In virtual worlds, your name floats above your head and there are options for clicking someone’s avatar to find out more about them. But in case we forget, this is the metaverse, which includes virtual worlds, mirror worlds, life logging and augmented reality (according to the Metaverse Roadmap).
And so, in a nod to another of the quadrants, LILT brings us an overview of - well, of your name floating above your head with the ability to click it to find out more about them. Only thing is, it happens in the real world:
Per the site:
“Fully effective registration of digital objects to real objects in a heads up display is still a developing technology. In the first instance we are working to make the general information available, and hope to move on in time to a full augmented reality version of the system. In our current prototype we scan for nearby Bluetooth devices as a proxy for the people in your vicinity. For each Bluetooth device, we check disCourse (a LILT-developed online collaboration system) via wireless Internet access to see if that device ID has been associated with anyone’s profile. If it has, we display it to the SocialSense user through a simple interface (shown below). “
Now, if you haven’t read Halting State, read it. I probably should have added it to my top 5 book list, because it does one of the best jobs in print of describing a world in which the full metaverse actually exists: a mash-up of augmented reality, information shadows, game environments, and hackers. This application is very much yanked from the pages of the future.
I think this vision of the 3d internet is very interesting, it partially removes the issue of avatarisation and immersion ( which so much of the mainstream seem to find problematic ). The thing I would love to see is a collision of the remote virtual and the local virtual - ie remote avatars and objects mixed up with that information overlay over real physical objects and people.
The future is now…thanks for the post, I can’t wait until the first SocialSense solutions are ready and available in shops. Regarding Halting State: have you read Rainbow’s End by Vernor Vinge?
It’s a must read for you (I own 4 of your top 5 books ;-)). Vinge created a sci-fi thriller of cultural change that literally lives amongst the technologies that are emerging now: wearables like SocialSense, Augmented/Mixed Reality, Web3.D, Web2.0, WIKI, MMORPGs, Artifial Intelligence, QR-Codes, theme parks, longivity, human-machine interfaces, Second Life’s creation tools, Creative Commons licensing, genetic engineering…but you don’t read about tech, the book is all about the generation conflict and how these new technologies alter everything we do, psychologically and socially.
@ Dizzy - hey! That was you? I was the guy in a suit.
@ Gaby - yes, I did read it. But…well, it was so horribly written I didn’t add it to the list, but yes, it covered the intellectual/peer-into-the-future ground very well, and provocatively. If only he had a better editor. Or was a real writer. HAHA. Sorry, feeling snarky, it’s Monday.