Aditya's Tumblr

3D Fractals

Mon, 19 Mar 2012 21:21:46 -0400

3D Fractals

Sagan: The Humans

Mon, 19 Mar 2012 20:26:13 -0400

Sagan: The Humans

JB

Sun, 18 Mar 2012 17:53:51 -0400

“Fresh Guacamole”

Wed, 07 Mar 2012 23:28:03 -0500

“Fresh Guacamole”

The best time lapse video you’ll see this week.

Sun, 15 Jan 2012 09:18:14 -0500

The best time lapse video you’ll see this week.

Everything’s cooler in slow-mo.

Sun, 03 Jul 2011 14:27:59 -0400

Everything’s cooler in slow-mo.

“In the Shadow of Saturn” - a photograph of the dark...

Fri, 13 May 2011 04:25:00 -0400

“In the Shadow of Saturn” - a photograph of the dark side of Saturn, as the planet eclipses the sun. The pale 4-pixel dot in the left-middle of the image (you need to zoom in to see it) is us, the Earth. Stunning.

This was on APOD back in ‘06, but I saw it for the first time today at a talk by Niel deGrasse Tyson at UW. The lecture was titled ”Musings of an Astrophysicist”, and apart from a few sporadic factoids wasn’t necessarily focused on academic aspects of astrophysics or science, but was rather a commentary by Tyson on various interesting subjects like life on Mars, black holes, Pluto, asteroids, the Big Bang, doomsday, astronomical naming rights, the ‘nobility’ of gases, the LHC, science illiteracy in modern society, the role of education etc. The lecture was brilliantly delivered and spawned a real sense of wonder and cosmic perspective. Awesome and humbling.

I particularly enjoyed the conclusion, where Tyson requested the lights be dimmed, and concluded his narration, as images from the Hubble were projected on the screen. Very planetarium like. (Fitting, since Tyson directs the Hayden Planetarium in NY)

The talk was fun and engaging and I’m glad that I was able to attend. Dr. Tyson is a wonderful speaker, entertaining, eloquent and genuinely passionate about what he does. Science really needs more people like him.

(Image: NASA APOD)

Kinetic Sculptures - Breathtaking art style. Love it.

Sun, 06 Mar 2011 19:02:00 -0500

Kinetic Sculptures - Breathtaking art style. Love it.

HTML5 Panorama Viewer

Tue, 22 Feb 2011 23:42:00 -0500

Recently, while working with panoramic images for my research, I decided to implement a panorama viewer purely in HTML5. Most panorama viewers online require plugins like Flash or Java, but since HTML5 has a shiny new canvas element, I thought it would be a worthwhile experiment.

The viewer assumes a cylindrical projection. Essentially, by slicing up the original image, we can independently stretch out each slice to give the image surface the appearance of a 3D cylinder. The math to re-project a rectangular panorama onto a cylinder is fairly simple (involves cosecants, more details in code).

With num_slices = 20. Individual slices are visible.

If the number of slices is fairly high, it’s hard to make out that there’s any slicing at all.

With num_slices = 600

Of course, the more slices there are, the better the panorama will look, but consequently, the poorer it will perform.

Here’s a couple of demos I threw together. Click (or touch) and drag to pan:

Pantheon

La Roche Parstire

(Source images: 1, 2)

If you’re interested, feel free to delve into the source code and reuse/hack it as you see fit. Hopefully in the near future, I’ll add support for zoom, vertical panning, spherical projections and improve the overall performance.

PS: Requires an HTML5 compatible browser (Chrome/Safari/Firefox/Opera). Works on the iPhone/iPad too.

Next home project.

Tue, 11 Jan 2011 19:33:10 -0500

Next home project.

One Question IQ-Test

Wed, 17 Nov 2010 15:21:28 -0500

Here’s a one-question IQ Test to help you decide how you should spend the rest of your day …

There is a mute who wants to buy a toothbrush. By imitating the action of brushing one’s teeth, he successfully expresses himself to the shopkeeper and the purchase is done.

Now, if there is a blind man who wishes to buy a pair of sunglasses, how should he express himself? Think about it first before scrolling down for the answer…

He opens his mouth and says. “I would like to buy a pair of sunglasses”

If you got this wrong - please turn off your computer and call it a day.

(I’ve got mine shutting down right now.)

(via The Manbottle Library)

via thedailywhat: Animated GIF of the Day: “Retro Mario in 3D...

Sat, 13 Nov 2010 19:32:44 -0500

via thedailywhat:

Animated GIF of the Day: “Retro Mario in 3D Flavor” by Cesar “cezkid” Enrriquez.

Part of an ongoing series.

[@boomtisca.]

How to pack like a pro. Saved for future reference.

Mon, 11 Oct 2010 13:47:00 -0400

How to pack like a pro. Saved for future reference.

Procrastination. (via http://ytorf.com/)

Tue, 24 Aug 2010 11:49:31 -0400

Procrastination.

(via http://ytorf.com/)

Computer Science geekery. Might be very interesting to some and...

Thu, 19 Aug 2010 13:13:56 -0400

Computer Science geekery. Might be very interesting to some and a horrendous waste of time for many.

Ennui Emergency.

Tue, 03 Aug 2010 13:18:21 -0400

Ennui Emergency.

Great Italian Motorbike Display. Badass.

Fri, 23 Jul 2010 13:07:48 -0400

Great Italian Motorbike Display. Badass.

"Time you enjoyed wasting was not wasted."

Tue, 20 Jul 2010 17:12:13 -0400

“Time you enjoyed wasting was not wasted.”

- John Lennon

Truer than true. (Via The Oatmeal) How you are perceived with...

Thu, 08 Jul 2010 07:23:38 -0400

Truer than true.

(Via The Oatmeal)

How you are perceived with Capslock Off/On

Interesting, but as demonstrated yesterday (#ESP 1-0 #GER),...

Thu, 08 Jul 2010 07:22:06 -0400

Interesting, but as demonstrated yesterday (#ESP 1-0 #GER), incorrect analysis.

9gag:

Why Germany will win the 2010 Worldcup!