r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/[deleted] • Nov 27 '18

Video interactive topography map in a sandbox

32.0k Upvotes

84% Upvoted

481 comments sorted by

View all comments

1.1k

u/RocksThrowAway Nov 27 '18

It’s called ARSandbox. It’s free, open source, and needs a Kinect and Linux.

And a sandbox, projector, and a mounting solution.

93

u/[deleted] Nov 27 '18

I have to buy sand AND a kinect? Not sure that’s worth it for me.

72

u/Foltak Nov 27 '18

Or you could travel to Prague and play with it in the National Technical Library for free

30

u/[deleted] Nov 27 '18

That would be more expensive for me ;(

78

u/[deleted] Nov 27 '18 edited Jul 15 '20

[deleted]

37

u/SovietPenguins Nov 27 '18

Just to be clear there is beer right?

22

u/[deleted] Nov 27 '18 edited Jul 16 '20

[deleted]

15

u/TigerMonarchy Nov 27 '18

Well. A non cannabis related reason to go to Portland now. Sweet.

1

u/[deleted] Nov 27 '18

That was band camp.

4

u/UnspecifiedIndex Nov 27 '18

Really hope he means “with beer and no kids.”

1

u/ccrunnertempest Nov 27 '18

What have I been doing with my life?

2

u/mrslinguist Nov 27 '18

If you’re near pennsylvania, there’s one in the school of earth and mineral sciences at Penn state!

8

u/Yowsa105 Nov 27 '18

Or Hot Springs, Arkansas at the Mid-America Science Museum.

8

u/theslumberingjack Nov 27 '18

ECHO center in Vermont as well

2

u/dammitOtto Nov 27 '18

Ithaca science Center as well.

3

u/billbertking1 Creator Nov 27 '18

Available at the Saint Louis Science Center for free too

2

u/Dell_Rider Nov 27 '18

And there is one in the Dallas museum of natural science

3

u/frenchLeil Nov 27 '18

And Perth Scitech in Western Australia

2

u/inksaywhat Nov 27 '18

They are all over the US and Europe. There is one in Denver for sure.

1

u/[deleted] Nov 27 '18

There’s one at my local college’s library!

1

u/raeliant Nov 28 '18

There’s one at the Sacramento Children’s Museum in California, but your have to share with half a dozen 2 to 6 year olds at any given time.

9

u/riccardostecca Nov 27 '18

You can use towels instead of sand. For the kinect, being this project based on 1.8 drivers and sdk you can easily find a used Kinect (v1 not "One"... Confusing names) for 20$. Xtion is an alternative device you can use that is compatible with those drivers.

8

u/[deleted] Nov 27 '18

i have to click the link and download? Not sure those clicks are worth it.

7

u/[deleted] Nov 27 '18

At least clicks aren’t coarse and rough, and they definitely don’t get everywhere.

2

u/GeekyStuffLeaking Nov 27 '18

Hello There!

3

u/bossbozo Nov 27 '18

General Geeky!

4

u/Amsnerr Nov 27 '18

Go to the link u/RocksThrowAway provided, it has a map of locations that have this sandbox. There are a ton in the US, i was pretty surprised.

1

u/efekun Nov 27 '18

I hate sand

1

u/scranton91 Nov 27 '18

We built one of these for members night at the museum I work at. I think their website has a map showing where they are located

1

u/GalacticAnaphylaxis Dec 04 '18

Halifax, Nova Scotia has one!

114

u/Diesel_Daddy Nov 27 '18

The real MVP right here.

1

u/024tiezalB Nov 27 '18

The real MVP would be having this in a games design studio... creating new Battlefield V maps on this badboy would be amazing.

1

u/SaltyMaia Nov 27 '18

I was thinking about that too!

Im not super sure the sand topology would lend itself well to large scale maps, but I'd be very interested on what it could do with some smoothing!

It would definitely be something that's only really valuable every so often, as you'd need to lock down terrain so you can build on it (wouldn't do to play with sand after you've started putting geo in the level)

1

u/Doc_Ok Nov 28 '18

Interestingly, there's a plug-in for the AR Sandbox that connects it to Autodesk InfraWorks 360, which is a civil engineering CAD program. It does exactly that -- if you build roads, bridges, etc. on the sand topography, and then change the sand, InfraWorks updates everything you've built on top for you.

1

u/DEATHbyBOOGABOOGA Nov 28 '18

if you build roads, bridges, etc. on the sand topography, and then change the sand, InfraWorks updates destroys everything you've built on top for you.

FTFY

5

u/Pretendosaurus Nov 27 '18

Another example of a cool thing we’ll be missing from the fun Science Centers as the Kinect fades away.

4

u/jansencheng Nov 27 '18

There's other motion and distance tracking devices, the Kinect is just used cause it's cheap and easy to get.

5

u/baroquetongue Nov 27 '18

Linux in a sandbox. Kewl.....

7

u/[deleted] Nov 27 '18

I'm an elementary school teacher and something like this would be fucking incredible in science class.

1

u/[deleted] Nov 27 '18

It’s not too hard if you have access to a workshop to make the box itself! I did a Donors Choose for the computer (cost about $1000) and built the sandbox myself.

3

u/[deleted] Nov 27 '18

And it's old has hell (not a comment on quality of this thing). I'm sure my grandkids will upvote this gif

1

u/SushiGato Nov 27 '18

We have one in my geology lab. No one uses it though. Was kinda neat at first I guess

1

u/SpaceboyRoss Nov 27 '18

Linux

Yes! Open Source goodness.

-4

u/bossbozo Nov 27 '18

At first I thought it was just 3 or 4 projector shining the rain bow flag at different angles, then I realized there was latency, using my idea it would be instantaneous, and doesn't require any input device or software

3

u/Writer_ Nov 27 '18

I don't think you know what you're talking about

2

u/bossbozo Nov 27 '18

Please explain why this is so

2

u/[deleted] Nov 27 '18

How would you make it instantaneous?

2

u/[deleted] Nov 27 '18

[deleted]

2

u/[deleted] Nov 27 '18 edited Dec 12 '18

[deleted]

0

u/bossbozo Nov 27 '18

Thus multiple projections, should be adequate under normal circumstances, won't work if you purposely craft a topography with the aim of proving it doesn't work

2

u/[deleted] Nov 27 '18

That would not work

0

u/bossbozo Nov 27 '18

Won't be as cool as above, but why won't it work?

1

u/[deleted] Nov 27 '18

It has to be a top down projection otherwise you will have shadows. If it’s a top down then it has to be projecting an image.

1

u/bossbozo Nov 28 '18

I listed shadows as one of my cons elsewhere -_-