Looking Through Glass

I want to use my recent interest in a project called Looking Glass by Sun to think about both the future direction of computers environments and the concept of the organic world as divinely programmed (aka intelligent design). This will be a 2 part post.

Looking Through Glass Part 1: The Technology

Looking Glass Presentation:



Looking Glass example on Linux:



The Next Desktop
Yeah, they come and go it seems, but we haven't really had anything all that new in the last decade. With the recent Linux and Unix projects that integrate 3D graphics, we have a more realistic leap to the next generation of mass desktop environments. That's great for the realist who don't see head mounted displays being common anytime soon. Yet, I think these types of desktops will be preparing us for that (via more market demand, augmented technologies, and virtual world usage).

The Integration into Virtual Worlds
Virtual world usage? Well, it's not included in the 3D type desktops such as Looking Glass, but that's where I imagine it could end up. As our desktop experience becomes more immersed into a 3D environment, we'll have a better chance of integrating online virtual worlds into them. Imagine being in a online virtual space like second life, but merely as the backdrop to your desktop. And if my desktop is in 3D, my 3D applications can merge into the online virtual space. Now technically, there is a layer of things going: I'll have my local computers virtual space and applications, and then I'll have the online virtual space and applications. But if they're talking in the same language, they can merge and data can be linked, such that my local virtual objects appear in an online virtual space.

Simple example (not very creative though):
On my local computer, I have a 3D note writing/managing application. It will need to have the ability to tag on to ever note the virtual location metadata, even if it's in an online space. With that, I could then "go" to an online virtual space, like a store, office, or my friends virtual space, and add a 3D note anywhere (like maybe on the entrance of a virtual room). It doesn't exist in the online virtual world because only my computer is rendering the note, coming from data on my machine.

It becomes a new platform
Since local and remote virtual data and applications could then mingle, development opens up to new territory. One could write a local application that allows me to render all sorts of my own objects in any online virtual space. Expanding upon that, then a local application could also have it's own network of information and communication that allows me to share objects with others. So I could then take my note or document (that I attached to a door in some virtual world) and share it with a friend or co-worker, maybe even allowing them to edit it. Remember, the local application would handle all of the information, communication, and rendering so it is separate from connecting to the information in the online virtual world. Theoretically, if you had a portal door technology included, you could create your own "doorways" in any virtual space that lead to any other virtual space, and it would be only visible and used by you (or to those shared with).

How this might play out is up for grabs. I see the Looking Glass project as a great step. Sun's open source virtual world project, Wonderland, is using Looking Glass libraries which may lend itself to later integration. There are a lot of other big questions and issues attached to my ideas, but there are also a lot of steps being taken.

Nice work, to Hideya Kawahara and the Looking Glass team.

Contacts as Computer Monitors

You may know I'm an augmented reality fan. So when I hear of a new development that may just help streamline it in the future, I get excited. That was the case when i heard about a group from the University of Washington working on bionic contact lenses that would allow augmented display without bulky VR headsets. Here's the MSNBC article giving the gist of the prototype in place.

I always imagined we would take computer display to contacts, but I didn't think we'd get to it so soon. Though, I do think it will be awhile until something like this would be common to the home user. Price is a factor and there are many technologies that need to advance in order for this to work as well. But to see what is currently possible helps put the future into perspective.

In the meantime, I kick off 2008 hopeful for the business and open virtual worlds (Though it's the teen and tween worlds that should continue to spawn interest). IBM's Bluegrass is competing with Sun's open source equivalent, Wonderland. I've actually been looking at the Wonderland code, and although the platform is relatively primitive compared to Second Life, it has some great potential to expand in other directions where Second Life is limited. In particular: scalability, security, hosting freedom, and extensibility. Here's to hoping that I can get in on the development.

How will we surf the metaverse?

When will "portal doors" webify the metaverse?

Take the web and attempted to mash it up with 3d virtual worlds and you may find something interesting. Here's one concept that I'm not sure is yet possible or makes technical sense:

The main part of the concept is visualized hyper-links which I'm going to call "Portal Doors". In current virtual worlds you often are given the ability to teleport to a destination (which is quiet helpful) but another more intense way to feel like everything is spacially connected and more immersed is to make the traversing and connectivity experience 3D as well. On one side of the Portal door your on server "A" and when you walk through the doorway, your on server "B" in a different virtual simulation. Yet server "B" is not conflicting with any of server "A's" virtual space except this doorway.(And it may not necessarily be a different server but just a different place on the same server). It's a teleporting door that would even allow you to look in on the other server space before heading there. The size of these gateways could very based on traffic, design, or placement needs. In one instance it may not even look like a doorway but just an extension of a room or hall. A virtual mall could simply be a hub for stores to connect into via a portal doorway. Thus, duplication of kiosks and stores is replaced by portal door connectivity. I build one store and connect it to multiple shopping centers or hubs, for example.

With no grid limitation, clients owning virtual space with high traffic could even sell portal door rights in their space or other TP formats in their area, to advertisers or partners. And maybe even one-way doors would allow anyone to at least access another public space. Personal sims could also be connected as well. You see how this is very web like and makes traveling easy and connects the grid in a dimension far greater than a flat land layout.

Here's an example for fun: I have a virtual space. I have a portal doorway leading to my friends virtual space where I go meet. From there, he has a portal entrance to a virtual club he likes to attend. We can already see into it and decide something fun is going on. At the virtual club there is a portal door to a music store we want to check out. At the music store, there is a database web-like tool to preview the tunes with friends and rate songs as well as spawns a dynamic portal to lead us to artists' virtual spaces. We go to our favorite bands space where other people are hanging out, buying gear, listening to the bands music, seeing adds and other portal spaces. This goes on and on, like the current web to where it seems like there are endless connections via the simple hyper-link.

The big different between this and current travel in current virtual spaces is proximity. Many portal doors leading to large space can be very very close to each other, makes flying less needed, feels more connected visually, and connecting to many places from a single hub, hall, room or even a dynamic doorway. A virtual office building could then consist of offices that are linked to each other in more customized fashions than real life building or even Second Life constructions. Also it becomes more intuitive for new users to jump in and run around without having to bookmark places and learn to use a clunky large maps. This is particularly worth noting since the metaverse is already very very large and at current rates will scale to be very enormous in size (greater than the earth surface eventually, that's for sure).

The big questions I have for this concept is 1) Does it make sense in terms of usability, scalability, and traveling preference? and 2) How feasible is it? Currently, all large virtual spaces are proprietary in design, making it difficult to integrate them in this fashion. Standards will need to be set in order to allow the client program to tap into different server types without conflicting results. But would this be feasible across servers using different virtual platforms with different graphics engines and avatar control? I'm not that far deep into the technology to understand the snags. But potentially the open source efforts could create some standard communications that can either flow between different platforms, or create a new way to design virtual servers to be integrated into the broader metaverse. I think it may take some new and improved virtual worlds with portal connectivity working with their own platform to show the value. But the end result of a completely accessible webified metaverse is certainly appealing.

For fun, one last example running in my head: If you're able to see through a doorway into another server's virtual space, you could also scale that to be a simple screen that looks into another server. This could become a window into another space, acting as a TV monitor for seeing events or virtual shows without having to "show up". A way to browse the metaverse before traveling. It could aslo make for a way to share a pleasant looking sims as the backdrop around your own virtual space.

How do you think we'll surf the metaverse in the future? What snags do you see in portal connectivity?

Virtual Security

A little paranoid about security? Not concerned at all? Well, like any new technology, security issues raise up as opportunities arise to misuse and abuse. So have you thought about that with your latest involvement with 3d virtual worlds? This interview with Gary McGraw, co-author (along with Greg Hoglund) of Exploiting Online Games, is a great review of the current state of virtual world security. A long read (for web standards) but worth the time if security matters to you.

What I found most interesting is that criminal-hackers are more and more market driven and virtual world provide a platform to cheat a money making system. The kicker is that the current client-server architecture is largely to blame. Currently, the threats are mainly noted in popular MMORGP games, like World of War Craft, but it isn't hard to imagine this being a growing concern for those developing and using social and business 3d virtual platforms. Secondd Life has it's own form of attacks and frauds, but it is very difficult to manage this on a legal, economical, and technical side at this point.

Flat virtual economy of concern

Well, if you read my post on Second Life vs. Open Source, you'd know that I'm becoming more and more skeptical that Second Life is in it for the long hull. If you're not concerned and you haven't looked at the economy statistics, take a look and tell me where Second Life is going right. Many figures have read flat for a few quarters. The demand of virtual worlds is bringing in the competition. Great. We're starting to want more and getting it (well, hopefully). I still doubt we'll get much response from Second Life, though they could surprise me. I don't follow their philosophy of virtual worlds with joy. Too proprietary for my hopes and dreams. But enough of that.

If you've invested a lot into Second Life, then the thought of it collapsing is scary (I am not one of those, though I did wish to be more involved at one point). There was risk going in. VR is so so so young. Even the internet, in the grand scheme of things is very very new. This is a spec of a spec of dust. You think I like to look at the macro? :) Well, it's worth taking a step back sometimes and trying to grasp the past, present, and future of particular technologies and markets, especially before investing. There is less confidence in Second Life now more than when it got started. The demand gives way for new approaches and fresh starts. Second Life's competitive advantage was their user-base. Well, I think it's safe to suggest that their user-base is at risk. They're going to have enough trouble keeping their current users, let alone trying to grab new users when the handfuls of other attractive worlds out there gain enough ground. And these are worlds that see Second Life as a trial or research project for future worlds. Caleb from Metaversed.com mentioned the idea of the need for Second Life 2.0. Right on. Very much needed. I'm just glade I'm mainly looking in from the outside. Though, I'm now learning Java just for the purpose of diving into the Wonderland project.