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



Begin forwarded message:

From: Maris <maris.fogels@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: December 18, 2006 11:12:09 PM JST
To: dave@xxxxxxxxxx
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 <dewayne@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: December 13, 2006 9:01:27 AM JST
To: Dewayne-Net Technology List <dewayne-net@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [Dewayne-Net] IBM to give birth to 'Second Life' business group 
Reply-To: dewayne@xxxxxxxxxxxxx

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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