Hands Free 3D: Second Life Navigation Demo

http://www.handsfree3d.com

We've done some experiments over here at Kapor Enterprises using 3D cameras to control virtual worlds like Second Life.

Mitch Kapor and Philippe Bossut designed a prototypical interface that demonstrates the possibilities for operating Second Life "hands free" without a mouse or keyboard. To make this work, they modified the open source Second Life client to support the camera as an input device.

This new prototype was made possible through the use of a 3D Camera designed by 3DV Systems. The camera is very similar to a webcam, but also captures the depth of all the objects in its view. Our prototype is still very experimental: we haven't made the code or executable available and the cameras aren't available yet anyway.

For the moment, our objective is to explore the possibilities for these new types of devices. We believe that these cameras will eventually make interacting with Virtual Worlds as comfortable as using a webcam. This will ultimately broaden the appeal of Virtual Worlds by allowing new ways of online expression. It may also attract people who find the current gaming interface too hard to handle.

Produced by KEI Creative:

Eric Wong
Sean Aquino
Trevor Parham

Music track,'Identity of Self' by

hisboyelroy

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• secondlife
• SL
• linden
• lab
• mitch
• kapor
• segway
• zcam
• 3D
• camera
• 3Dv
• VR
• virtual
• reality
• worlds
• immersive
• games
• metaverse

[tempranight]

Second Life would be more succesful if the graphics where more realistic... That kind of visual appearance looks like a 1995 3D Game...

[LauraaRichT]

eurhgg. this means i have to stand up, ill stick to using a keyboard

[igor34180]

KINNECT XBOX SLIM -s

[Prutssupercat]

i wonder how you have sex in SL with this ...O.O

[tarek12mig]

YAY NOW YOU CAN KICK SOME BODY FACE OR HIS BALLZ OR ASS THAT COOL RIGHT?

[VNicksta1]

How u buy this

[chaosmaster07]

@LitterboxDiorama Exactly. Not something you can do mmkay?

[richwhite]

@CoNiGMa ---- egggggactly ;) ... LOL

[TheCleardeath]

@LitterboxDiorama lol wiggle around the motion rofl

[mavenGamer]

maybe if the company invested in better servers second life would be more successful?

[shukfahid]

how is this different from using the wii mote to navigate SL? its optical yes. but with a wiimote you can be closer to your monitor. also you can map out the wiimote to your likings.

[kitsune0video]

@tempranight If you have a really good computer you can enable global illumination, shadows, depth of field, ambient oclusion plus the new meshes that are coming :D