Shiver - Final Proposal

A few posts back - I wrote about developing a seismic data visualizer for my ICM final. This is still the case - however, the details involving the execution of the project are now very different. The most notable change involves adding several physical components to the project, meaning; this project will now be both my ICM and my Physical Computing project for this semester. Excited? Splendid - now on to the details...


Technical
On the ICM front - I made a decision a week ago that I would in fact use Python as my primary programming language opposed to my original choice of Java. Why? Well, as I mentioned in the past - Python is slow in regard to intensive computation in comparison to compiled languages such as C/C++ or Java. However, where Python shines is in its fast development time - and through its flexibility to glue together various components effectively. Without a doubt, hitting the visual high-bar I am aiming for in regard to the graphics in this project will put an enormous strain on Python - however, much of that strain can ideally be handled through C code, if necessary. I will be using an OpenGL binding called pyOpenGL - which is a mature library with strong documentation, so I should have information/learning support when I need it. For the GUI components, I will be using the wxPython toolkit - which allows for native OS widget use, so the program will automatically reflect the standard appearance of whatever OS the program is being run on. Very slick.



Fig 1.1: Shiver in early development, click to enlarge.


Representation
As for how the data will be represented, it will be done so on a 3D globe - much like applications such as Google Earth and NASA's World Wide Wind. When the applications gathers seismic data activity from the USGS - each event will be mapped to the globe according to its latitude and longitude values. Based on an event's Richter Scale value - the event will be visualized along the nearest normal to in correlation to its lat/long. mapping. Events can be selected through an easily organized directory structure tree, or on the globe itself. When selected - various attributes are displayed, as well as a simulation option - which leads us to the physical computing side of the project...


Physical
After sitting down with fellow ITP'er Sunghun Kim, we decided that we would like to team up and pursue a physical representation of seismic data that can be partnered with software I am developing for my ICM final. This idea will involve creating a 2D representation of the seismic events - dictated by the Richter scale value of each event. This will ideally result in a mesh being created by rods pushing and pulling at a rubber-like surface. Each rod will be driven of an average value of pixel color values dependent on the ratio between the rod count and the image resolution. Once a 2D simulation is established, it will ideally branch out to a 3D grid - but that is likely for another semester.