NVIDIA unveils first graphics card to use 4GB of RAM

NVIDIA announced its latest Quadro graphics card today, called the FX 5800. The card goes into the Quadro line, which features some of the most expensive graphics cards to roll off big green's assembly lines.

The FX 5800 keeps up that tradition, coming in with an MSRP of $3,499. That much loot buys you the industry's first graphics card to use 4GB of graphics memory. In addition to sporting more RAM than any two of NVIDIA's gamer-oriented graphics cards, the FX 5800 offers up to 240 CUDA programmable parallel processing cores.

The folks in Santa Clara say that the card is capable of interactive 4D modeling with time lapses. It has a memory bandwidth of up to 102 GB per second, and fill rates for the beastie exceed 52 billion texels per second. NVIDIA claims a geometry performance of 300 million triangles per second.

You might wonder where this sort of performance would be needed. The card is aimed at those involved in oil and gas exploration, medical imaging, and styling/design fields. Thilaka Sumanaweera, CTO of CyberHeart, gives a good example of how the power of the FX 5800 can be used. Sumanaweera said in a statement, "The advanced textured graphics capabilities of the Quadro FX 5800 are enabling CyberHeart to provide 3D radiosurgical target visualization and definition tools for the purpose of treating cardiac arrhythmias. Our applications are processing very large data sets acquired by the state-of-the-art 64-slice CT scanners using respiratory- and cardiac-gating. The Quadro FX cards provide us with the extreme bandwidth necessary to support our cutting-edge technology, and essentially, save lives."

Resource - ArsTechnica

How the CNN Holographic Interview System Works

CNN's holographic election coverage is fancy pantsy, but how did they manage to send 3D 360 degree footage of virtual correspondent Jessica Yellin from Chicago all the way to the station's election center in NY? As Arthur C. Clarke says, Magic. A magic made possible from technology Vizrt and SportVu with the help of forty-four HD cameras and twenty computers. Here are the details.

On the subject's side:
• 35 HD cameras pointed at the subject in a ring
• Different cameras shoot at different angles (like the matrix), to transmit the entire body image
• The cameras are hooked up to the cameras in home base in NY, synchronizing the angles so perspective is right
• The system is set up in trailers outside Obama and McCain HQ
• Not only is it mechanical tracking via camera communication, there's infrared as well
• Correspondents see a 37-inch plasma where the return feed of the combined images are fed back to them. Useful for a misplaced hair or an unseemly boogar
• Twenty "computers" are crunching this data in order to make it usable

On the HQ side:
• Only used on two out of 40-something total camera feeds that CNN has
• Wolf Blitzer really loves it (or loves Jessica Yellin):

It's still Jessica Yellin and you look like Jessica Yellin and we know you are Jessica Yellin. I think a lot of people are nervous out there. All right, Jessica. You were a terrific hologram.

• The delay is either minimal, or we've gotten used to satellite delay that we don't even notice now
• An array of computers takes the crunched info feed from the subject's side in order to mesh it with the video from Wolf's side.
• Unfortunately, it doesn't look like the images are actually "projected" onto the floor of the CNN studio so that Wolf can actually talk to the person, you know, in a face to face. So it's not quite Star Wars just yet. Only after computers merge the video feeds together do you get a coherent hologram + person scenario

Resource -  Gizmodo

Microsoft SecondLight Caught on Video: It's Like Surface, With Magic

Microsoft announced the SecondLight table a few days ago, offering plenty of explanations as to how this modified, quasi-X-ray Surface table works and how one might use it, but little in the way of visual aides. The dual-projection system, by which the table identifies where it is being touched and projects a second, alternative image didn't sound like the kind of thing that would look, well, seamless. As it turns out, it does. Say what you will about the SecondLight's incredibly complicated design, but you can't deny that, in motion, the hidden overlay concept is pretty impressive. [PCPro via Slashdot]
Read More: microsoft secondlight, surface, microsoft, ms, microsoft surface, multitouch, secondlight table, microsoft secondlight table

Resource - Gizmodo