On the Ogle Earth blog (about Google Earth), they write:
“3D is the next big thing for computers — even operating systems are going 3D — and I think that this trend will facilitate new ways of navigating.”
which echoes what James was saying in the comments for the last post on Virtual Virtual Offices.
The difference is that hyping Second Life as a way for consumers to get into 3D interfaces is completely unnecessary. Consumers have been investigating 3D interfaces since DOOM in 1993. The difference is:
| Second Life | Doom in 1993 |
| Flying | Running |
| Adverts | Flying flaming skulls |
| Sex | BFG 9000 |
| eCommerce | Haha fragged you sucka! |
| Designer Clothing | Heavy Metal Music |
| Interaction | Gameplay |
| 2006 | 1993 |
Things have come a long way since 1993 granted, but the basics are the same.
Now, I’m not saying that Second life is a complete waste of time. I was considering using it for game sessions of my main hobby where I think that the flying could really add to a story.
But it’s not going to help people experience new and exciting ways to interact with their computers. At the moment on the desktop we interact with our computers using a single virtual finger – the mouse pointer – if we had a system that used **gasp** TWO MOUSE POINTERS….we would end up with a much more realistic way to interact.
This shows heaps more potential…video embedded here
Okay, there’s heaps less sex…and no advertising…..so far…
I watched that SL video – It’s nothing like my first-hand experience of SL where I struggled with tweaking a hairstyle that veered between a mullet and ‘friar-tuck’.
“Live your dreams… *only* in second life”
That’s just so sad. What does it say about second-lifers ? That they’re abject failures in real-life ?
Ah, interesting that you should point to that video. Check out Avi’s post today on how you could update that idea with two 6DOF controllers (eg. two 3DConnexion SpaceNavigators)
http://www.brownianemotion.org/2006/11/28/six-doff/
“Consider also that all of those cool multi-touch displays we’ve seen videos of use two hands. But two hands gives you more than 12 virtual degrees of freedom (depending on how they’re combined). It engages your brain a bit differently than just using a mouse. A mouse uses a little bit of our natural proprioception, but the position of the hands relative to our body is really what kicks our natural spatial sense into high gear. The old cybergloves tried to take advantage of this, with moderate success. They not only had 6 degrees per hand, but also had some extra overlapping degrees of freedom from the flexing of the fingers and gestural modes.
Anyway, to make a long story short, what we really need is to kick the mouse off the desktop. A $60 6DOF controller can do that. But it can also spur those who have been waiting for the landscape to shift to move into high gear too. It’ll be as if the ice has melted and summer has finally arrived.”
Avi was working in VR in the early 90s and was in charge of Keyhole development (the original Google Earth client). His blog is well worth subscribing to if you’re interested in following this stuff.