Thursday, September 30, 2010

NOAA - NOAA Provides Easy Access to Historical Atlantic Hurricane Tracks

This new system has handy zip code search function

http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2010/20100930_hurricanetrack.html


Art Trembanis
CSHEL
Department of Geological Sciences
University of Delaware
http://cshel.geology.udel.edu

NOAA - NOAA-Sponsored Scientists First to Map Offshore San Andreas Fault and Associated Ecosystems

Combination ship based and AUV based mapping effort

http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2010/20100930_sanandreas.html


Art Trembanis
CSHEL
Department of Geological Sciences
University of Delaware
http://cshel.geology.udel.edu

ROVInfo.com • View topic - Long Distance Robotic Telepresence

Cool application using telepresence for remote ROV control.

Long Distance Robotic Telepresence

Discussion space for users of ROVs over the internet

Moderator: chrisol

Long Distance Robotic Telepresence

Postby chrisol » Thu Jul 02, 2009 8:21 pm

(Update March 6, 2010)

At Marine Resources Development Foundation the focus of our research with VideoRay is in the area of very long distance (internet) robotic telepresence. Key areas of investigation include: reliability; minimized control lags; and intuitive controllers using all our innate human senses/capabilities, so that we literally find ourselves somewhere else ... immersed and fully capable in another environment.

Thru a virtual internet presence in our manned underwater laboratory, we bring this technology as it develops into remote classrooms, laboratories, museums & aquariums around the world for their own testing, project development and education ... where they can "fly" VideoRay from afar.

This VideoRay technology is also available to on-site diving students and aquanauts that participate in our manned underwater laboratory programs. Last summer over 160 high school student/divers and their science teachers piloted VideoRay from under the sea using multiple control interfaces including headmounted display/head motion controllers.

We are encouraging educators, students and researchers to come-up with creative project ideas that can be conducted in the marine environment outside our submerged manned undersea station ... from their classrooms, labs, science centers, museums or aquariums ... over the internet using the VideoRay ROV.

If you or your organization is interested in participating or collaborating in this on-going educational/research program, would like to bring internet ROV control into your classroom, laboratory, science center, museum or aquarium for educational or research purposes, ... or you own a VideoRay and would like to test or implement internet ROV control at your own facility, post a message here and contact chris@mrdf.org.

(updated March 6, 2010)

Chris Olstad

Biologist/Underwater Technologist
Director of Habitat Operations
Marine Resources Development Foundation
51 Shoreland Drive
Key Largo, Florida
(305) 451-1139
chris@mrdf.org
chrisol
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Re: Long Distance Robotic Telepresence

Postby prowe » Sun Mar 14, 2010 4:08 pm

Last winter I had the exciting opportunity to work with Chris and MRDF to enhance the control of his VideoRay ROV over the Internet. My INTERNET connection is not the best (far less capacity than most educational institutions have installed). Using a WebEx conference connection I was able to take control of his VideoRay at MRDF in Key Largo from my office in Concord Wisconsin and preform tasks like flying the pipe line, mid water flying, exploring the lagoons cannon collection and landing the ROV on the platform below the under water lab's moon pool. Most of all I enjoyed the wide variety underwater wildlife (Fish) that live around the underwater lab. Chris was there ready to take the controls if I ran into any problems. There were a few moments I almost needed some help but I was able to recover most of the time without assistance.

From the Underwater Lab at MRDF Chris can hold LIVE classes delivered into any class room with an INTERNET connection on many marine and science topics including flying the MRDF VideoRay! This is one of the coolest ways to engage students of all ages without having to take them underwater or even leave the class room!

Chris, I and many others plan on working together to bring enhancements to the ROV control capability over the INTERNET. We both believe Long Distance Robotic Telepresence is just the beginning of something BIG to come! I would suggest any teacher interested in a very exciting way to engage students contact Chris Olstad at MRDF for his program details.
Patrick Rowe
Midwest ROV LLC.
prowe@midwestrov.com
Ph: 414. 840. 3855
Fx: 920. 699. 2535
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Location: Concord Wisconsin USA

Re: Long Distance Robotic Telepresence

Postby Craig Bussel » Sat Jul 17, 2010 7:17 pm

Chris, it has been awhile since I piloted your system from my lab at the University of Connecticut, what about 5 years ago I think, to your lab at the bottom of the lagoon. Would be interested in the developments you have made. When you get a chance lets get back in touch.
Craig
Craig Bussel
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MRDF Telepresence works for Shedd Teachers ROV Program

Postby prowe » Wed Aug 18, 2010 9:02 pm

Last week I had the opportunity to work with the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago assisting with their ROV teacher program. This week long program teaches teachers how to build and ROV and operate them, Teachers then return to their students with the skills and knowledge to teach their students about ROVs and the MATE program. This is the third year Shedd has offered this summer course to teachers. On day one Mark Gleason from Great Lakes Naval Memorial Museum http://www.glnmm.org presented to the group. After lunch we setup two VideoRay ROVs in the Caribbean reef exhibit at Shedd for the class to test their piloting skills. After the dip in the fish tank the class set to designing their ROVs.
Shedd 4.jpg
Shedd 4.jpg (12.67 KiB) Viewed 463 times


Tuesday Chris Olstad from MRDF http://www.mrdf.org joined the class from his underwater lab in Key Largo. During his presentation the class was able to drive his VideoRay over the Internet! During this session most of the teachers flew the "Pipe" course and a couple did some mid water flying. We also tried out controlling the VideoRay using a new input device, A Smart Board! http://www.smarttech.com. Two of the teachers tried this method,
Smart board.jpg
Smart board.jpg (62.07 KiB) Viewed 463 times

The Smart Board worked but it will need some additional configuration to fix a problem of the right click menu from popping up if you hold your finger on the board to long.
SB popup.jpg
SB popup.jpg (62.34 KiB) Viewed 463 times

The rest of Tuesday was dedicated to translating their design ideas into reality! :D

Wednesday was the main building day! The class assembled their PVC ROVs.
Shedd 2.jpg
Shedd 2.jpg (69.4 KiB) Viewed 463 times

Thursday morning was used to finished up the builds, test buoyancy, and controls.
Shedd 1.jpg
Shedd 1.jpg (72.31 KiB) Viewed 463 times


Around Noon the class departed for the Concordia University pool for the ROV first dives. All of the teams had working ROVs and were able to complete some assigned tasks like picking up "T" floating upright on the bottom of the pool, flying through a box and back. The day ended with a relay race where teams of two ROVs had to pass a "T" underwater from one side of the pool to the other.
Shedd 5.jpg
Shedd 5.jpg (9.74 KiB) Viewed 463 times

Shedd 6.jpg
Shedd 6.jpg (8.71 KiB) Viewed 463 times


Friday was the big day! The class headed out with their ROVs to the Haigh Quarry about 60 miles from Shedd. The quarry usually has very clear water, lots of interesting fish and things on the bottom to look at. The quarry field trip provides the ROV teams a chance to operate their ROVs in a real life environment under real conditions. This year the water was not so clear. :( The rest of the day was spent exploring the quarry and enjoying the outdoors. This was graduation day for the class!

I am looking forward to next years Shedd Teacher ROV class and the MATE teams this years ROV teachers field!
Patrick Rowe
Midwest ROV LLC.
prowe@midwestrov.com
Ph: 414. 840. 3855
Fx: 920. 699. 2535
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Tuesday, September 28, 2010

So much to visualize, so little time.

https://www.msu.edu/~howardp/softdrinks.html
This is a really cool project a professor at the University of Michigan undertook. He created a chart that breaksdown the Soft Drink Industry across the United States.

http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/visualizations/the-billion-dollar-o-gram-2009/
This is a really interesting figure showing what the money in the world is going towards (in billions of dollars).

Monday, September 27, 2010

Ushahidi :: Crowdsourcing Crisis Information (FOSS)

Neat application for crowd sourcing live crisis mapping. All about the geospatial revolution!

http://www.ushahidi.com/


Art Trembanis
CSHEL
Department of Geological Sciences
University of Delaware
http://cshel.geology.udel.edu

Data Visualization in Journalism

http://datajournalism.stanford.edu/

A neat set of short videos about how journalists are trying to communicate the plethora of data made available to them now.

~Ashley

Data data everywhere!

The periodic table of Data Visualization, with nifty examples of what each visualization type looks like!  Something every scientist can appreciate!  Yea!


Voyager took photos of the planet Jupiter more than 30 years ago!  Somebody took these images and made photomosaic of the "great red spot" which (I didn't realize) is almost TWICE the size of the planet Earth!!!!  HolyWoW!

Friday, September 24, 2010

A new gaming platform for Google Earth

From Google Earth
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GoogleEarthBlog/~3/0uQjTabqPRc/a_new_gaming_platform_for_google_ea.html


Art Trembanis
CSHEL
Department of Geological Sciences
University of Delaware
http://cshel.geology.udel.edu

10 Google Earth myths busted

From Google Earth
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GoogleEarthBlog/~3/VsavM8ARHR0/10_google_earth_myths_busted.html


Art Trembanis
CSHEL
Department of Geological Sciences
University of Delaware
http://cshel.geology.udel.edu

Mars Dust-Devil Mystery Solved on Earth | Wired Science | Wired.com

http://m.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/09/bright-dust-devil-tracks/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+wired%2Findex+%28Wired%3A+Index+3+%28Top+Stories+2%29%29&utm_content=Google+Feedfetcher


Art Trembanis
CSHEL
Department of Geological Sciences
University of Delaware
http://cshel.geology.udel.edu

University of Maryland robotics open house

starMAKE Magazine
September 22, 2010 1:15 AM
by Gareth Branwyn

University of Maryland robotics open house

robotLabVisit.jpg

My friend Erica Kane, from HacDC, recently went to an open house at the University of Maryland's robotics department. This is a cool thing to do, if you live near a school that has such a department (or some other tech discipline you're interested in). Call them up and see if/when they're doing an open house. Erica wrote up a little report of her day on her family website.

The robot shown here is Tortuga 3, which has won a number of important competitions. It was not running today, however, because the on-board computer was showing a disturbing tendency to shut down unexpectedly. The thrusters still continue to function in that case, which can lead to an irreversible dive. (Sounds like a design flaw to me.) This allowed us to take a closer look at the fascinating machine. Building a land robot is pretty hard; making one that is waterproof too is very impressive.

Robotics Open House at the University of Maryland


More:
Check out our massive Robotics Archive here on MAKE

Read the Full Story » | More on MAKE » | Comments » | Read more articles in Robotics | Digg this!
Robotics


Art Trembanis
CSHEL
Department of Geological Sciences
University of Delaware

xkcd's circuit diagram

starMAKE Magazine
September 23, 2010 1:00 AM
by Gareth Branwyn

xkcd's circuit diagram

circuit_diagramxkcd.png

This kooky circuit diagram, from the nerdgasmic webcomic xkcd, is full of the funny, like a magic smoke component, a "moral rectifier," an Arduino in the circuit ("just for blog cred"), a 666 timer, and on and on. [Spotted on Jeri Ellsworth's Facebook page]

xkcd

Read the Full Story » | More on MAKE » | Comments » | Read more articles in Electronics | Digg this!
Electronics


Art Trembanis
CSHEL
Department of Geological Sciences
University of Delaware

Thursday, September 23, 2010

James Cameron Commissions Submarine To Visit Challenger Deep

Wouldn't a sequel to the Abyss make more sense here?

starSlashdot
September 17, 2010 4:40 PM
by Soulskill

James Cameron Commissions Submarine To Visit Challenger Deep

frank249 writes "In January, on the fiftieth anniversary of the Trieste descent, the X Prize Foundation announced a $10 million prize for the first privately funded craft to make two manned descents to the bottom of Challenger Deep, the deepest surveyed point in the oceans. Now, James Cameron has announced he has commissioned a submarine capable of surviving the tremendous pressures at a depth of seven miles, from which he will not only try for the X prize but also shoot 3D footage that may be incorporated in Avatar's sequel."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.



transportation


Art Trembanis
CSHEL
Department of Geological Sciences
University of Delaware

I'm giving a CCOM seminar tomorrow

In Seattle for Oceans but wish I could be making it to this talk

starKurt's Weblog
September 23, 2010 5:11 PM
by Kurt

I'm giving a CCOM seminar tomorrow

Yup, I'm giving a talk tomorrow (Friday) at 3PM over in Chase Ocean Engineering. This will be my experiences with ERMA and the Deepwater Horizon incident. And no, I never physically went down to the Gulf of Mexico during the spill... I attacked the issues from New Hampshire. <br /><br /> <pre><b>Environmental Response Management Application (ERMA): From Portsmouth Response to NOAA's GeoPlatform Gulf Response</b> Kurt Schwehr <!-- --> In 2007, a small UNH team put together a prototype emergency response web application using open source tools on a Mac Desktop and later a Mac Mini. That system, called Portsmouth Response, was designed to assist in the first hours of an environmental incident by providing easy access to basic GIS layers without requiring GIS experts. This system generalized and renamed to ERMA, begin deployed as prototypes in the Caribbean and participating in the Spill Of National Significance (SONS) drill in New England during March 2010. Before the team could evaluate the performance during the SONS drill, the Deepwater Horizon platform exploded in the Gulf of Mexico on April 20, 2010. Four days later, the ERMA team was called in for 24x7 support of NOAA and USCG operations to handle the incident. ERMA went from prototype system to being the system providing the Common Operational Picture (COP) is just a few weeks. In early June, NOAA setup a system to mirror the unrestricted datasets for the public on the GeoPlatform system. Kurt will describe how ERMA is designed and how it was used during the Deepwater Horizon oil spill incident.</pre> <br /><br /> <img title="Seminar flier by Colleen" withgrayborder="True" src="http://schwehr.org/blog/attachments/2010-09/ccom-seminar-schwehr-erma.png"/>


Art Trembanis
CSHEL
Department of Geological Sciences
University of Delaware

Monday, September 20, 2010

IAN Symbol Libraries (Free Vector Symbols for Illustrator) - Integration and Application Network

A handy reference for crafting figures and diagrams

http://ian.umces.edu/symbols/#_Overview


Art Trembanis
CSHEL
Department of Geological Sciences
University of Delaware
http://cshel.geology.udel.edu

http://www.ifitweremyhome.com/

This site is fascinating because it compares the size of foreign countries to your home.  It further gives statistics that compares your home country to a country of your choosing.  For example, it will show how much more/less oil is consumed, or life expectancy, just to name a few.

It further compares the scale of recent disasters (BP oil spill and the Pakistan Flood) to your home state/region.  


This website provides graphs to visualize data by nation, for example, CO2 emissions by country or coal consumption by country (plenty of other data, too).  You can further visualize these data and how it changes through time.  

-Steph

Grad student aboard expedition exploring Mediterranean seafloor : University of Delaware

Kudos to Adam, Stephanie, and Nicole.
and all hail to the E/V Nautilus!
http://www.udel.edu/udaily/2011/sep/mediterranean-expedition092010.html

Saturday, September 11, 2010

Google Earth Visualization » Google Sky Planet Orbits

Now if only it was properly scaled and allowed for deep time geologic reconstruction of Milankovitch cycles a la Orbits (Mayer)

http://www.barnabu.co.uk/google-sky-planet-orbits/


Art Trembanis
CSHEL
Department of Geological Sciences
University of Delaware
http://cshel.geology.udel.edu

Google Earth Visualization » When two satellites collide, in Google Earth

Cool application of GE time

http://www.barnabu.co.uk/when-two-satellites-collide-in-google-earth/


Art Trembanis
CSHEL
Department of Geological Sciences
University of Delaware
http://cshel.geology.udel.edu

Google Earth Visualization » Visualization

http://www.barnabu.co.uk/visualization/


Art Trembanis
CSHEL
Department of Geological Sciences
University of Delaware
http://cshel.geology.udel.edu

Data Visualization In Medicine - Forbes.com

Link courtesy Jonathan G.
http://www.forbes.com/2010/09/08/data-visualization-medicine-technology-autopsy.html?boxes=techchanneltopstories

NPR.org » Scientists Find Thick Layer Of Oil On Seafloor

The plot, or in this case the seabed...thickens

http://www.nhpr.org/scientists-find-thick-layer-oil-seafloor

"Joye describes seeing layers of oily material -- in some places more than 2 inches thick -- covering the bottom of the seafloor.

"It's very fluffy and porous. And there are little tar balls in there you can see that look like microscopic cauliflower heads," she says."

Friday, September 10, 2010

Sept. 10, 1941: Stephen Jay Gould Born

Gotta say I always enjoy reading his stuff.  Knocked as being pompous and elitist but he wrote captivatingly and always informative.  Would not have wanted to get into a word duel with him.  Wonderful Life is a must read.  Full House I return to also.  

starWired Top Stories
September 10, 2010 7:00 AM
by Jess McNally

Sept. 10, 1941: Stephen Jay Gould Born

Stephen Jay Gould, who will become a famous evolutionary theorist and popular science writer, is born in New York City.



Art Trembanis
CSHEL
Department of Geological Sciences
University of Delaware

BP's Gulf Spill Report Shows String of Failures

Let the finger pointing begin!!!

starSlashdot
September 8, 2010 1:10 PM
by CmdrTaco

BP's Gulf Spill Report Shows String of Failures

eldavojohn writes "News is out of BP's report on the gulf spill that shifts some of the blame on to other companies like Transocean that worked with BP in erecting the Deepwater Horizon rig. If you were affected by the spill, you might find the video, executive summary and 193 page report an interesting read. The summary outlines six or seven major failures in safety and engineering that all built up to the deaths of eleven workers and widespread contamination of the gulf. From incorrectly using seawater instead of drilling fluid to misinterpreting pressure test results, this report is just BP's side of the story as the blowout preventer has been pulled up and is still on its way to NASA where it will be analyzed by government investigators who will be able to compile their own report."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

earth


Art Trembanis
CSHEL
Department of Geological Sciences
University of Delaware

Arms Regulations Damaging US Space Industry

Oh how we know this to be true...

starSlashdot
September 10, 2010 11:32 AM
by Soulskill

Arms Regulations Damaging US Space Industry

athe!st writes "International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) are a major headache for companies trying to put their satellites into space, so much so that some companies are using 'ITAR-free' (aka free of US technology) as a selling point. The European Space Agency is trying to reduce its dependence on ITAR components, and the regulations are also threatening the nascent space tourism industry."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

space


Art Trembanis
CSHEL
Department of Geological Sciences
University of Delaware

Scour Power - Science News

Good article about storm related scour and erosion along the Texas coast before and after Hurricane Ike. Thanks to Hilary for the link.

http://www.sciencenews.org/view/feature/id/62040/title/Scour_power

Saturday, September 4, 2010

Gridded bathymetry data (General Bathymetric Chart of the Oceans)

Here is the link to the gridded 30-arc second GEBCO data in netCDF format really imported into Fledermaus for visualization.

https://www.bodc.ac.uk/data/online_delivery/gebco/


Art Trembanis
CSHEL
Department of Geological Sciences
University of Delaware
http://cshel.geology.udel.edu

General Bathymetric Chart of the Oceans (GEBCO)

One stop source for information and links to GEBCO data.

http://www.gebco.net/


Art Trembanis
CSHEL
Department of Geological Sciences
University of Delaware
http://cshel.geology.udel.edu

Baby fin whale washes ashore in Lewes | delawareonline.com | The News Journal

http://www.delawareonline.com/article/20100903/NEWS/100903058/Baby-fin-whale-washes-ashore-in-Lewes


Art Trembanis
CSHEL
Department of Geological Sciences
University of Delaware
http://cshel.geology.udel.edu

AnotherEarth.org -- Two globes in one

From Google Earth
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GoogleEarthBlog/~3/r6kn-y4Vt0o/anotherearthorg_--_two_globes_in_on.html


Art Trembanis
CSHEL
Department of Geological Sciences
University of Delaware
http://cshel.geology.udel.edu

Hurricane Katrina, Five Years Later

From Google Earth
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GoogleEarthBlog/~3/QPpjayqx-9I/hurricane_katrina_five_years_later.html


Art Trembanis
CSHEL
Department of Geological Sciences
University of Delaware
http://cshel.geology.udel.edu

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

volcanoes « Elegant Figures : Blogs

Thanks to Katie for this link
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/blogs/elegantfigures/tag/volcanoes/


Art Trembanis
CSHEL
University of Delaware
www.geology.udel.edu/cshel

NPS Autonomous Unmanned Vehicle (AUV) Workbench

Would make an interesting student project to try and integrate the Gavia into the NPS AUV Workbench...any takers???

https://savage.nps.edu/AuvWorkbench/

YouTube - David McCandless: The beauty of data visualization

Thanks to Bryan for suggesting this great TED talk about data visualization
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLqjQ55tz-U

Surf Reports, Surf Forecasts and Surfing Photos

Thanks to Erika for this link
http://magicseaweed.com/

Robot Sub Dives Deep for Clues to a Fast-Melting Antarctic Glacier | 80beats | Discover Magazine

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2010/06/21/robot-sub-dives-deep-for-clues-to-a-fast-melting-antarctic-glacier/


Art Trembanis
CSHEL
University of Delaware
www.geology.udel.edu/cshel

3D Virtual learning platforms

http://www.uc3m.es/portal/page/portal/actualidad_cientifica/noticias/Virtual_learning