CyberCarpet opens way to Pompeii

A stroll around the ancient city of Pompeii will be made possible this week thanks to an omni-directional treadmill developed by European researchers.

The treadmill is a "motion platform" which gives the impression of "natural walking" in any direction.

The platform, called CyberCarpet, is made up of several belts which form an endless plane along two axes.

Scientists have combined the platform with a tracking system and virtual reality software recreating Pompeii.

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Mycosm® Your own 3D world, free.

Create your own unique world and share it with friends online. Play games, share media, chat, make money, all in breathtaking 3D graphics.

http://mycosm.com/

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Save The Planet With IBM's PowerUp Game

IBM has launched a free, 3-D online game that challenges teens to help save the planet "Helios" from sandstorms, floods, and "SmogGobs" before natural resources are depleted.

Can teenagers fend off ecological disaster and save the planet?

In the virtual world of PowerUp, they can.

IBM has launched a free, 3-D online game that challenges teens to help save the planet "Helios" from sandstorms, floods, and "SmogGobs" before natural resources are depleted.

The virtual science game lets multiple players create avatars that race electric-powered buggies across the desert in search of heliostats and junkyard parts to engineer and rebuild wind turbines and solar panels. Players also are challenged to harness water power and make decisions about energy consumption on a planet that faces ecological ruin. They meet in an orientation center to chat with each other, as well as with nonplaying engineers who provide their experience and act as guides.

Accompanying lessons provide fodder for discussion of energy and other topics. An interactive module allows young people to learn about 3-D technologies and how to build virtual worlds.

Two hundred young people, between the ages of 12 and 16, helped create PowerUp, providing input and advice to IBM creators. The TryScience team from the New York Hall of Science worked with the Tech Museum in San Jose, Calif., and the Bakken Museum in Minneapolis on the activities and game content.

The game was launched Friday, as part of IBM's TryScience initiative, at the beginning of Engineers' Week 2008 in the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C. The TryScience initiative and Engineer's Week encourage students to consider engineering and science careers.

"Innovation is the key to competitiveness in today's globally integrated economy, but just when we need it to skyrocket, interest in math and science has been declining in the United States," Stanley Litow, VP of corporate citizenship and corporate affairs and president of the IBM International Foundation, said in a statement. "American competitiveness demands more interest in math and science by students. Virtual worlds and 3-D are an unexplored resource in education. We asked our best researchers to incorporate the use of this technology into traditional educational curriculum."

IBM pointed out that U.S. jobs in science, technology, engineering, and math are forecast to grow 22% through 2014, and computer specialist occupations are expected to grow 30%. At the same time, reports show that American grade school students lag behind other developed countries in science and math.

From "Information Week": here




Nadya JAHAN
SUCCUBUS interactive
nadya.jahan@succubus.fr
www.succubus.fr

Robert Bloomfield and Metanomics hosted Robert Gehorsam, President of Forterra Systems Inc.

http://metanomics.net/01-feb-2008/robert-gehorsam-visits-metanomics

http://www.slcn.tv/metanomics-robert-gehorsam

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Nasa investigates virtual space

The US space agency is exploring the possibility of developing a massively multiplayer online (MMO) game.

The virtual world would be aimed at students and would "simulate real Nasa engineering and science missions".

The agency has published a "request for information" (RFI) from organisations interested in developing the platform.

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A Second Life for Higher Ed

When Prof. Jeremy Kemp entered the classroom to find a student transformed into a giant bowl of Jell-O, he didn't bat an eye. "I remember one class when a student arrived in a gorgeous monarch butterfly costume complete with gently fluttering wings and bulging eyes," says Kemp, assistant director of the virtual campus of San Jose State University's School of Library and Information Science.

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Web Playgrounds of the Very Young

Trying to duplicate the success of blockbuster Web sites like Club Penguin and Webkinz, children’s entertainment companies are greatly accelerating efforts to build virtual worlds for children. Media conglomerates in particular think these sites — part online role-playing game and part social scene — can deliver quick growth, help keep movie franchises alive and instill brand loyalty in a generation of new customers.

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University of Leicester launching virtual worlds research project

The latest academic institution to get the virtual worlds bug is the University of Leicester in the UK, which is launching an experimental research island within Second Life, investigating how learning and teaching within virtual worlds works.

/university-of-leicester-launching-virtual-worlds-research-project/

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Appalachian State University and Clemson University are partnering in research, development, and implementation studies related to 3-D virtual worlds

“The experience of Appalachian faculty in using virtual worlds as part of a learning environment and the research resources of Clemson make this partnership a natural,” said Dick Riedl, a professor in Appalachian’s Reich College of Education.

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The 3Di-Web Singularity

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http://wadatripp.wordpress.com/2007/12/10/the-3di-web-singularity-is-near/

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serious games in virtual worlds

PRIME is a European project that seeks to make action learning cheaper, more accessible, more flexible and powerful. PRIME researchers are developing a software platform that uses serious game techniques to let users see the impact of their decisions in a virtual environment.

“The aim is for the user to gain experience by experimenting in a risk-free environment,” explains Bjorn Andersen, project coordinator of PRIME.

The platform consists of two elements, a Virtual Business Environment (VBE) and PRIME-Time, a workplace integration module. The VBE is a serious game that consists of a “micro world” where a number of users can interact with the software and between themselves. The platform is an approximation of reality based on a simulation model that controls the macro-economic and micro-economic dimensions of the micro world.

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Virtual worlds are being put to serious real-world uses

IT IS a typical example of the colonisation of a new frontier. A few intrepid explorers stake out some new, unexplored territory. Before long the first settlers move in and start to look for ways to make a quick buck. Their success attracts more settlers, and an unruly bonanza ensues; finally the policemen, lawyers and tax collectors show up. But the territory in question is not a new continent: it is the realm of cyberspace, where two developments suggest that virtual worlds are coming of age. The first is the emergence of commercial uses for virtual environments; the second is the advent of litigation and regulation.

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Top 10 Reasons why Marketers hate Second Life

http://www.jaffejuice.com/2007/11/top-10-reasons-.html

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SecondSlice: Virtual world marketing

http://www.secondslice.net/issues/secondslice1.pdf

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Avatars Help Asperger Syndrome Patients Learn to Play the Game of Life

At the UT Dallas Center for BrainHealth, Adolescents and Young Adults with Autism Practice Their Social Skills in Virtual Worlds

A technology associated with fantasy worlds is helping young adults with autism in the hard reality of life.

Researchers at the University of Texas at Dallas Center for BrainHealth are working with patients diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome using virtual reality training. People with the disorder have normal intelligence, but they suffer from a variety of social cognitive defects, including an inability to read nonverbal clues and adapt well to change.

These young adults -- considered to have a form of autism -- face many obstacles in life. Interviewing for a job or asking somebody for a date can be monumentally difficult.

To help them succeed, researchers from the center have created a virtual world for them to practice their social skills. Each person creates an avatar/character in his or her likeness, who then navigates through a virtual world, interacting with real people represented by their own avatars.

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Reviews of Virtual Worlds Forum Europe 2007

http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/gadgets_and_gaming/virtual_worlds/article2736817.ece

http://skynews.typepad.com/technologyblog/2007/10/the-future-of-v.html

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Can Twinity Foster Creativity and Economy in Virtual Cities?

http://metaversed.com/30-oct-2007/can-twinity-foster-creativity-and-economy-virtual-cities

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The Serious Games Awakening Conference (SGA) - Live in Second Life This Friday

The Northern Ireland Business and Innovation Centre (NORIBIC) in conjunction with Serious Games developers throughout Ireland , have come together to organize a conference to announce the Awakening of the Serious Games Industry within Ireland; The Serious Games Awakening Conference (SGA). To mark the event, Serious Games Industry veterans will provide a series of talks sharing their expertise in all areas of the Serious Games industry from both business and technical perspectives.

http://www.noribic.com/sga/

In Second Life Here:
http://slurl.com/secondlife/University%20Ulster%20Magee/248/164/38

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Eolus One is developing the first major business application using OpenSim

http://www.ugotrade.com/2007/10/22/eolus-goes-open-sim/

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Executives invited to chip in to meetings

BUSY executives rushing around from one meeting to the next are being offered a virtual alternative, thanks to 3D technology.

The new development in computer graphics allows someone to visit a meeting with colleagues or clients by simply logging on to their laptop or office computer.

Speaking into a microphone, the "attendee" is recreated in virtual form as an "avatar" and their movements can be manipulated through the keyboard.

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