Hands-free in Second Life
April 14, 2008
Over the past week there’s been quite a bit of buzz around an initial demonstration of some work being done by Kapor Enterprises (Mitch Kapor is Chairman of Linden Lab’s board). The work is best described by watching the demonstration below but essentially it utilises a 3D camera that reads your body movements and translates those movements to your avatar. Leaning forward starts your avatar walking, leaning right turns your avatar right and so on.
The demonstration:
It’s an impressive evolution for Second Life although far from unique. Whichever application makes true hands-free operation possible without taxing hardware requirements is going to garner a lot of interest. Add to that progress being made by Emotiv in translating thoughts and feelings to avatars and you can see the future roadmap for this technology a little clearer.
Check the Handsfree 3D website for more details.
Popularity: 2% [?]
Weekend Whimsy
April 13, 2008
1. Invisible Threads
A biting satire of ’sweatshop’ labour in Second Life
2. Avatar Heroes
Second Life features on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.
3. Second Life Mexico Ruta Maya
Popularity: 2% [?]
Episode 3 of TMJ Podcast - Wolfie Rankin, Australian Furry in Second Life
April 13, 2008
Episode 3 is live and it features an interview with veteran Australian Second Lifer, Wolfie Rankin. We discuss a wide range of topics including furries, ABC Island and the Australian community in Second Life.
For details on how to automatically receive these podcasts, check our podcast page.
Any feedback on the podcast is welcome and feel free to comment below this post. Suggestions of future guests or topics also very welcome.
Popularity: 4% [?]
Linden Lab offers a further Australian job opportunity
April 12, 2008
Linden Lab are recruiting for Production Operations developers and systems engineers in Australia (and Singapore, the US and UK).
All the details here. It’s good to see the Australian contingent is growing. Who knows, maybe those Australia-based servers are getting closer.
Popularity: 2% [?]
Report: over 100 youth-oriented virtual worlds
April 12, 2008
Virtual Worlds Management have released a report showing more than a hundred youth-oriented worlds are either live or in development. The data was compiled from their own news site and a full list is viewable including links to further information.
Seeing such a list further emphasises the faith business has in the virtual world platform but given that it’s still early days for virtual worlds, I’d expect a significant number on that list to struggle to gain a significant foothold in the face of such widespread competition.
Popularity: 3% [?]
VastPark tools go public
April 11, 2008
VastPark today announced the public release (albeit an alpha release) of a number of its tools. You can now download a browser to view creations dynamically, a Viewer for “viewing the virtual experience in a static and controlled environment”, an Asset Publisher to get everything online and VastServer for real-time, multi-user interaction.
The release is to get the tools into as many hands as possible prior to the second stress test being held on the 22nd April.
If you’re brave enough to use some alpha release tools, let us know what you think of VastPark so far. I can’t actually do it myself as there’s no Mac version as yet.
Popularity: 2% [?]
Babelswarm - Australia Council launches Second Life art project
April 11, 2008
An Australia Council project that was initially announced nearly a year ago, has come to fruition.
Babelswarm is the final product of writer Justin Clemens, visual artist Christopher Dodds and musician/artist Adam Nash and it’s being launched this evening at 5.30pm, Friday 11th April. It’s a simultaneous launch in Second Life and in Lismore, NSW at the Lismore Regional Gallery.
The Australia Council describes Babelswarm:
The installation, a metaphor for the Tower of Babel, uses voice recognition software that converts the spoken word of real and virtual participants into 3-D letterform images in an evolving tower of words. The artwork is a simultaneous installation in Second Life and in a real world gallery, where visitors can be involved directly in its creation via a computer interface.
The Australia Council’s chairman, former QANTAS CEO James Strong, is upbeat about the use of Second Life for artists and the Australia Council’s support of such endeavours: “Virtual worlds like Second Life are fast becoming mainstream platforms for artistic interaction; we are keen to provide pathways for artists to continue to innovate in these rich digital environments. The Australia Council supports artist residencies in many places in the real world; it is only natural for us to help artists explore the creative possibilities of residencies in virtual worlds.”
The Lismore Regional Gallery is located at 131 Molesworth Street, Lismore, NSW. The exhibition will run until April 23, 2008. The Babelswarm blog has much more detail of the installation.
(Pictures: Babelswarm, 2008)
Popularity: 2% [?]
