The San Diego Supercomputer Center collaborated
with the American Museum of Natural History to produce a visualization of the Orion
Nebula for the new Hayden Planetarium. During the Space Show, viewers are
transported 1500 light years to the heart of the nebula on an 87-foot digital
dome consisting of 9 million pixels. An alternate version was produced for flat
display and was recently shown at Siggraph in the Electronic Theater.
The talk will begin with an overview of the
project and the technical challenges the team faced. Jon will discuss the
visualization process that began with Hubble Space Telescope imagery and ended
with a simulated realization of the Orion Nebula. Additional topics will
include the development of related special-purpose rendering software and
restructuring the content for alternate, non-flat display. The presentation
will conclude with a brief tour of some related work, including visualizing
cells for cancer research and future efforts in the area of visualizing the
Aurora Borealis.
Jon Genetti is a Computer Scientist in the San
Diego Supercomputing Center’s Visualization Group. His current interests are designing
and implementing algorithms for out-of-core visualization, volume rendering,
and medical imaging. Jon received his Ph.D. degree in Computer Science from
Texas A&M University in 1993. Prior to arriving at SDSC in 1996, Jon spent
three years as a Visiting Assistant Professor at the University Alaska
Fairbanks.
Main Seminar Room Auditorium,
Room 1022
Mesa Lab Foothills
Lab 2