InfoViz Cockpit View of Record Space Jump

I recall, one year ago this week, sitting at home on the edge of my seat, intently watching on my wallscreen the live countdown to Felix Baumgartner‘s stunning Red Bull Stratos mission to “transcend human limits” by calmly stepping off an ultra-high-altitude balloon capsule. On the way down he would go supersonic and set numerous records, most significantly the highest-altitude human jump (128,100 feet).

To mark the anniversary, the Stratos folks have just released a well-done information-visualization of his feat, featuring for the first time Felix’s own actual view of the jump – a nicely arranged combination of synchronized views as he hurtled to earth captured by three cameras mounted on Felix’s space-suit, including his helmet cam.  You’ll also see gauges noting his Altitude, Airspeed, G-Force, and “Biomed” (heart rate, breath rate).

A couple of datapoints which stood out for me: After his ledge salute and headfirst dive, Felix goes from zero to 100 mph in 4.4 seconds, hitting Mach 1 (or 689 mph) in just 33.2 seconds.  It’s also fascinating to watch his heart rate, which (exemplifying his astronaut coolness under pressure) actually decreases from 181 bpm at jump to around 163 bpm as he quickly adjusts; it then rises and falls as he encounters and then controls a severe spin.

His chute deploys about halfway into this nine-minute video, but watching to the end is worth it as he masterfully glides to earth, landing in a suave trot on his feet.  Enjoy this look back at a universal Superman.

The almighty ampersand linking R and D

According to Wikipedia, the lowly ampersand or “&” is a logogram representing the conjunction word “and” using “a ligature of the letters in et,” which is of course the Latin word for “and.”

In my line of work I most frequently encounter the ampersand in the common phrase “R&D” for research and development, although I notice that with texting and short-form social media the ampersand is making something of a comeback in frequency of use anyway.

The So-Called Secret Courier Video

What is the “user interface of tomorrow”? In the past I have chronicled some cool Microsoft Research prototypes of flexible touchscreen interfaces – and even touchless interfaces!  And now this month one of my friends in MSR, Mary Czerwinski, has written in Venture Beat that “those types of interfaces could be the tip of the iceberg”:

A whole new set of interfaces are in the works at various stages of research and development… I have colleagues working on tongue-based interaction, bionic contacts lenses, a muscle-computer interface, and brain-computer interaction.” – Mary Czerwinski

Not bad! But working devices along those lines are several years away, so for now we’re stuck with the tablet form-factor as the primary basis for natural input. I’ve used a tablet PC on and off for the past five years, happily. My wife now uses an HP tablet.

So I’ve been eagerly following the blogosphere’s hyperventilation about the much-rumored, still-unseen Apple tablet computer, which has been variously described as being close to launch, far from launch, and non-existent.