Photofly: mesh for photographers?

Mesh seems to be emerging slowly onto the SL main grid and I am sure it will not be long in reaching OpenSim either in a more finished form. Doubtless many will be polishing their Blender skills in anticipation or scouring TurboSquid and similar sites for free content. Ever wishing to be different, I am still looking for simple tools that generate useful, albeit amateur, content without months of dedicated training. Such an approach should be accessible to non-specialist students as well.

Molecule meshes, you may recall, can be generated using UCSF Chimera which exports formats compatible with MeshLab (which reads PDB files directly as well). I also looked previously at Sculptris which takes a rather elemental "ball of clay" approach.

The latest tool I am playing with is Autodesk Photofly. In contrast to Sculptris, this works from multiple photographs of the same scene or object so the object must already exist ( have yet to try an inworld scene). You can also generate a movie for upload to YouTube. The door and steps in the picture above are a crude example of what can be done. Image capture was done on my humble laptop so quality is lost there as well.

Significant caveat: Photofly is in beta in Autodesk Labs and presently free to use once you register. That may change; it could become paid-for or disappear entirely.

The process itself is straightforward: take pictures (lots), load the images into Photofly, stitch them (in the cloud), refine the draft mesh that is returned (much tinkering required but omitted here), generate an improved mesh (in the cloud) and then export in .obj format with accompanying UV texture. This can then be processed using MeshLab to COLLADA .dae format for upload to OpenSim or SL.

The steps and doorway shown in the image above are actually the unrefined draft mesh for one of the example image sets as the cloud rendering failed at the recommended quality for some reason.

I had to revert to Kirsten's Viewer 21(7A) in order to import to OpenSim 0.7.1.1 running as sim-on-a-stick. I suspect that most third-party viewers will focus on SL for mesh in the short-term but support will emerge for OpenSim in due course. I also had issues with the mesh physics/bounding box and was unable to make the mesh phantom, the usual fallback position. Again, this will be fixed, I am sure.

As ever, this is not entirely a first. There has been some discussion of Photofly in the SL forums, including mention of alternatives. While still not simple enough for some purposes, PhotoFly and its ilk could lead to a more rapid adoption of mesh than many anticipate, at least for certain uses.

Was this week all about Unity, mobile or what?

This week has seen several developments relating to Unity3D although the image above comes from the SL/OpenSim viewer Radegast of which more anon.

Firstly Tipodean announced their OpenSim-to-Unity3D conversion service and provided some nice demos. The benefit is that, depending on the mode, the sim runs either serverless in single-user mode or peer-to-peer in multi-user mode, albeit that some avatar management might be needed (see Unifier later). Moreover, the sim should run on the two major mobile platforms, iOS and Android, as well as the web (with a small install). This answers two important questions: scaling (OpenSim equivalents might be sim-on-a-stick and Intel Distributed Scene Graph) and mobile (no mobile clients with inworld scene graphics as yet).

It's perhaps worth mentioning that Rezzable demonstrated something similar in late 2010 but as yet there is no product or market. Although it only bears a conceptual reference to OpenSim, ReactionGrid have been busy developing their Jibe Unity3D product and features such as mobile, inworld building and hypergrid-style teleporting appear on their roadmap. Just this week Second Places announced their Unifier product for managing multi-avatar Unity3D spaces.

Having been early on the scene, Rezzable have commented at some length on the relative strengths of the OpenSim and Unity3D platforms and the ways in which they might complement one another. Tipodean have made the case for Unity in terms of faster onboarding while Rezzable like the idea of a taster that might eventually lead to download of the full viewer. I think everyone agrees that a simpler first hour experience is desirable as evidenced by the new Basic mode in the SL Viewer 2. Maria Korolov followed this up more recently with a specific comparison of OpenSim and Jibe.

For me (as a non-expert), it seems that OpenSim is preferred if you want low-cost regions in which avatars can rez and interact with content while Unity3D provides a more contained experience with a somewhat smaller install and the ability to deploy on the web as well as mobile platforms. Depending on your application, either might be appropriate and the Tipodean product is useful in so far as it bridges the two platforms. At the moment it doesn't convert LSL scripts to C# nor, I suspect, avatars so there may be additional customisation to be costed post-conversion. Those who have worked to develop their SL/OpenSim skills may also feel a little disenfranchised though their students will know no different in many cases and the early adopters will at least have some experience with the pedagogy.

The spectre at the feast is arguably 3Di who had OpenSim running under Android back in 2010 using Flash conversion but who have now stopped OpenSim development to focus on 2.5D environments.

I also feel a little that way as my new, low-end Android tablet will not run the Unity3D demo games on Android Market so I don't expect to be able to run Unity3D sims except in a browser. That means, alas, that I can't comment on likely usability issues derived from the smaller form factor, for example. I therefore simply observe that there might be other 3D solutions for mobile Android, albeit of lower graphics quality.

Which brings me back to the Radegast viewer widely used on PCs lacking SL-standard graphics cards. Formerly a largely text-based viewer, the development version has now sprouted a 3D option in addition to an object inspector. While not approaching the quality of, say, Imprudence and presently rendering avatars with the default mesh (aka Ruth), the scene can be explored using alt-zoom camera techniques and objects are rezzed in response to touch-activated scripts. It looks like sitting/standing, take/return/delete and rezzing from inventory will all be supported.

Kitely have been promoting Emscripten as a means to convert a standard viewer to JavaScript so that one might have support for HTML 5 and truly plugin-free performance. Radegast would seem to my superficial inspection to be an interesting starting point, albeit that my tablet still could not render the scene as it lacks WebGL support. Woe is me unless Google does some significant magic.

Which brings us to the lowest acceptable level of performance, perhaps, viz something that would take a panoramic series of images, stitch them together, upload the file to a website and then provide a basic viewer that allowed you to spin the image to the desired location, navigate via coordinates/hypergrid addresses and chat. Rinse and repeat at, say, 60 sec intervals. Something like the SL-based Peek360, for example, which runs fine in the default browser on my tablet but is only updated through manual intervention and does not guarantee punctual delivery. Of course, we need something that is not Flash-based (for iOS) and we need additional OSSL support or some kind of libomv-based service as is the case, I suspect, with Peek360. I haven't done an exhaustive search for viewers but this one, for example, scrolls satisfactorily in the default browser. Not futuristic, not elegant and a service that would cost something to run. For some purposes, however, it might suffice "for the rest of us".

Basically, it's all about having options. Options are good.

Tabloid update: Part 1

As you may recall, I blogged my purchase and first impressions of the low-cost Tabtech M009s Android 2.2 7" tablet. I am pleased to report that the second tablet is still working and that at the time of writing it is (cue drum roll) the most popular tablet purchase on Amazon UK. This is reflected in an active discussion forum that rectifies some of the deficiencies in the accompanying documentation. At the moment, there appear to be two vendors selling from the same page which is confusing. I got mine from Wendy Lou.

Indeed, it was on the forum that I found the advice to flush the Google Android Market cache in order to see more apps. Having previously been unable to locate Evernote and, from other sites, been told that it was not compatible, I can now report that it does install although it is presently untested. xPressConnect also installs and runs though I still fail to connect to EduRoam.

This is not entirely surprising as many of the Android bells-and-whistles features require hardware and software omitted to keep costs down or inappropriate in a tablet running a phone operating system sans phone. That said, I have found some simple apps that workwell enough.

FeedR, for example, looked to be a nice-enough RSS feed reader with a nice feed discovery search built-in. Sadly the adware version decided to deinstall itself so I'm now looking at Google Reader.

While looking for an Evernote alternative, I happened across AK Notepad. This archives plain text to the freemium Catch.com website. Post-flush I also encountered the more sophisticated Catch Notes app which supports reminders, file attachments, camera snapshots and voice (rather faint on the M009s). It also integrates with the Barcode Scanner app although this failed to run for me so no QR codes as yet. Both AK Notepad and Catch Notes are support the Android Share functionality (sometimes also displayed as Email) so you can very easily send the output from one app (e.g. PubMed Mobile) to AK Notepad and then synch that, perhaps after adding a comment or hashtag, with the Catch website. There is a competing format called SimpleNote that is supported by more apps but most do not use share as far as I can see. It has the advantage, however, of supporting a markup language so text can be formatted after a fashion.

Among more high-profile apps, Dropbox seems to work well enough and I have rediscovered a liking for the Opera web browser.

If you want to move files from a PC to the M009s, it comes with a 30-pin-to-USB connector that seems to work well enough (the phone appears as two new drives on the PC).

I still have not found a means to display the screen but in extremis our lecture theatres are equipped with visualizers.

I guess the question becomes one of "if you have a smartphone, do you need a cut-down tablet?" The surprisingly vibrant sales on Amazon suggest that the answer is "possibly yes". The discussions suggest that the price falls within the realms of a feasible gift and many clearly intend taking the tablet on holiday with them when, presumably, the size, cost and feature set are all considerations. For some the purchase may well be a stepping stone to something more sophisticated or a hedge against the future vagaries of the technology (aka "buy something basic now and see how it goes"). That said, purchasers of the M009s also have to appreciate that they are stuck with the limitations both of the tablet and of the operating system which is unlikely to be significantly upgraded.

There are some interesting data on mobile ownership at the University of Sheffield that show 56% of their students have a smartphone and 25% are thinking of getting one in the coming year. Students often didn't bring laptops to class for reasons of bulk. However, even if they did, many had problems connecting to wireless services and this carried over to smartphone users too. It would seem that my issues with EduRoam are not entirely atypical. Of course, in my case having a 3G dongle obviates the problem somewhat but at significant additional cost.

Given the absence of Flash on iOS, I will most likely focus on web-based development for mobile use with a focus on TiddlyWiki/TiddlySpace rather than app development, though doubtless I will look at that too. In that regard, the M009s is an interesting platform, online or offline.

The Final Frontier

This is a new build, one of several intended to mark the New World Grid Open Day in September. It is a long way from finished and what has been done so far has been created ad hoc rather than meticulously planned, i.e. is subject to revision. The general idea, however, is to put a microbiological spin on an old virtual world "chestnut", the space settlement.

There is no shortage of space builds on OpenSim grids or Second Life and mine will doubtless be less polished and less "realistic" than many. NASA has been running a space settlement design contest for schools for some years although not involving virtual worlds. That said, it now has its own Moon World in a closed OpenSim grid.

In SL the Midrivers and SEEDS projects on EDAKent are looking at various facets of living on other planets and have lots of mini-builds highlighting particular ideas and themes. Midrivers also has a presence on jokaydiaGRID (secondlife://66.240.241.41:9004:Midrivers%20Project/).

From Colorado Technical University Cynthia Calongne has played a leading role in development of an award-winning serious game in SL which has the recovery of geothermal energy on Mars as a plot driver. Her presentation notably highlights the pedagogy as well as the structure of the simulation.

There are doubtless many interesting space-themed builds on OpenSim grids, Serenity Island being a particularly nice example by Lawrence Pierce.

Although very much a novice at all this, my focus will be on the role of microbes in sustaining life in a space settlement, including developing and managing an Environmental Control and Life Support System . This potentially cuts across a number of areas, including food, energy and possibly even infection.

For a space settlement focused on mining, for example, microbiologists might be interested in novel approaches to:

• biomining
• microbiome monitoring and modification for humans, plants and planets (aka terraforming)
• synthetic and single-cell foods
• waste treatment/recycling
• energy capture/generation
• production of recyclable biopolymers
• biosensors and synthetic biology
  

There is a long way to go and at the moment there are some (empty) geodesic domes, a slightly whimsical industrial build and not much else. Early days.

In which I purchase a cheap tabloid

I did it. I took a semi-calculated risk and got a cheap Android tablet (a tabloid?) rather than wait for the high-end kit to fall in price. My purchase, the Eken M009s, is available from a number of vendors but I got mine as the Tabtech M009S from Wendy Lou on Amazon for ~£80. The first tablet delivered failed to take a charge so was returned and rapidly replaced with a second which works and (bonus!) seems to have been updated since the first (e.g. it had a legible, if not entirely intelligible, manual). The machine is rooted and has, I understand, also been customised with a third-party UK-centric version of Android with much useless bloatware pruned. You can get the same or similar machine for less than I paid (even from the same vendor off-Amazon, less again in the US due to the usual $ = £ equivalence) but it was good to have a relatively pain-free start, including access to the UK Android App Market.

Some early thoughts from a totally naive non-iStuff, non-Android user...

Pro

• It runs the older phone-oriented Android 2.2 Froyo and has a 7" colour screen which is fine for reading indoors (haven't tried daylight). Build quality is surprisingly good.
  
• Comes with a USB/RJ45 extension widget so I can use a standard PC keyboard and mouse when available. This compensates for a native onscreen keyboard layout that is much too small for my clumsy digits (I also bought a stand/case so I can use the external keyboard with the screen at a sensible angle).
• Detects screen tilt and adjusts layout accordingly.
• Can connect to the web using wifi at home and via ethernet at work (uses the widget again). Can also use my (ageing) 3G dongle via the widget.
  
• Runs YouTube videos reasonably well, including audio, and iPlayer via the browser.
• Connects readily to UK Android App Market and I was able to download the Mobile Grid client without trouble and then connect to New World Grid (text-only apart from the sim map -- I haven't been able to find a grid map though intra-grid teleports using landmarks work; inventory also nicely implemented). You pay for this in SL. Linden Lab is reportedly starting work on SL apps though I would be surprised if they supported OpenSim.
  
• Runs apps such as Wapedia (for Wikipedia) and Kindle (for Amazon books; pre-installed).
• Comes with a selection of three web browsers though I've stuck with the default Android one.
  
• I could also use join.me to stream my laptop running Imprudence to the Android tablet, cede partial control to the tablet and (with a little assistance on the laptop) open the build menu and rez a cube (fun though I doubt I'll be using that setup for co-building!).
  
• Ran the Flash-based Xerte learning object demo although it failed to show the faded background on first attempt.
• On the third attempt, I was able to login to our local Blackboard install using Blackboard Learn, download a PowerPoint file to a 4 GB microSD card (the device will accommodate up to 16 GB in addition to the 2 GB available by default) and view it using Documents To Go (which also supports editing of text).
• Can use Seesmic app to follow Twitter.
  
• Tiddlyspace runs fine though the layout is presently sub-optimal. There is also an app that allows you to work locally with standard TiddlyWiki (AndTidWik).
• Seems to run the core aspects of Google Docs OK.
• Can download pdf files from PubMed Central (long press on link to bring up submenu with Save option) and read them using either Documents To Go or the Adobe viewer.

Con

• It takes a while to get to grips with the intricacies of the system though the product-associated discussion on Amazon is helpful, albeit that it sometimes refers to earlier iterations of the product. Google is also your friend (as ever).
• I don't have a benchmark by which to judge speed of operation but I imagine that performance on a high-end processor is significantly faster for most things. That said, I find the tablet quite usable for simple apps though my advanced age doubtless means I am more tolerant than some.
  
• The resistive screen requires a fairly firm touch and hence can be a source of typos; it also lacks any two-finger pinch-to-zoom gesture. Complex web-based Flash apps are hard or impossible to use, e.g. I could browse a lucidchart but authoring one would be very tough.
  
• The camera is distinctly low-end and faces the viewer, apparently being mainly intended for video-conferencing.
• While I could access the local open wifi network (sadly due to close shortly), I could neither get onto EduRoam nor install the widget (xpressConnect) intended to facilitate the connection (unsupported on my hardware). That leaves me depending on a rather kludgey looking widget + 3G dongle setup hanging off the tablet though, to be fair, it does give me offsite connectivity too.
  
• I could not get the Evernote app to run (Android App Market warns that Evernote is not compatible with this tablet -- at a pinch I might be able to use the browser-based version). There is a free scrapbook app that saves web pages for future review though this type of functionality is something I might be willing to pay for.
  
• I was able to run Google Maps in the browser, albeit rather slowly, though I could not find any Google Maps app on the Android market (it may be that it is hidden from incompatible hardware, e.g. that lacks pinch-to-zoom capability).
  
• No GPS, no accelerometer.
• The 30-pin socket for the USB/RJ45 dongle seems to have a potential wobble issue.
  
• I have had to reset the system ~6 times in the course of a week when it froze, typically when I was demonstrating it to other people (naturally). I'm not sure whether that comes from running too many apps simultaneously or the fact that I don't always (de)mount the microSD card when switching on/off.
  
• I haven't tested the battery life but occasional use would probably see it last through the working day although screen- or wifi-intensive activity would most likely bring it down to 1-2 hours. You can use the unit while recharging.
• I'd forgotten about the 3Di Android OpenSim app with inworld graphics but it never got wide distribution as far as I know and the company is pulling out of OpenSim (thought: maybe they could open source the code?). No reason why the Unity3D BuiltBuyMe web-based viewer should run so I haven't tried that though ReactionGrid seem to be basing their mobile strategy on the Unity3D-based Jibe.
  
• I have yet to figure out how to access USB memory sticks via the widget which is not to say that there's a problem with it.
  

At the moment I am still coming to grips with the Android app ecosystem. While doubtless much smaller (and less "cool") than Apple's, it seems to have most of the important areas covered with a good range of free apps. While cognoscenti reading this will doubtless be shaking their heads, I am thus far relatively pleased with the purchase in terms of bang-per-buck. That said, lack of EduRoam support might pose problems for students and the diversity of Android device types might engender support issues unless the peer group steps up. Added to which, it is all early days.

I will, of course, blog if and when the tablet dies and more to the point why. Most likely I will sit on it. I just hope the consequences are not too painful.