I just stumbled on a great looking globe based data visualization tool: WebGL Globe.

The screen cap at right is from a browser based visualization of 1990 global population data.  While not realted to Ecosynth, this is a really cool technology that could be valuable for other research in our lab, like visualizing global data for understanding global relevance of locations and studies, the GLOBE project.

Some of the example global datasets are fun, Google technology user group meetings or blogger mood, but it would be interesting to see some more ecologically relevant data plotted this way.  For example, trends in estimates of forest cover or urban growth.

Can't wait to see this in 3D, or maybe in a holographic projection!

Check out 3DTubeMe.com to see some of the latest in web based 3D visualizations.  I was directed to a post on Slashdot about the website by a professor and am totally thrilled about what this could mean for visualizing or own 3D point cloud data.  Currently you need to login and add this as an app through Facebook to upload and view, but the website authors say they are going to get rid of this feature soon.  I uploaded a small set of photos for processing, but was notified that my camera was not in their database and to wait to hear back about the processing of my cloud.  Maybe we could get this WebGL working to visualize our own point clouds? 

That’s all for now, back to the grind!