Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Into the Virtual Blue Yonder
Exodus to the Virtual World: How Online Fun Is Changing Reality
by Edward Castronova
Labels: castronova, virtual world
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
IWB on Social Robots
The Huggable is a robotic communication avatar designed for social interactions, education, healthcare and other applications. It is essentially a very cute teddy bear, with a sensitive skin, embedded "intelligence" (i.e., hardware and software), wireless communications and the ability to see, hear, speak, touch and move. But what I find so compelling about The Huggable is that it can operate as an autonomous personal robot and as a semi-autonomous robotic avatar that is part of a human social network, providing a much richer set of interactions to the members of the network than is possible using PCs and similar devices.
There is a lot of activity in intelligent, autonomous, mobile robots for entertainment, education, protection and many other applications. Applications range from helping doctors and nurses perform their duties better (even remotely), to providing assistance to the elderly for improved mobility and strength (e.g., vacuuming, helping in getting out of bed, even companionship). Aging populations around the world are a big driver of personal robot products and applications.
The concept of semi-autonomous robots integrated into a social network is new, at least for me. But once you start thinking about potential applications, many come to mind, in areas as diverse as family communications, healthcare, education and entertainment.
For example, imagine faraway grandparents being able to interact with their young grandchildren who are holding and playing with The Huggable. You can talk, read stories and sing to them. You can (virtually) hug them. You can watch and listen to their reactions as well as sense the way they hold and touch the teddy-bear-like device. Imagine a similar scenario with soldiers stationed around the world, being able to interact with their young children in a far richer, more emotional and satisfying way than a phone conversation. Or imagine the help it could provide children not getting enough nurturing and stimulation from their parents, by enabling family members, professionals or volunteers to get involved in their care.
Labels: robots, virtual world
Virtual World News
Labels: google, vietnam, virtual world
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Fight for Kisses
Labels: advertisement, avatars, virtual world, visualization
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Virtual Terrorism and Religion
"Just as real-life companies such as Toyota test their products in SL, so could terrorists construct virtual representations of targets they wish to attack in order to examine the potential target's vulnerabilities and reaction to attack," Jones says.
And Corinne pointed me to this MSNBC article on virtual missionary work.
Labels: missionary, religion, terrorism, virtual world
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
The Virtual World in our Minds
Maybe the reason I am so excited about the whole subject of Virtual Worlds is that in our own way we are beginning to have tools that let us make real the fruits of our imagination.Just as word processors plus blogs empower our use of words, and digital cameras plus Flickr empower our use of images, creation tools plus virtual worlds empower our use of imagination.
Labels: imagination, virtual world
Monday, July 02, 2007
Ants in a Virtual World
Labels: ant, Second Life, simulation, virtual world
Monday, June 04, 2007
Virtual Life?
Once the intelligent NPC's can interact with humans, they can evolve based on what they learn from us, and the decisions they make interacting with us. We, as players or participants, now become a stimulus for the virtual life. We can observe the NPC, help it with its goals, alter its food source, reproduction, start relationships, make NPC's jealous, and start fights, even wars. They would remember you from the last time you visited. They would have real experiences, real relationships, and real intelligence, and if the power happens to go off or memory gets corrupted... they cease to exist.
This, of course, is what the forthcoming game SPORE is all about.
Labels: AI, virtual world
Friday, May 25, 2007
Immersive Education
As Immersive Education and other forms of personal virtual reality become more realistic and compelling we're going to see "immersive illness" become more common and more difficult to deal with.and
It's also worth noting that the "fun" factor can't be denied. Most of the students I've spoken with about their experience with these classes say they're the most fun they've had, and that they look forward to being in virtual reality each week.
Labels: aaron walsh, Education, virtual world
Thursday, May 24, 2007
Augmented Reality
Bruce points to a Technology Review article singing the praises of Augmented Reality. he goes on to ask:
Okay, that's just great, but the idea of a gig called the "International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality" is enough to baffle Philip K. Dick. I mean: suppose you went in there and you couldn't get un-mixed and de-augmented?
Labels: augmented reality, mixed reality, virtual world
Thursday, May 03, 2007
Second Life Revealed
Labels: Second Life, virtual world
Tuesday, May 01, 2007
A Wiggle and a Ripple
TerraNova points to a Second Life wiki article about a new feature called "Sculpted Prim" which imports 3-D models (from Maya, for example) as single prim objects. The wiki says:
. . . it would be easy to have a flash animation generate a sculpted prim - and when a resident touches a spot on its surface, the shape could wiggle and ripple appropriately.
Labels: 3-D, Second Life, virtual world
This Could Totally Work
I am thinking about a game where the intense sports dads could have virtual sports sons. After training their virtual sports sons, they could get together with other sports dads and have virtual sports contests with their virtual sports sons. This way, real world boys would be free to play World of Warcraft.Have you heard of an online service for kids called Webkinz? It’s like a cross between cocaine and puppies. Kids can’t resist it. It’s frickin’ brilliant.
Before you use the Webkinz service, you have to buy a stuffed animal that comes with a code. You use that code to activate an animated character in an online world that looks like your stuffed animal. The brilliant part is that your online critter will become sick if you don’t regularly visit and care for it. Somehow this makes kids emotionally invested.
Kids can earn fake money by playing games on the system. That money goes toward caring for their online creatures, including buying furniture and so on. Kids love it. But I think kids aren’t the biggest market for this sort of thing.
I think single women would want an online boyfriend they could totally control. But here’s the hook: The online boyfriend is a “project.” If you don’t sign into the system regularly, your online boyfriend will start dressing with clothes from the 80’s, smoking, gambling, staying out late, and flirting with other women.
It’s the “owner’s” job to make the virtual boyfriend eat right, exercise, look for a job, and trim his nose hair. If he scratches his crotch or passes gas during an online dinner party, he gets no virtual sex for a week.
The women could earn fake online money by playing games just like in the Webkinz model. For example, imagine a Tetris-type game where articles of clothing fall from above and you have to assemble them into coordinated outfits before they reach the ground. You can’t tell me that wouldn’t be a hit.
Labels: boyfriend, sons, sports, virtual world, world of warcraft
Thursday, April 26, 2007
Big Iron for Virtual Worlds
Labels: ibm, virtual world
Thursday, April 19, 2007
Mixed Reality Barbie
Mixed reality is not only our future, it is now our present. (Thx to 3pointD for the tip!)
Labels: avatars, dolls, game, virtual world
Thursday, April 05, 2007
Virtual Gambling Illegal?
So Second Life is not a game.
Labels: FBI, gambling, game, virtual world
Three - Bee
Labels: virtual world
Saturday, March 31, 2007
Big Business in Second Life
Labels: business, Second Life, virtual world, visualization
Friday, March 30, 2007
Avatar Airplane in Google Maps
When you click start, it will put you in an airplane over my home cul-de-sac. See if you can crash into my back yard!
It is just a short time before we see a massively multiplayer humanoid avatars in Google Earth. Then the line between real and virtual really gets blurry.
Labels: mashup, virtual world, visualization
Friday, March 23, 2007
Ludium II
Labels: virtual world
Feed Burner 
