Interesting People mailing list archives
IBM and virtual reality - (was: Re: IBM to give birth to 'Second Life' business group)
From: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Tue, 19 Dec 2006 05:35:21 +0900
Begin forwarded message: From: Maris <maris.fogels () redplanet ca> Date: December 18, 2006 11:12:09 PM JST To: dave () farber netSubject: IBM and virtual reality - (was: Re: [IP] IBM to give birth to 'Second Life' business group)
Hi Dave,A very interesting development. I believe that IBM can see a ways into the future here, and that they are using an early market position to their advantage.
My thought is this: In the upcoming years IBM will see their revolutionary Cell processor chip in hundreds of millions of households around the world via game console systems from a variety of manufacturers. The realism of Second Life's graphics is rather low at the moment, but IBM's chip can easily overcome that. Virtual realms as per Second Life also require very high bandwidth to deliver the experience to the end-user, but if we look around the world very high-speed
broadband is becoming more available all the time.So we have life-like real-time graphics rendering (via the Cell chip), climbing broadband Internet speeds (Japan?, Korea?), available on relatively inexpensive consumer devices, in a hundred million homes world-wide, within 3-4 years...
No wonder IBM thinks that virtual realms will take off in the future.There are a few pieces that I do not know about, such as the human- machine interface technologies, but I suspect that if the Cell processor lives up to it's claims then processing real-time video input from a digital camera will be simple, and that will allow for the display of facial expressions and body language (consumer cameras are at 10 megapixels now, and new models will focus on video capture quality because that is primarily how the younger generation
uses them; convenient, eh?)At this rate an entire virtual industry could take off right under our noses :)
Maris David Farber wrote:
Begin forwarded message: From: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne () warpspeed com> Date: December 13, 2006 9:01:27 AM JST To: Dewayne-Net Technology List <dewayne-net () warpspeed com>Subject: [Dewayne-Net] IBM to give birth to 'Second Life' business groupReply-To: dewayne () warpspeed com IBM to give birth to 'Second Life' business group By Stephen Shankland<http://news.com.com/IBM+to+give+birth+to+Second+Life+business +group/2100-1014_3-6143175.html>Story last modified Tue Dec 12 15:39:57 PST 2006 IBM will launch an official group in January to deal with Second Life and other virtual realms from which the company hopes to profit. Virtual reality and other visual interface work is the next project on IBM's plate, Irving Wladawsky-Berger said in an interview at CNET's Second Life offices. Wladawsky-Berger, vice president of technical strategy and innovation at IBM, led the company's response to earlier technologies that rewrote the rules of the computing industry, such as e-commerce and Linux. "I have been playing a strong role in helping us start our 3D Internet and virtual-world efforts. We are launching a new EBO in this area in January--that is, an emerging business opportunity--much like we did with Linux and the grid," Wladawsky-Berger said Tuesday. IBM believesthe virtual realm has potential for training, conferences and commerce,he said.Second Life, an online community run by a company called Linden Labs, isan electronic universe where people's virtual representations, calledavatars, can chat, fly, teleport, browse stores and purchase goods. IBMhas one public island on Second Life, a site named after and mimickingits Almaden Research Center near San Jose, Calif., but the company plansto open up 12 more by Monday. Second Life, not unlike blogging, has become a new trend amongtechnology companies hoping to show they're hip to the latest trends andthat believe they might benefit from direct connections to potential customers. In recent months, IBM rivals Dell and Sun Microsystems have launched Second Life offices and held activities. [snip] ------------------------------------- You are subscribed as mfogels () redplanet ca To manage your subscription, go to http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ipArchives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting- people/
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- IBM and virtual reality - (was: Re: IBM to give birth to 'Second Life' business group) David Farber (Dec 18)