Science On a Sphere (r)

From the NY Times and Computers, Society, and Nature blog, comes a story about NOAA's Science On a Sphere project.

"Science on a Sphere takes flat, two-dimensional images and data taken from spherical objects like planets and moons, and synchronizes and blends them into animated presentations. Most of the almost 100 presentations created so far are silent displays meant to illustrate lectures."

What's more exciting is the authors immediate thought that GIS data could be overlayed on these spheres:

"The specs state that the software accepts most graphics formats, but these are static .gifs, .jpegs, etc. Integrating the system with a GIS platform would allow the user to add/modify layers and create annotations on the fly (think of a sketch map, except rotating and 6 feet in diameter). I’ve simplified some of the details, but it’s doable."

Check out these simulations at the NOAA Site.
I've decided I want ArcGIS Explorer to have a hologram function now :)