IBM and virtual reality - (was: Re: IBM to give birth to 'Second Life' business group)

Begin forwarded message:

From: Maris <[email protected]>
Date: December 18, 2006 11:12:09 PM JST
To: [email protected]
Subject: 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 <[email protected]>
> Date: December 13, 2006 9:01:27 AM JST
> To: Dewayne-Net Technology List <[email protected]>
> Subject: [Dewayne-Net] IBM to give birth to 'Second Life' business  
> group
> Reply-To: [email protected]
>
> 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 believes
> the virtual realm has potential for training, conferences and  
> commerce,
> he said.
> Second Life, an online community run by a company called Linden  
> Labs, is
> an electronic universe where people's virtual representations, called
> avatars, can chat, fly, teleport, browse stores and purchase goods.  
> IBM
> has one public island on Second Life, a site named after and mimicking
> its Almaden Research Center near San Jose, Calif., but the company  
> plans
> to open up 12 more by Monday.
>
> Second Life, not unlike blogging, has become a new trend among
> technology companies hoping to show they're hip to the latest  
> trends and
> that 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]
>
>
>
>
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