Microsoft is doing it well by bringing the new breaking-through virtual reality technology to the market. Is this a reason for the open community to exult the software giant or to curse the ever dangerous dominance of the company?
The virtual universe we all together are going to create piece
by piece will potentially be not less interesting to explore than
this real one we are currently find ourselves in. Cosmos is OK, but
seems to be boring compared to what a human being can imagine. Our
imagination realised in virtual reality will bring us farther than
our physical boundaries would allow us to in the real world. The
concious mind is able to go beyond any physical boundaries of the
system containing it, thanks to great mathematician Gödel who
proved this less than century ago.
What does this piece of philosophy have to do with technology?
Let's see.
In the current set up our minds are tightly bound to our bodies.
Even in order to be able to explore these few virtual spaces
available now we have to send the representation of our body (not
mind) in there and have to control this representation called
avatar with our real limbs belonging to our real body.
A couple of weeks ago I wrote about what would comprise Real
Augmentation of our lives. One of the initial statements
was:
"In order to break through and really augment our lives, the
3D virtual worlds technology should ... permit the convergence of
our physical bodies in virtual spaces."
The following question was put there: Instead of moving around a
doll-like avatar in virtual space with a keyboard and mouse, would
it not be better to get in there with your own body, under total
control of your mind, without all these unnecessary
intermediaries?
See it as a wish. And yes, some wishes have potential to come
out.
Few days ago I talked to professor Mark Overmars at the
University of Utrecht here in The Netherlands. They do by the way
some interesting research on virtual environments there in
Utrecht Mark pinpointed me to the latest announcement of
Microsoft - Project Natal. I do not belong to Microsoft fans and
normally do not follow their announcements. But this one seemed to
be very interesting.
MS even hired unforgettable Steven Spielberg for that as a
visionary director and producer. Project Natal was unveiled
for the first time to the public at the Electronic Entertainment
Expo. There they called it "introducing controller-free gaming
& entertainment". "The next step in interactive entertainment
is to make the controller disappear," as Steven Spielberg has said
there.
But this is not what triggered me in this loud fanfares.
Rather interesting was the fact #5 from the Xbox 360 fact
sheet:
"In addition to "Project Natal" tracking your full body
movement in 3-D, it also recognises your face and facial
expressions."
Here it is - controlling your representation in virtual reality
directly with you real body and your real face.
But that's not all yet. Fact #9:
"The depth sensor is an infrared projector combined with a
monochrome CMOS sensor that lets "Project Natal" see the room in
3-D (as opposed to inferring the room from a 2-D image) under any
lighting conditions."
This means you do not have to even build you private virtual
space from the scratch - Natal is just doing this for you by
exploring the physical boundaries of the room with an RGB camera
and a depth sensor.
I couldn't find it anywhere but will not be surprised if Project
Natal would be able to even interconnect separate private virtual
spaces.
Chapeau!
That's not just about games any more. Such technology is the
next step towards your inhabitance of the virtual space. Mind! Not
your avatar, you have drawn on the screen, will represent you in
the virtual reality, but you yourself will step in there.
I don't know whether they at MS realise what kind of immense
potential this technology does have not only for entertainment, but
also for business, research and development, personal
communication, social life, psychology, etc., etc. Probably they
do, but do not publicize this until they are ready to conquer the
field.
The project is not yet ready, though in my opinion they would
not heavily broadcast all these nice features if they have not
implemented them at least in pre-beta.
For the full fact sheet of Project Natal in the form of bold
advertisement look here .
While directing towards a conclusion I would draw your attention
at one more fact #11:
"Proprietary software at the heart of "Project Natal" is
what makes the magic possible."
Behind this bravado hides a real danger. This danger might be
more dangerous than the nowadays dominance of MS on the operating
systems and office markets. Because virtual reality will have much
greater impact on our lives than all computer technologies until
now together. If only MS or any other monopoly will solely possess
such technology this will be a disaster for our society:
- no real security and privacy in virtual world,
- ever growing digital divide between 'haves' and 'haves
not',
- dependency on almighty central power (dictatorship),
- money flowing in one direction,
- etc.
The conclusion is that we better start concentrating our efforts
on making similar technology open. Maybe by copying some principles
and ideas. No shame. OpenSim started with imitating some aspects of
the Second Life. So what? Now it is going further and has much
greater potential. It would be a real shame if we let the monopoly
to rule our lives in virtual reality. Lets go on and do
better!