3D scanning/VR—formerly @nianticspatial, @puzzlingplaces, @uploadvr. Perpetuel typos. Opinions my own
San Francisco, CA
Joined November 2010
- Tweets18.1K
- Following2.6K
- Followers12.1K
- Likes88.2K
Azad Balabanian retweeted
1M triangles ➡️ just 2 with Octahedral Impostors! 🤯
12 draw calls down to 1
Bake color, shading & depth from multiple angles into ONE texture atlas.
Runs in @threejs & Needle Engine
needle.click/mesh-baker
Azad Balabanian retweeted
Announcing SplatXR, our #UIST2026 paper and open source Unity toolkit for building interactive XR experiences with 3D Gaussian splats! 🥽
SplatXR brings splat rendering, physics, effects, and interaction to standalone AR/VR headsets like Meta Quest 3 and Apple Vision Pro.
1/🧵
Azad Balabanian retweeted
Azad Balabanian retweeted
the fact that this was written … last year … breaks my brain
There's a new kind of coding I call "vibe coding", where you fully give in to the vibes, embrace exponentials, and forget that the code even exists. It's possible because the LLMs (e.g. Cursor Composer w Sonnet) are getting too good. Also I just talk to Composer with SuperWhisper so I barely even touch the keyboard. I ask for the dumbest things like "decrease the padding on the sidebar by half" because I'm too lazy to find it. I "Accept All" always, I don't read the diffs anymore. When I get error messages I just copy paste them in with no comment, usually that fixes it. The code grows beyond my usual comprehension, I'd have to really read through it for a while. Sometimes the LLMs can't fix a bug so I just work around it or ask for random changes until it goes away. It's not too bad for throwaway weekend projects, but still quite amusing. I'm building a project or webapp, but it's not really coding - I just see stuff, say stuff, run stuff, and copy paste stuff, and it mostly works.
Azad Balabanian retweeted
Do you have a MacBook Pro? With an SD Card slot?
Your slot now has an API. Write to a file, blink the lights.
Or let your agent use it to get your attention.
More into sidepulse.io/pro
LED Animation Format: github.com/inteliwear/sidepu…
Azad Balabanian retweeted
The K-pop industry is moving quickly with 4DGS. Shot and processed by @4DV_ai
Azad Balabanian retweeted
In my first minutes with Steam Frame, I have: played a real PCVR game, run a StereoKit app, installed Claude Code, built a StereoKit app, compiled the StereoKit SDK from scratch and installed a custom SteamVR keyboard.
All I can say is I really wish Linux VR had happened sooner!
Azad Balabanian retweeted
Someone built a flying butterfly using an ESP32-C3
Meet ESP-FLUTTER, an open-source robotic butterfly that actually flies by flapping its wings.
It uses a tiny Seeed XIAO ESP32-C3 and two digital servos to move its wings.
Unlike a regular RC plane, it doesn't use propellers. It uses the same basic idea we see in real butterflies.
You can control its wing movement, speed and turning.
It is amazing to see how a small microcontroller and a simple mechanical design can recreate something found in nature.
Azad Balabanian retweeted
Gaussian SplattingのPLY、中身が何だったか分からなくなりませんか？僕はよくなります。
なのでWindowsのエクスプローラーでPLYファイルのサムネイルを出すツール「SplatThumb」を作りました。アングルも設定できます。
無料・オープンソースです
github.com/VoxelKei/SplatThu…
#GaussianSplatting #3DGS
Azad Balabanian retweeted
Happy Halloween. 🎃
We at NXT/WebXR just dropped a free creepy VR experience for the night: Die Hände. Control a rogue undead hand straight from your browser.
Put on your headset and find it for free on @NxtWebXR
Azad Balabanian retweeted
Alright so we now have opensource versions of
1. on device multicam egocentric visual inertial odometry
2. multi-iphone recording software (that are timesynced with ntp)
3. Gaussian splatting at acceptable FPS in @rerundotio
I decided to take some data I had previously collected that was quite messy and see how far Opus 5.5 could fix it with the rerun mcp and the context of all of the different projects I've worked on so far.
I'll break this down into multiple parts (Today just part 1)
1. hardware <- this thread
2. collection
3. time and spatial alignment
4. Post processing
5. Data cleaning
Splatting is going to be a critical part of the ego collection pipeline IMO, so I'm working on improving our current official support.
code here - - <github.com/rerun-io/examples…>
The current shipped version does well for less than 1M splats, but not so much for larger ones such as the iconic garden scene (5.2M splats). I ported over brushes kernels to @rerundotio and now on my M5 I'm getting ~40-50fps when recording or a solid 60fps when not. This is basically a 10x improvement from the current version and this huge improvement that wouldn't have been possible without all the verification loops we've added with the rerun skills and MCP. I'll break down what was required to make this work ⬇︎
Azad Balabanian retweeted
Here is a little video of the booting process from SteamOS on Pico 4
The speed up part is ~90 seconds irl
I’ll try to make myself a better screen recording tool, so I can get better in-headset shots
Azad Balabanian retweeted
Oh yeah, I forgot to show this EXTREMELY important part (sorry for the messy desk)
Full Mario 64 in Mixed Reality! Running in real 3D (no stereoscopic crap) natively at 90FPS and also running on my desk! 😋
Again, Opus 5.5 + PICO CLI combo made it quite straightforward.
Such a bliss to play an oldie at 90 FPS in 3D.
Disclaimer: I own an original physical copy of Mario 64. This project is not associated with Nintendo or PICO.
Azad Balabanian retweeted
Capturing room reflections at runtime on Quest 3. I noticed AVP adds studio highlights up to 5 times brighter than pure white for that nice bright specular light.
Azad Balabanian retweeted
Full Mario 64 in Mixed Reality! Running in real 3D (no stereoscopic crap) natively at 90FPS and also running on my desk! 😋
Again, Opus 5.5 + PICO CLI combo made it quite straightforward.
Such a bliss to play an oldie at 90 FPS in 3D.
Disclaimer: I own an original physical copy of Mario 64. This project is not associated with Nintendo or PICO.
Azad Balabanian retweeted
A Gaussian splat of a rose. It was rendered in blender CYCLES with the lens optics plugin from @itskaiwan. #3dgs
Azad Balabanian retweeted
My husband has used AI agents to revive old fonts, ornaments, & cuts from 19th century newspapers. The agents even built an editor where you can create your own invitations/pamphlets/cards using old cuts & fonts. Have been using it for @Quillette invitations already
font-revival.com/
Azad Balabanian retweeted
We’re hiring in Armenia. 🇦🇲
@nvidia is looking for a Developer Relations Manager for the CIS region—a technical builder who can help Armenia’s talent connect with opportunities across the region.
Apply and share:
jobs.nvidia.com/careers/job/…
