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November 28 2011

binarymillenium

Lunar DTM100 to Blender displacment map

This post is an aggregration of multiple threads created on google plus and additional findings, the scattered nature of those threads made it impossible to find all the information in one place hence this post.   It's also a work in progress with some blank spots- help is welcome!

(I've mostly moved to google plus which is great for mini-blogging (as opposed to the micro blogging of twitter and full size regular blogger blogging) and has very good engagement once you find good people to put in your circles.  I expect greater plus/blogger integration in the future probably starting with comments becoming plusified.)

From LROC Lunar Map




Lunar Elevation Data


Source DTM files are in the IMG files:


http://lroc.sese.asu.edu/data/LRO-L-LROC-5-RDR-V1.0/LROLRC_2001/DATA/SDP/WAC_DTM/ 


The highest resolution maps are in the 100M.IMG files, which means 100 meters/pixel (which seems large for an object so close as the moon- why don't we have 1 meter per pixel, or 0.1 meter yet?).

I haven't written a script for handling the files that don't completely cover the lunar globe, and will probably use other tools to get that right.  (grass gis http://grass.fbk.eu/gdp/index.php?)


TBD detail on file format.






Generating 32-bit elevation tifs with Python


Conversion to viewable

Not a lot of programs can display those 32-bit tifs correctly, and Blender didn't like them.  Get a version of imagemagick with hdri enabled (./configure --enable-hdri when building it from source) so they can be converted to friendlier formats.

Making an easier to view jpg from the 32-bit tifs:


convert -define quantum:scale=255.0 -normalize moon.tif moon_fromtif.jpg



And the following is the result:
From LROC Lunar Map



The jpeg is usable in Blender but doesn't hold up well with a lot of zooming- the 255 levels of elevation possible in a jpeg produce stair step artifacts:
From LROC Lunar Map
Conversion to blender usable

So Blender could use a 16-bit format like openexr for 255x smoother gradations, use this conversion:




convert -define quantum:scale=255.0 moon.tif moon.exr


The quantum scale there seems like it ought to be 65535.0 but the 255.0 works, and imagemagick identify -verbose shows that the range of values is 65535.0.

Setting up image based displacement + bump in Blender 2.6x Cycles (latest svn)


TBD flesh this out in greater detail


Add | Mesh | UV sphere


Object Modifies | Add Modifier | Subdivision Surface | Render 6

Material | Surface | Use Nodes


Shift-A | Texture | Image Texture | Open moon.exr


Connect the color to the diffuse bsdf, then should see texture on sphere if in texture or render view mode (maybe have to do something to force redraw/update).

Edit Mode | Select all edges


Mesh | UV Unwrap | Sphere projection | Align to object


Connect image texture to color to bw converter and then to displacement input on material output.  TBD proper height scaling of craters.









Object Data | Displacement | Method | Both


Link to .blend file:

http://goo.gl/ZrPJ8

From LROC Lunar Map
UV Sphere Projection Polar Problems


The UV spheres generated by blender have the problem of having triangles instead of quads around the poles.  The spherical projection will produce distortion at the poles, smoothing the sphere prior to uv unwrap helps minimize it.  I wonder if there is something problematic about making the pole polygons quads because it would involve multiple polygon points and edges right on top of each other.

You can see the problem areas in the uv image below- the nice quad projections become distorted triangles at the top and bottom.


The result is these pinched areas:





Lunar Visual Mosaics


The moon isn't perfectly grey, there are many interesting light and dark features.  I haven't located a good texture generated from LROC or Clementine data (LROC would be ideal since it would probably guarantee all visual features line up with elevation features).

http://wms.lroc.asu.edu/lroc/wac_mosaic

http://ser.sese.asu.edu/MOON/clem_color.html

There are some random ones to be found on the web but I haven't tried them yet.


Future


Grass gis http://grass.fbk.eu/gdp

gdal - has python bindings    (ubuntu intall python-gdal gdal-bin)  http://www.gdal.org/
Turn python generated tiff images into geotiffs


osgearth - uses geotiff output from gdal to produce lod/paged terrain databases viewable in OpenSceneGraph osgviewer.

Use 100M data (the 256P IMG files).  Parse dtm within python to do this?  Minimum is extracting width x height.



Sources

Original discussions that originated this post:






August 18 2011

binarymillenium

Buzz by Lucas Walter from Google Reader

July 18 2011

binarymillenium

Buzz by Lucas Walter from Google Reader

NSF Funds New Effort in Robotics, Neuroscience and ... - Google Alerts - seattle autonomous OR robotic

June 30 2011

binarymillenium

Buzz by Lucas Walter from Google chat status

y u no capacity g+?

June 29 2011

binarymillenium

Buzz by Lucas Walter from Buzz

I kind of like the idea of a pay-per-drive system to more strongly couple driving with its true cost but this is an interesting alternative:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/27/science/earth/27traffic.html?_r=1&hp

June 22 2011

binarymillenium

Buzz by Lucas Walter from Buzz

I've tried the free gui based image stitching programs but I'd rather be using opencv:

http://opencv.willowgarage.com/wiki/opencv_stitching

June 16 2011

binarymillenium

Buzz by Lucas Walter from Buzz

A revival of Amiga-style computer in a keyboard form factor?

http://www.linuxfordevices.com/c/a/News/Cybernet-ZPCD45/?kc=rss

I think there ought to be a smaller cd-drive free version.

June 13 2011

binarymillenium

Buzz by Lucas Walter from Google Reader

June 06 2011

binarymillenium

Buzz by Lucas Walter from Buzz

May 31 2011

binarymillenium

Buzz by Lucas Walter from Buzz

Looks as good as the new Sony AR and source is provided:

Augmenting hundreds of photographs with Polyora

May 27 2011

binarymillenium

Buzz by Lucas Walter from Buzz

I'm the only person within two and half miles to have signed up for this, but it is very new:
http://www.ohsowe.com/

I think it's supposed to be sort of like freecycle but with a modern interface, with the addition of skills as well as material items to be given away/traded/borrowed/sold. They verify addresses via postcard with a code written on it. I like the concept but it seems like a lot of recent startups that are useless until large geographic densities of people sign up.

May 18 2011

binarymillenium

Buzz by Lucas Walter from Buzz

April 01 2011

binarymillenium

Buzz by Lucas Walter from Buzz

binarymillenium

Buzz by Lucas Walter from Buzz

April fools joke but real applications are probably available now or soon:

http://chromeadblock.com/freedom/

Since high resolution full fov goggles that don't hurt your eyes aren't available yet the real application is seamlessly removing unsightly ads and logos or similar from pictures or videos. Photoshop or After Effects would do a fine job with a semi-skilled user, but more automated and free solutions would be ideal, especially being able to remove the ads real time from a video (perhaps acquired on a phone).

The other course is to replace the ads with ads generated by the software provider- this could perhaps subsidize the cost of a camera or software, with upgrade options to remove all ads. Google bought that motion estimation company a little while ago, this technology would be different but it could potentially bring in-video ad replacement to youtube uploads within a few years.

It's somewhat difficult to google for existing software to do this (though I only spent 30 seconds), most of the hits are about removing ads from TV or the internet.

March 27 2011

binarymillenium

Buzz by Lucas Walter from Google Reader

March 17 2011

binarymillenium

Buzz by Lucas Walter from Buzz

binarymillenium

Buzz by Lucas Walter from Buzz

Google buys Green Parrot Pictures:

http://youtube-global.blogspot.com/2011/03/steady-as-she-goes-better-video.html

It seems like software will fix the ills of low-end video acquisition, which is somewhat disappointing because I'd rather see hardware solutions enjoy large economies of scale to make them affordable- I want true 100s or 1000s of fps for a few hundred dollars, consumer 4K video resolution, global shutter in my cell phone, much higher recording bit rates, etc. - but the software for good looking artificial slow motion, for uprezzing, for stabilization, for fixing compression artifacts etc. will be much cheaper, especially if Google is putting it into youtube tools, or Microsoft into Windows Movie Maker, or some other giant player aimed at the mass market is doing it (not Adobe or Apple since they would cripple their lower end tools in order to attract professionals and serious hobbyists to their $1000 software packages).

I can see Google wanting better quality youtube video for a very practical reason- smooth motion compresses better, so they save on bandwidth. And there's probably something to be said for better looking video attracting more views.

March 15 2011

binarymillenium

Buzz by Lucas Walter from Buzz

I think this page just popped up, don't see a link to the DS 311 datasheet though it implies it is available:

http://softkinetic.com/Solutions/DepthSensecameras.aspx

"DepthSense™ is a 3D time-of-flight imager based on the proprietory sensor and other proprietary and patented time-of-flight (TOF) technologies."

February 28 2011

binarymillenium

Buzz by Lucas Walter from Buzz

I suspect that if the first generations of these have the auditory characteristics of Big Dog then hazardous work will be the only work they get, no one else would want to put up with the noise.

http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2011-02/28/boston-dynamics-atlas-and-cheetah

February 25 2011

binarymillenium

Buzz by Lucas Walter from Buzz

Can it hammer a nail or otherwise hold a power tool? That's when I want a personal robot.

http://mekabot.com/products/m1-mobile-manipulator/

The head is goofy, they should have made it more functional looking and less humanoid.
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