Instead of TV, it seems, you can watch 3D reconstructions of ancient storms – hopefully in surround-sound.
New Scientist reported a few weeks ago that researchers will soon “be able to visually recreate past typhoons, hurricanes and cyclones, then stand in the middle and watch as the weather pattern swirls around them.” It’s the storm room: a “simulator that crunches real storm data and turns it into 3D images that can be viewed with virtual-reality goggles.”
What about the home entertainment version, though? Putting this thing to architectural use. You throw Hurricane Floyd – or Typhoon Tip – up on the walls and read a book while it spins…
Or a new kind of teenage rebellion breaks out in the suburbs of middle America: angry sixteen year-olds program tropical storms into the walls of their bedrooms and make their parents faint with vertigo.
It’s the immersive, weather-reconstructive cinema of the future.
(A tiny bit more information is available at New Scientist).
Hi Geoff –
Ironic that we can look at storms from the past, while the satellite we use to track current hurricanes is not expected to last much longer, and a new one is not planned for years. We’re too busy winning the Cold War again by putting more people on the moon (and NASA’s director isn’t really sure global warming is such a bad thing.) Just part of the Bush administration’s campaign to do away with science.