Nasa Selects Metastream To Provide 3-D Interactive Viewing On Shuttle Web Site

EDP Weekly's IT Monitor, Oct 11, 1999

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is using MetaStream 3-D streaming technology from MetaCreations Corp. at its interactive Shuttle Small Payloads Project (SSPP) Web site (http://sspp.gsfc.nasa.gov/3d/index.html) to help visitors better visualize how the SSPP transports carrier systems for the Space Shuttle. A big improvement over 2-D images, the 3-D streaming technology allows NASA's Web site visitors to view, rotate and zoom in on 3-D carrier system images.

The 3-D approach helps people visualize the many designs and configurations that are possible and assists in determining geometric capability of potential payloads, NASA says.

"We needed a 3-D technology that guaranteed a positive experience for almost anyone," says Doug League, Web designer of the Swales Aerospace Graphic Group that designed the SSPP Web site. "We chose MetaStream because it's the best 3-D streaming technology out there. MetaStream 3-D objects are easy to develop and produce, and the streaming file format ensures optimized 3-D viewing on the Web for just about any Web user."

MetaStream is an open 3-D-file format that enables easy incorporation of 3-D images into almost any Web site. Jointly developed with Intel Corp., MetaStream addresses the need for 3-D files that stream efficiently over the Internet and automatically scale to the user's display and processing power for optimized viewing.

"MetaCreations' vision is to provide the tools and technology to revolutionize the Web experience, and, like SSPP, we think MetaStream is the catalyst for bringing 3-D to the masses," says Scott Krinsky, senior product manager of MetaStream technologies.