Augmented Reality is one of the bigger upcoming technical topics - while not limited to 3D, why not think about possible implementation in 3D web platforms ?
We've all been hard at work building
a platform for augmented reality. And not because we can
"repurpose" virtual world technology for use as an augmented
reality platform; no, we have been building an augmented reality
platform because augmented reality is a subset of virtual
worlds.
Think about it… if we have the
ability to simulate, in 3D, any space imaginable, along with
objects representing things and/or data… then we have the
ability to simulate reality, and augment it with 3D objects.
And we have the ability to do it better. What
technology is better at allowing people to move and interact with
each other while in a simulated 3D space? Take away the
ground and sky and substitute a live video stream, client-side;
patch in navigation by checking location and orientation via gps;
and you have augmented reality. Augmented reality which
allows a person to be where they are, or to take a virtual point of
view and fly up and over everything around them.
MXP is the ultimate protocol for
augmented reality. By creating a protocol which can model any
space while conserving server resources and bandwidth, the virtual
world community has unwittingly created the perfect protocol for
augmented reality.
Exciting news on the CICP front: the
Second Life source code is now hosted at http://code.google.com/p/cicp/, and a new
version is being worked on by Jeko Snook. People are also
working on an OpenSimulator version. The integration with
Forterra's OLIVE platform is almost done; here's a video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSeIbhXQolI
Note that things look almost exactly
like they do in Second Life or Wonderland .4. CICP is going
to enable the exact same applications to be deployed on both Second
Life and OLIVE!
CICP is useful for augmented reality
as well, since it allows external applications to inject
interactive representations of data or other things into a virtual
space dynamically.
Again, with some creative hacks to
virtual world clients, virtual worlds can produce the best AR apps
ever seen!
Arkowitz
Pics:
3D Object in live video
GPS based data presentation in live
video