Samb Business Intelligence Blog: Visualization

Photosynth craziness!

Fri, 10 Nov 2006 17:24:06 GMT

Since Microsoft released the Photosynch beta at Web 2.0 it's generated a lot of buzz. If you have not played with it yet you owe it to yourself to see where photo journalism and tourism and advertising are headed.

Install it here.

Sharepoint users might get a kick out of Uncle Mikey's Sharepoint Photosynth web part.

Daily FedEx Plane Network Visualization

Fri, 10 Nov 2006 17:18:40 GMT

Click here to watch it on YouTube!

When geo-spatial and hub and spoke networks collide :)

Virtual Earth --- in 3D!!

Tue, 07 Nov 2006 00:08:46 GMT

So, here's the huge surprise.

Over the past few months, the VE team has been doing some fantatic work in interpreting aerial photos and constructing 3D surfaces based on these photos. Since I live near Philadelphia I thought you might enjoy the incredible detail that this technology brings to the masses.

Oh, and did I mention - this is browser based - not heavy client like the Google Earth/Keyhole stuff.

Take a look at the "sheen" on Liberty One - the blue/sliver landmark building in the middle with the spire perfectly constructed and the Pyramid club just to it's Northwest.

Looking straightdown from Liberty One into the street below...

Here's Billy Penn's statue on City Hall...

Check out the spires on this old church...

And the bridge...

even the girders and suspension lines are represented.

More on how you can add your own BI data to this in the near future, but until then enjoy exploring the incredible 3D Detail in the following cities...

See the following cities in 3D view:

Some Life Science Visualization work I've been monkeying with

Fri, 03 Nov 2006 17:49:34 GMT

As I've mentioned before, I do a lot of work with Life Science/Pharma companies in the area. Over the summer I noticed that very few vendors provide a .NET viewer for chemical structures and visualization. Probably because Microsoft has not dedicated a bunch of bodies vertically into drug discovery like IBM did in the last 10 years.

So, I decided to download some data from the PDB database and see what I could do with some visualization in DirectX and Oculus (more on them later)...

Here's a visual with just atoms shown (visualized in color: Gray = Carbon, Red = Oxygen, Yellow = Sulfur, Green = Nitrogen).

They look neat lit in 3D, huh?

So then the area of bonds became important. Interestingly, the PDB bond connections are implicit. So, I had to do a little math (line distance in 3D and tolerances) to tease the bonds out...

Pretty cool - right? So then the next step is to visualize these bad boys as ball and stick diagrams - that means that the lines need to be cylinders and rotated in 3D between two 3D points (the atoms).

I've tried this a few times on my own and had some real issues, but luckily I know a guy. Michael Peters works for Oculus Info in Toronto and I've known him since my Merck Days. He is a sharp guy and works on all kinds of cool visualizations. Anyway, he provided a really neat and elegant algorithm to handle the transformation and rotations and has agreed to allow me to post that code (coming soon).

If you are doing any kind of visualization, it would be worth your time to visit www.oculusinfo.com - they have some great tools and skills that will make a mediocre visualization a home run.

Here's the end result with hydrogen bonds marked with blue/white textures...

Microsoft can and should give the simple Java Chemistry applets a run for their money...

Amazing Life Science Cell Animation Video

Fri, 22 Sep 2006 14:13:46 GMT

I do a lot of work with Life Science/Pharmas being in the Pharma Corridor of NJ/PA. This is an amazing video showing different cellular visualizations. In just the small amount of work and research I've done, I would have to say that Pharma and Life Science has the deepest, most amazing work being done in almost any industry.

http://aimediaserver.com/studiodaily/videoplayer/?src=harvard/harvard.swf&width=640&height=520

MicroCharts - Finally a great way to use Sparklines without a bunch of development

Wed, 06 Sep 2006 23:42:11 GMT

BonaVista Systems (http://www.bonavistasystems.com/DownloadMicroCharts.html) has a technical preview of something they are calling MicroCharts. MicroCharts are really the Ed Tufte Sparklines that have been the buzz of late.

Here are some examples of what you can do with this stuff.

Excel 2007 with Icon Set Conditional Formating...

The Same report with Sparklines - history is now included and range and breadth with no real estate expansion.

information aesthetics - ideas and concepts for visualization

Mon, 24 Jul 2006 00:00:07 GMT

This is one of my favorite sites - it is frequently updated and they cover all kinds of areas of how to communicate information.

http://infosthetics.com/

An Oldie, but a Goodie - Powers of 10 Video

Wed, 14 Jun 2006 17:15:43 GMT

Considering this was made in the 1970's ... pretty respectable

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4i6B7HzijSo

Way Cool Table Map for GIS!

Wed, 24 May 2006 00:22:24 GMT

http://www.ms.northropgrumman.com/DOCs/TouchTable.mpg

I wonder if it comes with Cloe and Edgar from "24"?