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.
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2 comments:
Ben,
Very interesting.
A followup on your "simple" example. As I read through work emails and lag some for followup, I would love to be able to tag a brief note to an email that might relate to someone to call, possible solution options, etc. Right now there is no simple way to do that apart from creating a formal task/to-do with it.
Good idea for email note management. I've actually thought of something similar in the gmails web interface and have requested the feature. This idea seems already feasible in a 2D environment, by simply adding the interface to add this meta data to emails and present/access it in the right places.
Where email might meet the 3D virtual space is another fun exploration, but I imagine there are going to be a few bad ways to manage files in 3D the first time round. With desktops going 3D it exponentiates the direction you can go, for better or worse. My excitement is mainly with leveraging the 3D desktop into shared virtual spaces so that data can be assigned locations, either local or online.
Why is this useful? Well it adds synchronization to our online experience in hopes to immerse a community enough to allow for more natural communication to persist while experience online data together. This is not the current standard of the web, but weather 2d or 3d, we're getting closer to that.
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