Video: Mitch Kapor Demos Second Life Navigation with 3D Camera

Mitch Kapor mentioned at the Metaverse Roadmap that Kapor Enterprises was developing 3D cameras to use as navigation tools in virtual worlds. The technology, to some degree, is available now, but his goal is to create consumer-level hardware with intuitive interfaces. Inspired partly by the Segway, the camera tracks movement from leaning forward or backwards to walk and turn or raising your hands to send an avatar flying. We've mentioned similar efforts, for Sony's PlayStation Eye, for example, but Kapor's seems the most advanced both in design and application. Also, frankly, it just looks pretty neat:

"It’s only a mere 3 months since Mitch and I sat together and decided to kick start this project," notes developer Philippe Bossut on the Handsfree 3D blog. "It was just a hunch, an itch to scratch: we both thought that the status quo– limiting the totality of our interactions with computers to mouse and keyboard, wouldn’t stand for very long. Indeed, researchers have been looking to make computing 'pervasive' for a decade now, using more and more inputs from more and more devices. But, until now, they have all been clunky and expensive. The recent eruption in consumer products of things like multitouch for iPhone and gesturing in Wii demonstrates that this is changing and that a wide public is eager to move beyond that mouse and keyboard world we’ve been bound to for the last 25 years."

The convergence of technology--the 3D Camera was already designed by 3DV Systems--certainly seems to point to a space for this sort of development. Though, as Bossut admits, consumers may not be ready for it for some time. Users already have problems navigating in 3D spaces with the mouse-and-keyboard interface they're accustomed to. It's certainly not ideal for 3D, but it's comfortable. A 3D camera might be more natural-feeling in the long run, but there's sure to be some resistance.

"While it might be too early for users, it seems to be the right moment for us, software developers, to be thinking about what we could do with them and help guide the industry in our modest way so that when those cameras come out, there’s something useful to apply them to," explained Bossut.

I'm certainly not representative of the mass market, but I can't wait to not get my hands on it.

[via Handsfree 3D]

Comments

[B]

Great Mitch! That should make the Linden Research members of the board slightly excited. Now would you mind getting your hands dirty in making Second Life actually work before you plug a Handsfree 3D interface on it. Or are you just watching it collapse with Philip at the wheels?

This is the latest happening at the company you chair.

[RESOLVED] More Database Unpleasantness
[BUMPED] Object to object emails failing in-world
[WANTED] *nix geeks to save the grid
[CLOSED] Re-enabling Services
1.19.1 Office Hours- 4 HOURS of fun! (fun, being your customers massive disappointment I suppose..., ask Pastrami Linden...)
[CLOSED] Login issues and some In World Features not available.

Regards,