Firefox, Google and The 3D Web

Mark Kizelshteyn — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 16:01:26 +0000

This past week the Khronos Group, working with Mozilla (creators of Firefox) and Google, announced an initiative to create an open standard for accelerated 3D Web browsers. The group is leading a 12 month initiative aiming for release as part of the Canvas3D extension for Firefox 3.5.

As Virtual World News points out, “there are plenty of other developers and organizations trying to bring 3D to the Web, but most rely on plug-ins to do so, whether that’s the near ubiquitous Flash, a quickly growing Unity3D, or their own proprietary technologies. The benefit of the new standard, if it’s successful, would be that designers could include hardware-accelearated 3D graphics in their websites without forcing users to download a plugin. With OpenGL, JavaScript, and hardware acceleration available on pretty much all platforms, it could also make it easier to develop apps and environments across multiple contexts.”

People are expecting more and more of their online experience as we witness the shift from static desktop applications to dynamic web applications. The addition of 3D will add an array of new user experiences to the web app platform. Paul Jackson, an analyst with research firm Forrester, states: “…If you think about the traditional browsing experience of flat pages and links this is not a natural way to interact. People are much more used to walking around and picking things up so a 3D browser could lead eventually to a more naturalistic way of interaction…”

This standard could offer a significant shift in the 3D web by breaking down the end user barriers of entry. With the increase in web applications, people are reluctant to download bulky plug ins or software, but if the 3D environment is native to one’s browser, the potential is incredible. This team of developers and thinkers are industry leaders — allowing them to trail head this initiative will undoubtedly yield industry shifting results. I look forward to the release.

US Army Developing Simulator in Second Life

Mark Kizelshteyn — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 22:01:53 +0000

As noted by Wager James Au on New World Notes, the US government is developing a mixed reality boxing simulator in Second Life.

Dan Miller, a Senior Economist @ US Congress’ Joint Economic Committee, reports from the Army’s PEO STRI (Program Executive Office for Simulation, Training, & Instrumentation) explaining: “[A] 3-D camera and Second Life (plus 3 large LCD panels). The 3-D camera translates the movement of a human being into movement by an avatar. In the demonstration I saw, there was a virtual punching bag that existed solely in Second Life. When the user throws a punch in the real world, the system reacts by showing the virtual punching bag being hit. Users can also move their avatars around Second Life simply by leaning forward.”

Au emailed PEOs Press officer inquiring about the development and received the following response: “It has the potential to be used in a myriad of situations in which the Soldier will be fully immersed in the virtual world that he or she is interacting…The Soldier will be able to move, pick up objects, interact with other people, etc., etc., such that he or she reacts to the virtual environment while the environment also reacts to his or her actions.”

This development comes as no surprise, and I am sure there are tons of classified simulators that are far more advanced than this. However, it is neat to see this development in Second Life and consider the “social” implication — different battalions will be able to train with each other regardless of distance — collapsing time and space, again. It will be interesting to see PEOs development of Army simulators in Second Life.

[Via New World Notes]

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Firefox, Google and The 3D Web

US Army Developing Simulator in Second Life