3D Internet & Augmented Reality

[JohnnyB]

I've been doing research and working with 3D internet applications in education for the past couple of years, largely in Second Life, Quest Atlantis and OpenSim. At the school where I work we are now teaching all students to explore and build in 3D environments from grade six on and have some students as early as grade two involved in building within OpenSim. We also have a 3D campus in Second life.

Although there are many large universities and other organizations staking claims in the 3D internet worlds, the 3D internet remains a niche overall and I sometimes wonder what its future might be. I have tried to introduce numerous people to 3D internet, but it is often a difficult sell and many people (adults) do not take to it very naturally. Kids on the other hand take to it very naturally and quite enjoy working in it.

Reading this article, The Future of 3D Technology makes me quite optimistic about the future of the 3D internet as well as augmented reality applications, which I'm sure some people here have already made use of on smart phones that have Layar or other AR apps. I really wonder about what the standard experience of the internet will be 10 years from now and how integrated we can expect it to be with our sensory experience of our real lives. I thought it could make for an interesting discussion.

What are others' experiences with/beliefs about/hopes for the 3D internet, augmented reality and their futures?

[pylon]

This is a neat site that kind of touches on the topic.

http://www.futuretimeline.net/index.htm

But I think we are still at least a century away from a true Matrix like existence. When I saw the first Matrix, I said to my girlfriend, "One day this film may be looked at as some sort of prophecy, if Moore's law continues to track as accurately as it has."

[JohnnyB]

Originally Posted by pylon

This is a neat site that kind of touches on the topic.

http://www.futuretimeline.net/index.htm

Yeah, I've seen that site before. It's an interesting combo of speculation and some research. It also seems to predict a lot of growth in virtual reality by 2020.

Originally Posted by pylon

But I think we are still at least a century away from a true Matrix like existence. When I saw the first Matrix, I said to my girlfriend, "One day this film may be looked at as some sort of prophecy, if Moore's law continues to track as accurately as it has."

When you say a true Matrix experience, do you mean like with robots that keep humans in vats with cables sticking into them as well, or do you just mean the fully realistic virtual reality bit? If you mean the VR bit I would think that we are much, much closer to it than a hundred years away.

I'm guessing that you don't really expect us to all be enslaved by our machines living full time in VR a hundred years from now though. At least not in ways that are involuntary.

[pylon]

Originally Posted by JohnnyB

Yeah, I've seen that site before. It's an interesting combo of speculation and some research. It also seems to predict a lot of growth in virtual reality by 2020.



When you say a true Matrix experience, do you mean like with robots that keep humans in vats with cables sticking into them as well, or do you just mean the fully realistic virtual reality bit? If you mean the VR bit I would think that we are much, much closer to it than a hundred years away.

I'm guessing that you don't really expect us to all be enslaved by our machines living full time in VR a hundred years from now though. At least not in ways that are involuntary.

Yes, I meant a virtual existence indistinguishable from the real world.... unless of course you are Neo...lol. But a similar scenario to that of The Matrix, could certainly be a possibility if technology somehow runs away, and renders us obsolete.

To get to that point of indistinguishable AI, where you could simply immerse yourself into a simulated reality, we would have to get past the limitations of engineering at the nanoscale to construct an artificial neural net, which we are not even close to mastering yet. You would probably have to master picotechnology to be able to construct artificial brain cells at the atomic level.

Off topic.... why do I keep seeing pictures of rabbits everywhere?

[JohnnyB]

Originally Posted by pylon

Yes, I meant a virtual existence indistinguishable from the real world.... unless of course you are Neo...lol. But a similar scenario to that of The Matrix, could certainly be a possibility if technology somehow runs away, and renders us obsolete.

To get to that point of indistinguishable AI, where you could simply immerse yourself into a simulated reality, we would have to get past the limitations of engineering at the nanoscale to construct an artificial neural net, which we are not even close to mastering yet. You would probably have to master picotechnology to be able to construct artificial brain cells at the atomic level.

Off topic.... why do I keep seeing pictures of rabbits everywhere?

Hmm, I won't comment on the possibility of developing fully realistic AI, though I wouldn't rush to the conclusion that it's necessary for realistic VR. Simply having the ability to simulate a realistic environment in which actual people can interact is enough to achieve VR. Either way, I don't think we'll be seeing that fully achieve in the next ten years. I do expect to see amazing advancements in the integration of 3D technologies and AR devices into our daily lives however.

I was pleasantly amazed the other day when I was waiting in line at customs in the Shenzhen airport and found myself watching a 3D television set with a picture I could watch in 3D without any special glasses. One of those moments where I couldn't help but appreciate how I'm now living in a world that was totally science fiction when I was a child. Ten years further down the road should be just as mind blowing.

[pylon]

Originally Posted by JohnnyB

Hmm, I won't comment on the possibility of developing fully realistic AI, though I wouldn't rush to the conclusion that it's necessary for realistic VR. Simply having the ability to simulate a realistic environment in which actual people can interact is enough to achieve VR. Either way, I don't think we'll be seeing that fully achieve in the next ten years. I do expect to see amazing advancements in the integration of 3D technologies and AR devices into our daily lives however.

I was pleasantly amazed the other day when I was waiting in line at customs in the Shenzhen airport and found myself watching a 3D television set with a picture I could watch in 3D without any special glasses. One of those moments where I couldn't help but appreciate how I'm now living in a world that was totally science fiction when I was a child. Ten years further down the road should be just as mind blowing.

i totally agree. I remember getting an Colecovision Adam in 1983 and thinking to myself.... how can it possibly get any better. I look at the accessibilty of technology now and am dumbfounded. I have a telescope that I can point at the sky, push a button, and it finds the planet or nebulae I want to look at. And better yet I can attach CCD cameras to it and have detailed views of objects millions of miles away with clear detail. All for around $2500. A looking at a tri-quarter on Star Trek TNG in the mid 80's seemed totally ridiculous. We now walk around with Iphones, that can pretty much give us an answer to any question we could possibly think of, in seconds. How long till these things will be able to scan the molecular and chemical composition of stuff?

Personally, I am cheering for Kurzweil, and his crazy ideas. If he thinks he can achieve immortality at by simply keeping himself healthy 20 more years, than that means I have a 30 year head start on him, and should see the same fate. It is a very pivotal time in humanity we are living in. I think the human as we know it has 500 years... max, before we are totally indistinguishable from what we currently know. If I could live long enough to witness interstellar travel, that would be to me, the ultimate scenario.

[JohnnyB]

Originally Posted by pylon

i totally agree. I remember getting an Colecovision Adam in 1983 and thinking to myself.... how can it possibly get any better. I look at the accessibilty of technology now and am dumbfounded. I have a telescope that I can point at the sky, push a button, and it finds the planet or nebulae I want to look at. And better yet I can attach CCD cameras to it and have detailed views of objects millions of miles away with clear detail. All for around $2500. A looking at a tri-quarter on Star Trek TNG in the mid 80's seemed totally ridiculous. We now walk around with Iphones, that can pretty much give us an answer to any question we could possibly think of, in seconds. How long till these things will be able to scan the molecular and chemical composition of stuff?

Personally, I am cheering for Kurzweil, and his crazy ideas. If he thinks he can achieve immortality at by simply keeping himself healthy 20 more years, than that means I have a 30 year head start on him, and should see the same fate. It is a very pivotal time in humanity we are living in. I think the human as we know it has 500 years... max, before we are totally indistinguishable from what we currently know. If I could live long enough to witness interstellar travel, that would be to me, the ultimate scenario.

Yes, I've often used that line of thinking to justify going out for nights with far too many beers. I may not need a fully functional liver if I can just hold on long enough and acquire the financial resources to get a healthy cloned liver in my distant future...

I do expect that in the next 20 years we will see much more integration of real life and the internet, blurring the boundaries somewhat between the virtual and the real through AR applications. Considering that we can already hold up a phone to use as a viewing window through which to see the world with an overlay of remotely accessed information about its contents, I would say that we are already on the way to changing how we commonly interact with physical contents of our real world in a deep way. What exactly this may mean for our cognitive capacities I'm not sure, but I would think that we will not go unchanged as a result of how we interact with this sort of integration between real and virtual.

[Thor]

I just want my freaking Holo Deck from Star Trek.

[Zevo]

Originally Posted by Thor

I just want my freaking Holo Deck from Star Trek.

Absolutely....hookers and blow without the disease and addiction.