I caught a post last night on Brands in Games (Link) that made me smile. Apparently some modders have embedded the original DOOM videogame into the more recent Doom3 game using some embedded interactive surfaces stuff (don’t ask me, I’ve only looked at the pretty pictures… for now).

Of course games inside games isn’t new. The guy apparently most responsible for this effort, Bernd Kreimeier, admits this. Tringo was actually coded “inside” the Second Life virtual world, so it’s actually gone beyond this already. But this latest effort reminded me of a previous thread of mine on the Core77 forum suggesting designers should be using videogames for real world interactive design problem-solving (reLink).

Imagine creating a virtual office and in it a virtual computer. On that computer is some software like the open source vCrib application I mentioned earlier (reLink). Good so far. Okay, so while inside that virtual space using the virtual computer to run the embedded vCrib app, the real world is affected by the subvirtual application. Sounds like a way for a designer to put him/herself into the role of a typical office worker running vCrib to manage devices at home (because, of course, the designer sees the real world effects).

Maybe the idea will catch on as people doing these sorts of things get more exposure and attention. One thing for sure: seeing these images makes me want to go back to modeling high-rez objects.

{Image Copyright © 2005 Bernd Kreimeier}

I caught this over the weekend: New Scientist reports (Link) on Lockheed Martin’s “Skunk Works” group developing a rapid-prototyped parts unmanned aircraft. Needless to say this couldn’t be more at the center of what I blog here – UCAV’s are a big component in some defense department transreality work (see one of my earlier posts on this: reLink).

From the article:

The Skunk Works thinks a technique called 3D rapid prototyping, or “3D printing”, is the best way to lower costs.
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The technique is widely used in industry to make prototype parts – to see if, for instance, they are the right shape and thickness for the job in hand. Now the strength of parts printed this way has improved so much that they can be used as working components.

About 90 per cent of Polecat is made of composite materials with much of that material made by rapid prototyping.
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The Polecat is also a test bed for autonomous guidance technology, which allows it to do everything from take-off to reconnaissance and landing without the remote guidance of a ground pilot.

Interesting (and maybe scary) stuff.

Here’s an interesting bit from the WorldCAD blog (Link). It appears that thoughts are turning toward creating a bridge between Google spreadsheets and SketchUp. For the few of you who caught some comments of mine over on Clickable Culture explaining PLM (Link) some time ago, this should turn on some lightbulbs. This is worth keeping an eye on. I imagine Google would like nothing more than to be at the core of a new entry into the PLM market.

Here’s something I found yesterday after discovering I had to have an account to get code for posting YouTube videos here. After registering I decided to do a quick search on “virtual” and found a demo for vCrib (Link), a virtual interface for real homes. It’s an open source project and seems like something that could find itself integrated into Second Life or Croquet or maybe even Hive7.

There’s an older video on YouTube, but there’s a newer one on PutFile (Link).

{Image Copyright (c) 2006 Archonian Aspirations}

Yesterday I happened across a post by Heather Green over on BusinessWeek‘s Blogspotting site, “On Updike and the Future of Books” (Link), and having read most of the Kelly article to which she refers, caught wind of Updike’s comments, and given the same topic plenty of thought on my own (most recently due to my interaction with the ISHUSH blog – I gave an interview(!) for it prior to the Kelly New York Time‘s article which included some of the same observations… digital books make good kirkyans), I couldn’t help but leave a rather long comment. If you’ve read this blog even occasionally over the past year, you won’t be surprised by what I wrote on the BW blog. The thing is, Ms. Green’s concerns have been my concerns for years.
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