| Q&A |
Patrick.Hogan
Project Manager NASA World
Wind
may
2007
|
| |
 |
"World
Wind makes NASA data and visualization technology freely
accessible in the most compelling and extendable manner
possible. NASA World Wind’s open source architecture
allows research, academia and others to leverage this
NASA open source visualization technology for sharing
their analysis of geospatial data in essentially any
way they want to."
<
World Wind Java |
|
| |
|
| Q1 |
Can
you introduce NASA World Wind and its origins? |
| A1 |
World
Wind originated within NASA for the purpose of dynamic delivery
of NASA data in its full 3D virtual reality context, actually
4D if you consider using time for animations. It’s virtual
reality for Earth processes using NASA satellite data, as well
as for ‘visiting with’ other celestial bodies. |
| |
|
| Q2 |
Who
is NASA World Wind targeted at? |
| A2 |
World
Wind is targeted at solving planetary geospatial information
problems. The open source model is an especially compelling
solution to cost effectively address NASA data delivery needs
as well as government’s need for any number of highly
specialized functionalities. Because World Wind is based on
open standards, it improves the efficiencies of government cross-agency
communication. Core code visibility very effectively addresses
the government’s need for security while allowing the
visualization capabilities to keep pace with video technology.
NASA World Wind is targeted for research, public access to NASA
data, government needs, and any number of other 3D geospatial
information uses. |
| |
|
| Q3 |
World
Wind and Google Earth both allow users to explore the Earth’s
surface in real-time 3D. What are the differences between them? |
| A3 |
You
mention real time, but the imagery is typically nowhere near
real time, though there are near-real-time data sets in NASA
World Wind, such as the USGS earthquake data and the U.S. Naval
Research Labs weather data. That said, the differences between
NASA World Wind and most other geospatial browsers, be it Virtual
Earth or Google Earth, etc., are much greater than the similarities.
If there is one thing that sets us apart, it’s our approach.
World Wind makes NASA data and visualization technology freely
accessible in the most compelling and extendable manner possible.
NASA World Wind’s open source architecture allows research,
academia and others to leverage this NASA open source visualization
technology for sharing their analysis of geospatial data in
essentially any way they want to. |
| |
|
| Q4 |
Why
is the release of the Java SDK for World Wind an important step
for the project? |
| A4 |
World
Wind Java does a few things for us. Obviously there is the cross-platform
nature of Java technology. World Wind Java is not so much an
application as it is 3D visualization technology. Its architecture
is API-centric and intended to optimize delivery of 3D data.
Others are free to extend or embed this World Wind Java technology,
just as with World Wind.NET. |
| |
|
| Q5 |
The
new version of World Wind is powered by the JOGL (Java OpenGL)
API. How was the decision made to choose this particular API? |
| A5 |
Java/JOGL
technology is proving itself a mature cross-platform technology.
Sun and the Java open source community are working in concert
for development of this technology. World Wind is also powered
by .NET. So, with Java/JOGL we simply wish to expand World Wind
technology onto additional platforms. We have found Java/JOGL
to be a highly optimized and adaptable coding environment. |
| |
|
| Q6 |
What
kind of derived applications can be built using the SDK? |
| A6 |
How
many ways can you use virtual reality? If you can think of it,
maybe it’s time to be derived. I tend to get ahead of
myself with the possible derivatives, to the time when NASA
World Wind has a physics engine, collision detection, and is
able to represent atoms into user-assembled molecules. I imagine
NASA World Wind as the visualization toolkit for delivering
the world on a scale from the subatomic to the galactic, an
interactive 3D wiki of sorts. |
| |
|
| Q7 |
Google
Earth often offers a better resolution than World Wind in terms
of geographic detail. Is resolution improvement a priority for
future versions of World Wind? |
| A7 |
Google
does an excellent job of delivering high resolution data. NASA
World Wind is purposed for research, academia, and public awareness.
We deliver NASA and other public domain data that describe Earth
processes. The more data that comes available, the more data
that World Wind will delivery. Though World Wind is oriented
to deliver public domain data, others are still free to use
this NASA technology to deliver their own data however they
wish, we’re simply a visualization medium, putting pixels
on a screen. The value added is up to the rest of the world. |
| |
|
| Q8 |
World
Wind can import Google Earth KML files. Can KML be considered
as the new standard for 3D geospatial data? What about 3d format
such as Collada? |
| A8 |
World
Wind is based on open standards, including those established
by the internationally recognized Open Geospatial Consortium,
i.e., WMS etc. Both NASA and other U.S. government agencies
have embraced these standards. World Wind also imports KML files
to a degree. We certainly wish to improve on that ability. I
am not familiar with Collada but see no reason why Collada should
not be experienced via NASA World Wind. Someone simply needs
to build the World Wind importer for Collada. We would be glad
to incorporate that functionality into World Wind. |
| |
|
| Q9 |
World
Wind is distributed under the NASA Open Source Agreement. What
are the specifics of this license compared to more widespread
Open Source licenses, such as the GPL? |
| A9 |
Without
being too specific, I’d have to say that the NASA Open
Source Agreement is very similar to GPL with the one caveat
that the U.S. government is indemnified from how others might
use this visualization technology, which seems quite reasonable. |
| |
|
| |
|
| |
|
| |
|
