Science On a Sphere^®(SOS) FAQ (Korean)

Science On a Sphere^® is a large visualization system that uses computers and video projectors to display animated data onto the outside of a sphere.  Said another way, SOS is an animated globe that can show dynamic, animated images of the atmosphere, oceans, and land of a planet.  NOAA primarily uses SOS as an education and outreach tool to describe the environmental processes of Earth.

The SOS system uses 4 video projectors to display images onto the sphere.  Each projector is driven by a computer.  A fifth computer is used to control the operation of the display computers.  The computers communicate with each other via a network.  Each computer is a relatively powerful PC with dual Pentium processors and a high end graphics card.  The video projectors have native XGA resolution.

A sample equipment list is provided here.

All of the SOS computer systems run Redhat Linux.

Here is a PDF diagram of the SOS floor plan and layout.

Science On a Sphere^® is used as a tool to help describe NOAA's mission and display the results of research in a way that is both intuitive and compelling.  At the NOAA Lab in Boulder, Colorado, SOS is included as part of nearly all public outreach activities.   School groups on field trips, graduate and under-graduate students from local universities, researchers, and other visitors all have an opportunity to see SOS on pre-arranged tours of that  facility.  The typical SOS program lasts 30 minutes and is given by a live presenter.

SOS uses common image formats in a very specific, yet simple file format and map projection.  Here are the main characteristics:

• Map Projection: The images need to be plotted on a Equatorial Cylindrical Equidistant projection (ECE). An ECE projection is commonly refered to as a simple lat/lon grid, where the image is twice as wide as it is high (rectangular).  2048x1024 is the minimum size.  4096x2048 is much better.  Some of the Earth system images are extremely large, on the order of 8196x4096 (and larger!).   Here is a sample image for illustration purposes, scaled down to 1024x512 to make it easier to download.
• Image file format: SOS will accept most common formats: GIF, JPEG, TIFF, etc. We prefer JPEG.
• Movie formats: The image sequences can be contained in an MPEG-4 animation.
• The pixels in each picture should take up the whole image, no borders, no extra space around the edges.  The data should fill the image completely.
• Labels are OK, but the text will get warped and distorted when it is rendered to the sphere.  An alternative is to put the label information in an external text file or embed it in the file name.
• The image file names, for a sequence of images, should sort in ascending order from earliest to latest. For sequences, we usually embed a frame number in the file name, with a sufficient number of leading zeros where necessary to sort correctly (e.g. file00001.jpg, file00002.jpg, etc).

There are two basic modes of operation for SOS:

• A single image that can be displayed on the sphere and animated, as in a planetary rotation.  An example of this is a global image of the Earth's topography and bathymetry.  This is an example of a static image that can be manipulated and rotated in real time from the user interface or remote control
• A sequence of images that animate through time.  An example of this would be a loop of satellite data for the month of August. For time series data, each image is preprocessed by the system before it is displayed.  After the images are processed, SOS will display the images in sequence and play them like a movie across the entire sphere surface.  Images can be of any arbitrary length, limited mainly by disk space and can be  animated at framerates up to 30 frames per second.  Transitions, special effects, and other computer graphics techniques can be added to a sequence through the use of off the shelf  software like Final Cut Pro.

Yes. SOS can play movies that are encoded in an MPEG-4 format (.mp4 file extension). The individual frames of the movie should be in the Equatorial Cylindrical Equidistant (ECE) projection as described in the "What is the data format section of this FAQ".

Alternatively the content developer can use a tool like Final Cut Pro to break the movie apart into it's constituent image frames.  The frames can then be processed by SOS for display on the sphere.  We have examples of  NOAA movies that have been captured from DVD, processed with Final Cut Pro, and displayed on the sphere.  It is typical to put the movies in a "picture in a picture" or PIP window that is duplicated around the sphere for optimal viewing.

Yes.  Visualizations for SOS are organized into play lists.  The play lists are simple text files that are used to organize visualizations.  The system loads a play list and through a couple of clicks, setup to automatically loop through each item in the play list.

Science On a Sphere^® is controlled by several different interfaces.

• The primary method is through the graphical user interface (GUI) that runs on the control computer.  The GUI  is used to load a play list and allows the user to click through the visualizations in the play list.  The GUI has VCR like controls to manipulate the animations showing on the sphere.  The GUI is really just TCL/TK script that can be customized by end-users (given that that the end-user has the appropriate skills to do so).
• SOS supports an RF based remote control (a clicker) that interacts with the GUI to allow a presenter to step through items in a play list.  The remote can perform the standard VCR like actions of play, stop, ff, rewind, etc. 
• The last mode of operation allows the system to be controlled via a show floor control protocol.  Show floor control systems are sometimes used at museums to manage projectors, create coordinated programs, and generally manage exhibit hardware.  The SOS show floor control interface is only supported through a TCP/IP protocol.   An advanced user of the system can use the show floor control API to create their own interface to control the sphere.

Numerous, look at the datasets. Also, look here for additional animation samples.

Generally yes. The ECE (Equatorial Cylindrical Equidistant) projection used by SOS is commonly used by other spherical display systems such as Magic Planet and Omniglobe. Of course the converse is true, visualizations created for Ominiglobe and Magic Planet will generally work on SOS. The ECE format is also been known to work or at least convert well for display on dome based display systems (e.g. SkyScan).

Yes.  Audio can be associated with any visualization through the play list.  The audio has to be encoded into a MP3, MP4, or WAV file and saved on the SOS computers.   When an animation is queued to play on the sphere, the associated audio file will be played through the sound system of the control computer.

The cost for developing SOS content can really vary depending on what a site is looking to produce. The SOS content library has over 150 datasets that are already made. It is very simple to create custom playlists with the datasets that tell the story that a site is looking to tell. Many SOS sites don't create their own datasets. They generate their own programs by grouping datasets into their own playlists. A SOS playlist is like a music playlist in ITunes. Sites can order and arrange datasets in whatever order they want in a playlist. Additionally, sites can generate scripts to match the created playlists. If a site does want to create their own content, then the cost depends on what they are trying to make. A full movie with custom datasets, transitions and special features is very expensive to make. An important note to remember is that all of the sites share their content, so new movies and datasets are continually being added to the library.

Science On a Sphere^® uses basic image formats like JPEG, PNG, and TIFF as it's main input format.  Many tools exist that can manipulate images, Photoshop, FinalCut Pro, ImageMagick, GIMP, etc.   At a higher level, tools like IDL, AWIPS, McIDAS,  and other image analysis applications are typically used to create imagery from scientific data sets.  As an example, we have used AWIPS (Advanced Weather Information Processing System) to create images from numerical forecast models.  A graphics designers can use a 3D modeling applications, like 3D Studio, to create advanced visualizations for SOS.

Also, there is a tool available with SOS for creating and managing play lists. It is called the play list editor application. It is a GUI based application that makes creating new and modifying existing play lists easy. Using the editor, you can open multiple play lists, drag and drop clips between the clips, rearrange the clip entries, all through a simple graphical interface.

The play list editor is available in SOS release 3.x and higher.

There are some material available on our web site and can be downloaded and used with Science On a Sphere^®.  Look at the School Materials available.

Yes. This is encouraged. The main rendering interface is proprietary and can not be modified. However, most of the user interface controls are composed of TCL/TK scripts, which are easy to modify and customize.

Further, SOS uses a simple text based show floor control protocol that enable user interactions. Several SOS sites have used the show floor control protocol to create new, custom, user interfaces to SOS. The protocol is accessed through a simple TCP/IP socket connection

No, not at this time.

SOS installations

SOS visualizations (or clips) are organized into play lists. The play lists are simple text files used to organize the clips in some sequence or order. The system is told to load a play list and through a couple of clicks of the mouse (or the automation interface). Once a play list is loaded, the system operates in one of two modes. Autorun mode where the clips are played in sequence automatically. When the system gets to the end of the play list, it loops again forever. The second mode is an interactive mode, where a user can use the keyboard, mouse or WII to manually click through each clip. So the operator needs access to the console to load the desired play list and to start the system (and to connect the Wii). Also, if the system is in autorun mode, the operator needs access to the console to bring it out of autorun. Once the system is out of autorun the Wii can be used for presentation.

SOS User's Collaborative Network Webpage