede. Now imagine what the uncle looks like that’s related to both of these. Now imagine a multitude of participants in this exercise.

There’s an untapped resource out there in all our imaginations. It’s now connected via the internet. A shame it’s not being utilized.

{Images source: Wired}

A few days back I alerted WorldChanging’s prolific Jamais Cascio to recent news concerning the rapid-manufacturing of homes (see my earlier post – Link). He wrote a rather long entry as a result and to my surprise much of it is on some of what I’ve been doing. I’d actually have been more comfortable not being mentioned. And the funny thing is, I wasn’t really mentioned at all. Csven Concord, who is cited in the article, is of course the name of my avatar in Second Life.

Last year I pointed out during a conversation with another resident, Gwyneth LLewelyn, how a MSM outlet had used her virtual identity as a “source” for their article (the first time I’d ever seen that happen). They even quoted this virtual person as if it were flesh-and-blood. The real person behind Gwyneth didn’t seem to think anything of it. I’m not sure what I think now that it’s happened to me. But it does feel a bit odd to have a virtual persona created for a relatively small virtual world simulation move into the real world.

Makes me wonder if I need to be concerned about two possible targets for identity theft. Now how did the guys on Star Trek fuse Captain Kirk back together?

Cake. The primitive geometry in Second Life (aka “prims”) is easily converted to “solid” CAD geometry. The above image is an object I constructed in Second Life and grabbed using OGLE (see earlier posts – start with these two: Link 1 and Link 2). I then took it into Pro/E. Actually, with the exception of one part, the entire piece defaulted to solid; no clean-up necessary. That’s what I like. And the one part that didn’t convert automatically was having problems because of an all-to-common problem I’ve had plenty of experience correcting.

What you’re looking at above is the prim object as “solid” geometry with a Cut extruded right through it. For a closer look, I’ve posted a larger image (Link). This new method could have been used on the Quake3 rocket launcher barrel and saved me a lot of time and trouble. I tried it earlier on the avatar, but I think the mesh is cleaner now than with that previous effort, so I’ll give it another try.

Hmmmm, I really should get back to my other SL-to-Pro/E project, but all I can think now is, “What to make… what to make.”

Having played with the OGLE tool for a few days (version 1b), I’ve learned some things that might be helpful to those hoping to have their customized Second Life avatars or objects fabricated. My own goal is to take the avatar geometry and convert it to “solid” CAD data, but the process I’m using to get there might be useful even if your goal is to just send out an .obj or .stl polymesh file.

First off, be aware that the captured videostream data most likely isn’t “clean”… even if it looks good. Be sure to search for duplicate triangles/polymeshes since there will probably be plenty. After deleting any duplicates, be sure to select and “merge” all the remaining polygon edges and vertices since there will almost certainly be multiples of those as well.

Secondly, for a Second Life avatar, there are some areas on the head which probably need some attention. The variability of the base mesh (aka “Ruth”) can really yield some tortured areas. So before doing anything I isolated the head from both the torso and hair and then tweaked a few vertices – mostly around the eyes – to let me do some other things later. I deleted the triangle strips for the eyelashes and fixed the mouth; deleting the “teeth” and cleaning up the area in general. I didn’t mess with the ears although they probably needed some attention as well.

After those areas I addressed the openings at the eyes and the base of the neck; closing them with additional triangles and making the head a sealed volume. I did the same with the eyeballs. With closed volumes I could then do a boolean operation and join them all together. Not everyone likes booleans and that’s fine; this is just how I did it because I didn’t feel like pushing polys.

That done, I combined the head, the torso and the legs into one mesh. The hair, unfortunately, varies according to your individual avatar settings and consequently may have – as mine appears to have – both an enclosed volume and sections that extend from edges. This is a mess to deal with, so I didn’t join the hair to the rest of the form. In the above image you can see the finished head with the unmodified/unattached hair in place. Note how rough the mesh still is.

Because I’m hoping to go solid I converted the body (minus the hair of course) to Sub-D geometry; and from there to NURBs surfaces. The final stage of this conversion took some time and the resulting file is an unwieldy 140Meg.

For this effort the surface file was then imported into an older/lighter version of Pro/E. Although the geometry came in relatively well, there were still a number of gaps on import. You can see the gaps – they look like the yellow areas around the eyes (here’s a Link to a big image). I “zipped” a few gaps already, but to be honest, this will require some significant effort. Additionally, since each avatar can be unique and present different problems, the practicality of doing such a conversion on a regular basis probably doesn’t make sense. So at this point I might try one or two other options, but I’m not hopeful a quick solution will be found. We’ll see.

I’d previously heard of Cohen Brothers Homes and read about how they were doing some interesting things, but I don’t recall ever seeing a video explaining their system. It’s not quite what I was thinking earlier (Link), but this is apparently underway as we speak. From the “How It Works” page of their website (Link):

This System allows full-size, mainstream homes or apartments to be built in a single on-site production facility utilizing high capacity hoisting, non-sequential building techniques and bulk material handling to streamline the production. The homes are completely finished in the production facility including finishes, appliances, lighting fixtures, etc. and they are subsequently transported across the site and permanently secured to their respective foundations. The utilities are then connected and the homes are ready for occupancy.

When the community is built-out, the on-site production facility can be taken down or converted to a community center, recreation building, or some other use.

For a much better sense of what they’re describing, watch the video on their site. The construction hub facility isn’t the organic, hive-like structure I was imagining, but then Ripley hasn’t even been born yet (*points to title of post*).

Thanks to Jerry P for the heads up.

{Image Copyright © 2004-2006 Cohen Brothers Homes, LLC.}