Real Second Life
My Second Life business is beginning to pick up some speed -I have a few paying clients in Europe, this would have sounded like science fiction a few months ago- and I find myself spending more an more time in virtual reality. I remember the beginnings of the Web in the early 90s, this gives me the same impression. When I meet potential clients I use to say that Second Life, and the overall metaverse concept and early implementations, are killer apps because they combine the best of the internet (doing things remotely) with the best of real life (person to person contact).
This was said very well by Philip Rosedale in a New York Times intervew titled An Experiment in Virtual Living: The history of technology has, in the past 50 years, been to increasingly isolate us. We’ve gone from watching movies in a movie theater, to watching them as a family at home, to watching them alone on our iPod. But actually I think there’s a next wave of technology, of which Second Life is certainly a great example, where we are bringing people back together again into the same place to have these experiences. The thing about Second Life that is so fascinating and different is not just that it’s 3-D. There are always people to share that experience with, or to ask for help. Or to laugh at something with. And that experience is an innately human one that technology has deprived us of. I think many people use Second Life to have more friends, and more human contact, than they do in the real world… you have to bear in mind that in just a few years, this is gonna look like walking into a movie screen. And that’s just gonna be such an amazing thing.
En passant, see also the article How I Did It: Philip Rosedale, CEO, Linden Lab on Inc. Magazine.
Rosedale is persuaded that in a few years metaverse technology will permit virtual experiences as good as physical reality for business meetings, lectures, job interviews etc. I am also persuaded of this and think the end-point, that will be achieved in perhaps 15 or 20 years, is very clear: virtual experiences completely indistinguishable from real experiences via direct stimulation of the brain. In an interview with Myriades 1 (in Spanish) titled Second Life: realidad virtual en Internet I said: This technology will permit reproducing, with high fidelity, all sensorial information that reaches the brain. This will be a “real virtuality”, as real as the physical universe itself. This is, I think, an easy prediction to make (longer term predictions tend to be the easiest).
It is more difficult to predict what will happen in the next few years. I think the main obstacle to completely suspending disbelief and considering Second Life as sufficiently real and good enough for business and entertainment is the lack of voice communication and non verbal language. Voice communication will be certainly integrated in one or another fork of the Second Life client before the end of the year. Non verbal language is more difficult to implement: at this moment avatars can laugh or wink by pressing buttons and typing commands, but it is still an involved process. We need a natural and easy way to reproduce face expressions, body language and non verbal cues.
It is easy to imagine how a webcam feed can be pasted on an avatar’s face to reproduce face expressions in realtime. Smart software could also analyze a webcam feed to reproduce movement, walking, hand waving etc. In practice, at this moment it would be simpler using a webcam feed only for the face and a tracking system (gloves etc.) for hands and body. It is important to note that this technologies exist, but are not yet affordable by average mass market consumers. Prices will, however, go down very fast with increasing demand. 3D viewing systems with head tracking, which have also existed for years (e.g. http://www.trimersion.com/) and been used for high-end videogame systems, will also become affordable and commonplace.
These technologies can be integrated in Second Life by tweaking the open source client. So I believe the software will appear quickly (again, before the end of the year) and permit much more realistic Second Life experiences to advanced users with powerful equipment and time-money to spend for finding-buying VR gadgets. Waiting for the widespread availability of VR gear, perhaps Second Life “arcades”, “user clubs” or “cafes” would be a good and potentially profitable idea. For example, I would certainly be willing to spend a few euros on occasions for accessing Second Life via top level VR equipment: 3D immersive displays with head tracking, hand sensors, CAVE systems and spheres, walking surfaces or boots, etc. Going to a place in RL would be also a good way for SL aficionados to stay more in touch with RL.
Posted by G.P. on 02/24 at 07:40 AM