If you had to boil down Autodesk‘s business to a few simple words, it might be “helping people create new realities”—whether that means constructing new objects or structures first envisioned on the company’s computer-aided design (CAD) programs or generating new Avatar-like movie worlds using its modeling and animation software. But increasingly, the first step in the process of modeling a new product or environment is capturing an existing reality, then building on it. And a new cloud service hatched by Autodesk Labs, the company’s San Rafael, CA-based experimental design group, helps professionals and amateurs alike do exactly that, by synthesizing eerily accurate 3D computer models of almost any object or space from a few dozen conventional photographs.

Released in early November as an official Autodesk (NASDAQ: ADSK) beta product, the service is called 123D Catch, reflecting its place in a growing family of amateur-accessible design tools under the 123D brand. It uses a technique called photogrammetry to identify common features in a series of photos snapped from multiple angles. From those reference points, Autodesk’s servers can recreate the scene as a 3D mesh, like the model of my head shown below. The 3D models can then be modified using simple CAD programs like 123D, or even printed out and reassembled as real world sculptures using yet another Autodesk program, 123D Make.

It’s pretty amazing stuff for anyone who has a bit of maker in them. Until recently, building detailed photogrammetric models of everyday objects wasn’t possible without a battery of expensive laser scanners. But 123D Catch is just part of Autodesk’s larger plan to reach beyond its traditional audience of professional architects and designers with tools that can help advanced amateurs create, explore, and build their own 3D objects. And it’s a first step toward a future world where small-scale custom design and manufacturing may be widespread—and where Autodesk hopes to stake a big claim.

The “things industry” is gradually going the way of Netflix, argues Autodesk Labs vice president Brian Mathews. “We used to use money to buy things—shoes, glasses—but now we will effectively buy ideas,” Mathews says. “That is our prediction.”

And since the ideas will be digital, it will be easy to tweak them to our own tastes before they’re brought to life. Autodesk describes this as the “scan/modify/print” worldview. “In the music industry, people rip songs and deejays put them together in new ways,” Mathews observes. “That is also going to happen with the things industry. We’ve got the ability to modify things with 123D and do 3D printing with 123D Make. But what we haven’t shown is the scan part, and that’s what [123D Catch] is one aspect of—bringing laser scanning down to the consumer level.”

Autodesk first shared a preview version of 123D Catch under the code name Photofly in early 2010. I visited Mathews at Autodesk’s San Francisco offices this fall to learn more about Autodesk Labs, and we ended up focusing on Photofly as a soup-to-nuts illustration of the group’s mission and working pattern. “Everyone [at Autodesk] is inventing and improving, but an invention is not an innovation,” Mathews says. “An innovation has to be more in the practical realm; it has to work. We make real-world prototypes instead of research stuff, and our key differentiating feature is that we involve our customers. When we have something really new like Photofly, we are involving the customers in the R&D process from the beginning.”

Indeed, makers using early versions of Photofly have come up with some pretty stunning creations. One of the most impressive is this music video from the Brisbane, Australia-based electronic-pop band Hunz; it’s populated by haunting Photofly models of lead singer-composer-programmer Hans Van Vliet. But users have also employed Photofly to model more mundane scenes, from archaeological digs to ratty jogging shoes.

Photogrammetry—the process of measuring objects from their images—is a science that dates back nearly to the invention of photography in the mid-1800s. But it’s gotten a huge boost in the last decade from the introduction of digital photography and … Next Page »

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When I set out to write “Seven Projects to Stretch Your Digital Wings” two weeks ago, I really meant to put all seven projects into one column. But I’m famous around Xconomy for my inability to say anything briefly. If 800 words are good, then 1,600 words are even better—that’s my motto.

The point being that I only got through three projects in that first column—on art, writing, and photography—before I ran out of time and space. Last week, I finished two more, on audio self-publishing and computer animation. In today’s third and last installment, I want to suggest two final projects that will give you a chance to express yourself in digital media that may be a little less familiar: maps and 3-D virtual worlds.

6. Put Yourself on the Map with Platial

Mapmaking hasn’t traditionally been seen as a craft open to amateurs, or even one where self-expression is encouraged. A map, after all, is a public resource, and is supposed to be objective and accurate, right? Well, maybe in theory. In practice, the digital revolution is transforming the meaning of maps just as drastically as it’s changing the way we think about music and news and other forms of communication.

Platial is a website where average users can try a new form of storytelling that combines maps, photos, and writing. Once you’ve signed up for an account, you can create your own themed maps for other Platial visitors to browse. Each map consists of a set of locations that you designate on an underlying Google map; for each location, you can add a title, a written description, photos, and Web links.

One way to use Platial would be as a kind of personal photo-travelogue, uploading pictures from your trips across the country or around the world. But a lot of people seem to employ Platial to document personal interests or obsessions. For example, a user named “Barnaclebarnes” has created a map of famous film locations, like the house in suburban Tujunga, CA, where Steven Spielberg filmed E.T. And I’m working on my own Platial map showing locations around San Francisco used in one specific film, Hitchcock’s Vertigo.

You can designate a map on Platial as closed—meaning it’s for your own personal doodling—or open, meaning anyone can contribute to it. One cool open map is “Where I Was When I Heard Obama Won,” where you can join the more than 15,000 people who have marked the spots where they learned of President Obama’s historic election. For people on the go, the folks at Platial have also built an iPhone app called Nearby that figures out where you are and shows you nearby Platial locations created by other users. The app also lets you create and document new locations directly from your phone.

To me, the intriguing thing about Platial is the way it melds the personal and the public—allowing users to anchor their inner visions and insights by attaching them to maps representing our shared landscape. And Platial is just one example of a worldwide explosion of Web-mediated geographical expression and exploration. The phenomenon goes by fancy names like “neogeography” and “locative media,” but it boils down to … Next Page »

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Where I grew up in the Midwest in the 1970s and early 80s, Cray was synonymous with supercomputing. Back then, a supercomputer was a top-flight machine that could perform a few hundred million floating point operations per second (“flops”). That was good enough to help scientists do intensive calculations in areas like weather forecasting, climate modeling, and nuclear weapons simulations. Cray’s first supercomputer, the famed Cray-1, was bought by Los Alamos National Laboratory for $8.8 million in 1976; eventually, some 80 of the machines were sold, for $5 million to $8 million a pop.

Today, your average desktop computer is far more powerful than a Cray-1, and so the definition of “supercomputer” keeps changing to keep up with the times. But one thing has not changed. Cray (NASDAQ: CRAY) is still a major player in the space, despite a long history of ups and downs. The company, which began in 1972 as Cray Research in Chippewa Falls, WI, was bought by Silicon Graphics in 1996 for $767 million, and then was reborn in Seattle in 2000 following a $50 million merger with Tera Computer (which was renamed Cray). Since then, it has been a long uphill climb to get back near the top of the supercomputing heap against heavyweight competitors like IBM and Hewlett-Packard.

Nobody better to tell that story than Peter Ungaro, the chief executive of Cray. I recently had a chance to speak with Ungaro by phone at his Spokane, WA, office about his company’s strategy and recent history, the technical challenges involved in modern supercomputing, and innovative ways of gaining new customers (how do you sell someone a $10 million machine?). What impressed me was his ability to lay out the financial concerns of his company while also diving deep into the technological aspects of supercomputers—how they will interact with cloud computing, how computational records will continue to be broken, and when computers might exceed all processing capabilities of the human brain.

First off, I wanted to know how Ungaro (left) defines a “supercomputer” these days. Some would say it should be one of the 500 fastest machines in the world. Others would say it’s a machine used for scientific and technical problems that costs more than a certain amount. Ungaro’s definition is simple and focuses on the bottom line. “We like to think of supercomputers as costing more than a million dollars,” he says.

Ungaro, a Washington State University alum, joined Cray in 2003 to run sales and marketing as senior vice president. He had been at IBM for 13 years, most recently running its high performance computing group, a $2 billion business inside Big Blue. Why did he make the jump to Cray? “I really loved the supercomputing space,” Ungaro says. “Customers are doing really interesting things. I really wanted to try and see what a smaller company was like. Even at $2 billion, you’re only 2 percent of IBM’s revenues.” In short, like many entrepreneurs, he wanted to have more impact. “There was no better place to go than Cray. It was a natural move.”

But Cray had its share of problems. The company had struggled to get its next-generation supercomputer product ready, and 2004 was “really rough,” Ungaro says. Cray was losing money and … Next Page »

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Nuclear waste dumps require careful handling. To avoid incidences of nuclear material leaking into the surrounding soil and water, the Department of Energy must monitor the 80 sites in the U.S. regularly and do its best to adjust conditions if warranted. Issaquah, WA-based consulting firm Predicus has used mathematical modeling software developed by fellow Issaquah company GoldSim Technology Group to create a software program to help the DOE do just that.

According to a news release today, the DOE will use the Prioritization Risk Integration Simulation Model (PRISM) created by Predicus and GoldSim to evaluate the Hanford, WA, nuclear waste facility. If the evaluation goes well, the program may be used at the other American nuclear waste sites as well. Financial details of the DOE contract were not disclosed.

PRISM will run data provided by Predicus and the DOE on the facilities’ capabilities, the environment, and other factors so Predicus can recommend appropriate management plans. PRISM takes into account not only environmental issues, but budgetary and legal considerations in its calculations.  It will then simulate different possibilities so the DOE can figure out what, if anything, needs to be done to improve the nuclear waste sites and prioritize those projects based on things like immediate need and available money.

GoldSim’s software was originally released in 1999, although the company was founded in its current form in 2004. The software has been adapted for risk management and planning for businesses, academic institutions, and government agencies around the world.

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Steve Ihnen knows to the minute when the clouds will arrive. From the Redmond, WA, office of his company, SolarCasters, he keeps an eye on weather conditions around the world with satellite data. Then, using complex mathematical modeling software, he collates cloud-cover, humidity, and other factors to calculate how much sunlight will reach the ground in a given spot in the next day, hour, or even minute.

SolarCasters is a “weatherman for the solar power industry,” among other roles, says Ihnen, the chief technology officer and only full-time employee of SolarCasters. Besides forecasting when the sun will come out, the company provides information and consulting to solar power companies about where best to build their plants, what kind of solar panels they should use, and how much electricity they can expect to produce. Based on criteria like how much the sun shines in a given area and what the relevant weather is like there, Ihnen can recommend the best options in placement and design to his clients.

Knowing how much solar energy is available minute-to-minute is vitally important because unlike nuclear, coal, or other types of power generators, solar power cannot be as easily controlled and managed. “The supply of electricity must precisely meet demand at every instant,” Ihnen said. Generally, large-scale power suppliers, whether public or private utilities or independent system operators like the California ISO (a power grid operator), share and move power about, buying and selling electricity as needed to keep supply and demand levels equalized. Solar power plants thus need to know in advance how much power they will generate in order to replace or buy power from another power plant as necessary. Ideally, Ihnen said, power systems together “operate almost as if they were one organism.”

Although not heavily used in America yet, solar power is a rapidly growing industry in places like Europe and Australia. SolarCaster’s clients are located all over the world, but non-disclosure agreements prevent Ihnen from revealing who his clients are, or even how many he has, since he began taking on clients last fall.

Ihnen founded the company in January 2008 after spending two years developing … Next Page »

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It’s not every day you get to watch a U.S. senator swallow a swirling ball of liquid nitrogen-cooled foam (yuzu-flavored, no less). Talk about a palate cleanser.

That was just one stop along a rather surreal press tour and ribbon-cutting ceremony this morning at the Intellectual Ventures Laboratory in Bellevue, WA, as Sen. Maria Cantwell got a personal tour of the lab from company co-founder and chief executive Nathan Myhrvold. “The point of the lab is to do prototyping and do research around our inventions,” Myhrvold said. “We never know exactly what we’ll need, so we have to have a lot of capabilities.”

(Among these is a unique way of doing ribbon-cutting, as you’ll see on the next page. All photos courtesy of McKenzie Funk.)

The wide range of capabilities at Intellectual Ventures was on display in a series of lab demos. The tour included glimpses of an expansive cooking-science station (site of the palate cleanser) and setups for doing epidemiological computer modeling of malaria outbreaks; diagnosing malaria by laser light (instead of a blood sample); designing electricity-free vaccine containers that can withstand 105 °F exposure in Africa for six months; and photographing mosquito wingbeats at ultra-high speed (27,000 frames per second). Then came the coup de grace—bug-zapping lasers that work as a “photonic fence” against mosquitoes and agricultural pests (the live-demo lasers were non-lethal and just for show, shooting 50 bugs per second). OK, maybe not the most practical technology yet, but it’s certainly a striking demo.

The lab hasn’t changed much since I saw it last summer; it still has about 30 full-time employees. But overall, Intellectual Ventures has grown to more than 500 staff members, up from 400-some employees earlier this year. The company has also leased space across the street from the lab for a new supercomputing center, presumably to help its researchers perform large computer simulations for epidemiology studies and other complex problems.

Sen. Cantwell, a Democrat who’s midway through her second term for Washington state, asked Myhrvold what Intellectual Ventures is doing for this state’s economy. “We’re going to try to keep … Next Page »

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Marlborough, MA-based Proficiency, which makes software that allows product designers to transfer product models between various types of computer-aided design programs, said today that it has raised $4.25 million in new venture funding. Catalyst Investments of Israel led the round, joined by Carmel Ventures and Pitango Venture Capital. Catalyst said its network of connections in the aerospace and automotive industries would help Proficiency expand its reach to new users.

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