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User:Asahota1/FSOSS 2011

750 bytes added, 14:25, 8 November 2011
XB PointStream: Rendering Point Clouds with WebGL
[http://asalga.wordpress.com/ Andor Salga] presented on XB PointStream. This presentation was to introduce WebGL which allows hardware-accelerated graphics on the web and the XB PoinStream’s capabilities. Also the Seneca’s Center for Development of Open Technology has partnered with Arius3D to develop XB PointStream, an open source JavaScript framework for streaming and rendering point clouds (3D images) on a web page. Andor also showed us interesting assortment of demos and 3D graphics.
Andor talked about Arius3D. Arius3D creates imaging solutions that allow organizations to capture and share unique physical objects in digital form. Arius3D is a type of 3D object scanner and is based on 17 years of research by the National Research Council Institute for Information Technology. Arius3D offers 3D imaging systems and services as well as image licensing from a growing 3D image library. Arius3D digital 3D Images are used in virtual museums, feature films, video games, education, marketing & advertising, product design and manufacturing. Then he talked about PointStream 3D ImagePlayer for Windows. The problem with this is that it works with the Active X Plug-in and only works with Windows and draws 3D point clouds in IE. It requires installation and requires permissions. He told that why he used points and what a point cloud is. He later talked about polygons and then the difference between polygons and point clouds. The most interesting part was when Andor talked about the solution to the problem he mentioned above. He talked about XB(Cross Browser) PointStream which is an open source technology. It emulates Aruis3D's PointStream and streams data using JavaScript and streams and draws point clouds using HTML5. Thus Andor is working on the open source cross browser PointStrean using WebGL which is a subset of OpenGL. It gives direct access to the graphics card and is supported by all major browserslike Firefox, Chrome, WebKit, Opera Next. Then Andor talked about some XB PointStream features which are parsers, shaders and cameras. Parsers-ASC is easy to parse and easy to edit, whereas Parsers- PSI is not so easy to parse ad it is four to five times smaller than ASC. Shaders are the programs that run on GPU and there is no fixed function pipeline. Atlast, Andor showed a few demos of how this works and we can see a 3D image with PointStream on certain images using 3D glasses.
Andor is a Computer Programming and analysis graduate from Seneca College and currently enrolled in the Bachelor of Software Development Degree. He works at CDOT as a research assistant developing open source WebGL libraries such as [http://www.c3dl.org/ C3DL], [http://processingjs.org/ Processing.js] and [http://zenit.senecac.on.ca/wiki/index.php/XB_PointStream XB PointStream]. It is also interesting that Andor works on this project on his own, whereas there is a big community of people working on processing.js. Thus, the presentation on XB PoinStream was interesting.
=Analysis of each speaker's views on open source=
The most obvious comparison that can be observed from these two talks is how new strides are being made in the ability to create highly enriched content in the field of IT. The ties of these two projects to open source is also something to take notice of. The main difference between the two talks was that the commercial dragon game using processing.js is not open source and a person needs to buy and obtain a license to use it. Whereas XB PointStream, is an open source product. Thus Spongelab Interactives wants to earn profit by using open source and Arius3D does not want to sell the software but uses it to create its own 3D PointStream images. Also in the Popcorn.js and Popcorn-Maker presentation by David Seifried, he talked about the features and functionality that the Popcorn.js library can provide to users and how the library allow film makers to better showcase their videos. Besides that both of these projects rely on an open source community to help contribute, test, develop for, and maintain. Both presenters focused on the importance of community in open source projects, the ability for people to give back to the community to keep it healthy, and on how taking part in the community helps raise awareness for these projects which will ultimately create a richer and fuller web experience for everyone.
= My views on open source=
=Conclusion=
Overall, my experience with FSOSS presentations was amazing. At the end of the presentations we got to talk with presenters Andor and Daniel and came to know more about their projects they are working on. It was interesting to learn that an open source community can comprise of once person or a big team. I also learned how Popcorn.js library allows film makers to better showcase their videos and makes it possible to have the video drive the content of a webpage. Also, open source is not free all the time, and companies like Spongelab can make profit using the open source languages like processing.js. In conclusion, I learn that open source is a community for free thoughts and also a potential place for profit for a business.
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