New technologies add immersiveness to the flat 2D Web

by Sam Driver.

New immersive technologies are emerging on the scene to change our perception of what a Web page or site is. These immersive Web technologies include floating 2D Web overlays, embedded 3D chat, and 3D Web pages (see Figure 1) which work above, within, or below the 2D Web (see Figure 2). While not all the specific products I mention here are going to be widely used in the workplace, experimenting with them is a good idea because immersive technology allows people to communicate easily in context – in this case, while they are visiting a Web site of interest. Technologies like these have the potential to increase peoples’ engagement with their work.

 

  

• Floating 2D Web overlays are independent of underlying Web sites. This technology is all about social networking. Floating 2D Web overlay technologies from vendors like ROCKETON and Weblin allow people to have text chat conversations with others while viewing Web sites. Users communicate with each other via text chat and small, cartoony avatars that, in ROCKETON’s case, can navigate around the Web page. Weblin avatars remain at the bottom of Web pages. Users of this technology can travel around the Web in packs, leading each other through an experience via a “teleport” or “meet me” function or through the use of little “doorways” laid on top of Web sites. In the ThinkBalm Innovation Community we are experimenting with floating 2D Web technology to enhance community members’ sense of presence and our ability to communicate in real time with each other while we are logged into the serious game engine that is at the heart of our community.
• Embedded 3D chat technology makes chat more animated. As with floating 2D Web overlays, embedded 3D chat offers a new way for people to stay connected with others with whom they share some common interest. Chat rooms have been around for ages. Technologies like Google Lively, IMVU, and Vivaty Scenes add a visual experience to traditional chat rooms. Embedded 3D chat allows people to design 3D spaces and add these spaces to Web sites. Much like a home page, Facebook page, or blog site packed with RSS feeds, news links, weather updates and other broadcast information, an embedded 3D chat room is another cool gadget competing for site visitors’ attention. Embedded 3D chat widgets create a venue for people interested in a Web site to find and communicate with each other in the context of that site.
• 3D Web pages turn flat sites into multidimensional spaces. 3D Web page technology like Altadyn 3DXplorer and ExitReality allow you to peel back the 2D layer of a web site (e.g., click a link) or simply type in a URL and go into a 3D environment. Users typically have avatars and navigate the 3D space by moving the avatar around using mouse and keyboard. With 3DXplorer, once you are in the 3D environment, you no longer see the original web site. Rather, you use an avatar to navigate a 3D space that can be populated with content that matches the brand of the 2D web site. In ExitReality’s case, a special browser turns ordinary existing Web pages into 2D displays on billboards or storefronts within 3D space that the user can navigate with an avatar. In the ThinkBalm Innovation Community we have experimented with 3D Web page technology for community brainstorming sessions.

My take: 3D Web pages hold the greatest promise for the enterprise

Of these three types of immersive Web technology, 3D Web pages have the greatest initial promise for the enterprise because they give the enterprise the most control over the user experience. Also, they allow enterprise Immersive Internet advocates and implementers to experiment with 3D immersive technology that doesn’t require users to download and install a huge client. We’ll see floating 2D Web overlay technologies used at work, too, as they become integrated into browsers or viewers over time. Embedded 3D chat rooms will remain a consumer tool for the foreseeable future; enterprises will use the 3D chat capabilities of Immersive Internet platforms.

© 2008 ThinkBalm. All rights reserved.

Digital prototypes help university team get $550k+ in technology funding

by Erica Driver.

The U.S. Dept. of Labor has a program in place, funded by H-1B visa fees, to increase the competitiveness of the American workforce. This program, called Workforce Innovation in Regional Economic Development (WIRED), has an initiative under way in the state of Ohio called the Ohio Valley Interactive Technology Alliance (OVITA). OVITA is focused on developing a creative and academically prepared workforce and establishing the region as a center of excellence and innovation in the field of interactive digital technology, which includes the Immersive Internet. OVITA works with three state universities — Ohio University, Kent State University and Shawnee State University — as well as community colleges and high schools. As with any publicly-funded initiative these days, leadership has to work very hard to justify how money gets spent. Thomas Stead, the Associate Director for Education for OVITA and former department chair at Shawnee State University, recently shared with me some experiences he has had using immersive technology to positively influence budget decision makers.

3D digital mockups pave the way to >$550,000 in funding for motion capture studios

To advance Ohio’s standing as a bastion of virtual reality research and expertise, staff at Shawnee State University wanted the university to invest in sophisticated motion capture equipment. Words weren’t powerful enough to convince the provost and others that spending millions of dollars on sophisticated audio and video equipment — and a new building in which to house it all — made sense. So Thomas Stead used 3D technology to build digital prototypes cheaply and easily and put these mockups to work as powerful communication and persuasion aids.

• Step one: Standalone 3D mockups influence the go/no go decision. Stead first built a high-quality digital mockup of the motion capture studios using a 3D rendering program called DAZ 3D Bryce. He compiled a book of 3D images of the studios that would be needed in the proposed facility and presented them to the president and board of trustees of Shawnee State University. The administration found the 3D digital mockups so compelling that the mockups were included as part of the university’s capital campaign to raise $12 million USD to date for new projects including the motion capture studios. The state of Ohio also pitched in money and the fundraising process is well on its way, with more than $550,000 already set aside specifically for the motion capture studios. Once the project is fully funded, construction will go up for competitive bid.
• Step two: Prototype in immersive environment helps avoid costly construction mistakes. More recently, Thomas Stead spent a couple of weeks building a 3D model of the motion capture studio in Second Life (see Figure 1). Stead and his team took his laptop into the provost’s offices and let the administrators tour through the virtual space. According to Stead, “We have to let people use the mouse…then, and only then, do they ‘get it.’ What we have is the ability to package a cluster of experiences, not just information, with the tools for a conversation about those experiences.”

While the go/no go decision had already been made with the help of the earlier 3D renderings constructed in Bryce, the Second Life experience helped clarify the feel of the space and why the motion capture studios had to be located in a large space as opposed to some earlier ideas of temporarily housing the studio in a much smaller room. It had been difficult to explain with words that the actual motion capture area is considerably smaller than the required hanging space for the 24-camera system. When immersed in the Second Life version it was a no-brainer to see that 18 foot ceilings and at least a 40X40 foot space was going to be a necessity. Thus the Second Life prototype helped Shawnee State University avoid what could have been a huge and costly mistake.

And this was done at very little cost. The cost of an entire region in Second Life is about $200 USD/month and according to numbers put out by the Chronicle of Education, on average a couple weeks of a professor’s salary at one of the three Ohio universities that are part of OVITA amounts to about $3,500. An executive from motion capture provider Kerner Motionwerx brought his Second Life avatar into the digital mockup of the motion capture room and made sure the virtual space was set up correctly. Travel costs avoided? Roughly $1,100 USD, according to American Express Business Travel’s estimate.

Mobile learning vans: on the docket once Ohio state budget crunch eases

In another instance, Stead and his team at OVITA were having trouble getting the idea of mobile learning vans across to decision makers at the state level. Not surprising: do a Google search on the words or exact phrase “mobile learning van” and you won’t find much of relevance. So Stead spent 3-4 days building a mockup of a mobile learning van in Second Life and put it up on the WIRED island (see Figure 2). After Stead demonstrated what a mobile learning van might look like and how it might work, the powers that be understood its value — unfortunately, the state of Ohio is in a budget crunch so investment in mobile learning vans is on hold right now.

An immersive digital prototype is worth a million words

Collaborative design and prototyping is one of the primary uses of the Immersive Internet in the enterprise. (See the related July 1, 2008, ThinkBalm article Heavy equipment manufacturer explores Immersive Internet for product prototyping.) While an obvious element of value is being able to create digital prototypes quickly and easily without having to build physical prototypes, Thomas Stead’s story is a great example of a quick-and-dirty digital prototype being used as a communication tool to garner further investment in a project. If a picture is worth a thousand words, Stead’s team has shown that an interactive experience with an immersive digital prototype is worth a million words.

© 2008 ThinkBalm. All rights reserved

Join the innovation community and submit your problem — we might just solve it!

by Erica Driver and Sam Driver.

Got an enterprise Immersive Internet-related problem you’re wrestling with? Could you use an invigorating interactive brainstorming with a bunch of smart people in an immersive environment? Then join the ThinkBalm Innovation Community and submit your entry now! We are kicking off a series of one-hour brainstorming events that will:

• Bring smart people together in real time to collectively solve problems related to enterprise use of the Immersive Internet
• Take place in a variety of immersive environments like Altadyn 3DXplorer, Forterra OLIVE, Moondus, OpenSim, and Second Life
• Utilize 3D brainstorming tools community members are building, when we do the events in Second Life 

To request an invitation to join the ThinkBalm Innovation Community, email us at info@thinkbalm.com.

© 2008 ThinkBalm. All rights reserved.

The ThinkBalm Innovation Community: What have we done lately?

by Erica Driver and Sam Driver.

The ThinkBalm Innovation Community went live just over three weeks ago. We’re having a heck of a time. We hit the 100 member mark today. Members have posted and been refining more than 40 ideas related to enterprise use of the Immersive Internet, with more than 400 posts and 30,000 page views. But, as we tell our clients all the time, these kinds of things are not the real measures of business value. Even in its nascent state, this emerging innovation community has begun to create its own value, providing another point of evidence that there is great power in numbers.

• The community is training itself. The ThinkBalm Innovation Community is based on the Spigit™ serious game engine, which is a new experience for nearly all of us. Community members have self-assembled into an idea team to review and contribute to the PowerPoint training slide materials and even lend the community Web conferencing technology and an immersive environment for the training sessions. We had a call this week to discuss requirements for the immersive environment and are having another meeting early next week to go over the training materials and work through some more logistics. We think we’ll be ready to offer both Web-based and in-world training sessions the week of September 22nd. 
• We’ve scheduled a panel discussion on the topic of 3D models in immersive environments. As professionals in the discrete manufacturing and architecture / engineering / construction (AEC) industries begin to experiment with using immersive technologies for work, it has become clear that we need a bridge between the world of old pros who create 3D models in traditional CAD systems and the new breed of professional 3D modelers who create objects for use in immersive learning simulations, virtual worlds, and serious games. A ThinkBalm Innovation Community idea team self-formed and met this week in an immersive environment lent to us by one of the team members. We finalized the panel agenda and list of vendors we want to invite. We will invite speakers from the traditional CAD software market as well as some of the newer Immersive Internet platform vendors. While we don’t have a specific speaker lineup yet, we’ve picked a date: Wednesday, November 5th at 11AM EST. If you’re interested in attending this event, join the community and put the date on your calendar.
• We are crafting a series of brainstorming events. Immersive environments present an opportunity for people to brainstorm together to solve problems in new ways. Yet another self-assembled team has come together to collaboratively develop an agenda for a series of brainstorming events, where community members present problems they are wrestling with and peers brainstorm possible solutions utilizing 3D tools and techniques. Because we’ve already got one upcoming event that’s going to take place in OpenSim and another that’s going to take place in Second Life, we are hoping to use some other Immersive Internet platforms for the brainstorming events – ideally platforms that are natively conducive to brainstorming.

The ThinkBalm Innovation Community presents a unique opportunity for IT managers, information and knowledge management professionals, software developers, and technology marketers to help shape the future of the Immersive Internet. Members get a focused venue for sharing knowledge and getting feedback on their ideas, access to the experiences and ideas of thinkers and doers outside their organizations, and a means of building and enhancing their reputations as Immersive Internet experts. There is no cost to members to participate. ThinkBalm also offers technology marketers an opportunity to sponsor Idea Hunts in the community for solutions to marketing challenges, insights into customer requirements, and ideas for product names. Contact us at info@thinkbalm.com for information on becoming a member or for Idea Hunt pricing information.

© 2008 ThinkBalm. All rights reserved.