NASA dons red and blue cardboard 3D glasses to drive Curiosity rover because its GPUs are stuck in the office
- Reference: 1586937433
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/04/15/nasa_cardboard_3d_glasses_for_curiosity/
- Source link:
The downgrade was necessary as the space agency's staff have been sent to work from home. When in-office, staff who operate the Curiosity peruse 3D images of the red planet through special goggles that rapidly shift between left-and-right-eye views to better reveal the contours of the landscape. Viewing images with that eye-wear makes it easier to plan where to send the rover or move its arms.
But, according to a [1]post on the NASA website, the rover operators cannot use these goggles on their home set ups because the PCs that power them require "advanced graphics cards in high-performance computers at [Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, where the mission is based] (they're actually gaming computers repurposed for driving on Mars)."
In order for the rover operators to view the 3D images on their stock standard laptops, they are instead using simple red-blue 3D glasses, similar to those offered for free at cinemas.
"Although not as immersive or comfortable as the goggles, they work just as well for planning drives and arm movements," the post says.
The solution is admirably low tech, but The Reg is curious why NASA, which has a budget of $22.6bn for this year, appears to have essentially admitted that it cannot remote into the high-performance PCs or create a GPU-packing virtual desktop in the cloud.
Nonetheless, two days after the team cleared out of the office, they successfully operated Curiosity to drill a rock sample at a location called "Edinburgh". The sample is the first time the rover has drilled sandstone since [2]a new drilling method was developed in 2018 .
"It's classic, textbook NASA," said the team's leader, Alicia Allbaugh. "We're presented with a problem and we figure out how to make things work. Mars isn't standing still for us; we're still exploring." ®
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[1] https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/nasas-curiosity-keeps-rolling-as-team-operates-rover-from-home
[2] https://mars.nasa.gov/news/8341/drilling-success-curiosity-is-collecting-mars-rocks/?site=msl
[3] https://go.theregister.co.uk/tl/1936/-8553/legacy-modernization-finding-your-way-with-low-code?td=wptl1936
curious
...and also this solution is cheap to implement, and even makes good PR (would any one have reported "NASA buys some hi-spec graphics cards to help with virtual rover-driving"?). Win-win, it seems to me.
Late night Reg posting
The solution is admirably low tech, but The Reg is curious why NASA, which has a budget of $22.6bn for this year, appears to have essentially admitted that it cannot remote into the high-performance PCs or create a GPU-packing virtual desktop in the cloud.
Google is the cloud. Goggles are not in the cloud. There is no cloud solution to not having the realtime 3D video card and the face goggles that go with it.
Cost? Not likely,
my alienware 3d monitor cost me 400 quid, and the nvidia glasses another 150, and 150 for the card. PC was less than the monitor.
The kit to run 3d itself is pretty cheap (and mine is 10 years old). If it's a renderer that is needed, that may chew some CPU. But kit like this is such a specialised item that no-one probably thought "hey what would happen if we had to do this from home" and designed it accordingly (plus as Gary McKinnon discovered, allowing remote access also means you have to change default settings).
Re: Cost? Not likely,
I bought a cheap (less than £200) 120Hz 1080p monitor over 10 years ago for use with my Geforce 3D Vision kit. I'd switch between that, and a (now retired, but still working) 1600 x 1200 (60Hz) for regular gaming.
Unfortunately the 120Hz monitor died a few years back (did I mention it was cheap?), and the 3D Vision got consigned to a box in the loft as I realised I hadn't used it for a while anyway!
If I want 3D now, I use an Valve Index :-)
$22.6bn for this year
NASA has to pay for SLS development (fortunately RS-25 engine and solid rocket booster design were completed for the Shuttle), restarting production of the venerable RS-25 engine, redesign of RS-25 for modern manufacturing, redesign of RS-25 to make it expendable, new avionics, lighter insulation and an extra segment for the solid rocket boosters, new flame deflector, upgraded flame trench and upgraded crawler transporter for SLS block 1, a new crawler transporter and upper stage for SLS block 2, three Orion capsules and 6 SLS launches (Orions should be able to fly twice each), upgrading SLS manufacturing so that they can be built at a rate of two per year, LOP-G (and a new cargo vehicle that can reach it), a lunar transfer module, descent and ascent vehicles and Boeing wants more money for their half (¾?) of the fixed price commercial crew program.
On top of all that, NASA does some excellent space exploration and all for about 3% of the military budget.
Real Question
The real question is, if cheap plastic glasses are 'good enough', why are NASA wasting so much on high-end GPU machines and 3D enhanced goggles?
Re: Real Question
How do you know how much money they are 'wasting'?
The only 'gaming' kit (as mentioned in the article) I'm aware of that can do this, was from 10+ years ago, the Gforce/nVidia 3D Vision glasses, even if it was bought new at the time, you'd still only be talking a few hundred dollars or so. All they are is a set of active shutter glasses (same as you'd get with an active TV set), and a small USB IR transmitter to help with the timing.
Tie that in with a mid range nVidia GFX card and a 120Hz+ monitor (works with CRTs as well), and you're good to go. Even a recent mid range Laptop could do this.
Sounds like they are using old GeForce 3D Vision kit
Quote: ...they're actually gaming computers repurposed for driving on Mars.
If this is gaming tech, then it sounds like they might be using the old GeForce 3D Vision tech from the late 2000s (later named nVidia 3D Vision, discontinued a few years back).
It uses a combo of a high refresh monitor (120Hz+ didn't need to be branded '3D', just 120Hz or faster), tied into a set of active shutter glasses. Basically the same tech that went into active 3D TVs, just driven by a PC and a supporting game engine instead. It uses a USB IR transmitter to get the timings right between GFX out and the monitor.
I had one of the early sets at home years ago, was quite cool playing something like Arkham Asylum. It basically looked like you were looking through a window onto a real 3D world, but everything in it, like Batman himself, looked like they were toys due to the scale, like playing with an animated action figure!
Unfortunately it's a dead product, discontinued quite a few years back, with nVidia removing driver support last year (although you can obviously still use older drivers to keep using it for now).
For WFH. they've presumably just changed the output from the alternating left/right images, to anaglyph mode (i.e. two colour mode). This needs less GPU power, as you can get away with half the frame rate (or less), plus it's not like your playing an FPS, a bit of lag doesn't really matter in this use case! You could probably run this mode on even something like a mid range laptop.
Edin-bro, er, berg, er, ...
Shudder to think how they pronounce it.
The Reg is curious why NASA, which has a budget of $22.6bn for this year, appears to have essentially admitted that it cannot remote into the high-performance PCs or create a GPU-packing virtual desktop in the cloud
If the NASA techs are using special goggles connected to high-performance graphic cards then remoting into the controlling PC won 't help, the goggles probably have a hard-wired cable to the card. Unless you have the same card in your home PC you're out of luck. Still, it's good to see that NASA are still masters of the workable string & duct tape backup plan.