Tag Archives: #transreality

“things” able to not only occupy different types of perceived space but are able to transition into a native of any particular space

How Real Is Real?

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Wired is carrying an interesting article on a service that uses Photoshop to composite photos to create an illusion of freedom and happiness for prisoners and their loved ones; in effect, to create a kind of virtual reality from elements of reality. Check this comparison shot out:

prisonvirtuality

Now remember this post from shortly after I joined the Second Life virtual community? Back then I said “who’s to say what’s valid and what isn’t?” Look at the image below of two SL residents meeting virtually in cyberspace and explain to me how it’s arguably any less real than the composite above:

SL reality

I’d say there are a few people who have never been in an online virtual world who might prefer to have a say in what’s valid and wouldn’t put up an argument. This reminds me of the scene from “Blade Runner” where Roy asks Leon: “Did you get your precious photos?”

{Top image source: Friends Beyond the Wall ; Bottom image Copyright © 2005 Erelas Night}

RW/VW Convergence Maps

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SL3D compared to Google3D

I see Jerry P (aka SNOOPYbrown Zamboni) has an entry up on the SL Future Salon (about bloody time, dude). He’s relaying news of Second Life resident Cadroe Murphy’s latest virtual world-to-real world endeavors.

In a nutshell (and I hope I get this correct – hopefully Cadroe will comment if I don’t), Cadroe has programmed a satellite to “fly” over the virtual landscape of Second Life and, meter by meter, collect height data (B&W images are often used to represent geographic data of this sort; peaks are white and valleys are black). This data is probably collected in an onboard code array (aka satellite’s hard drive), and then emailed out to him in real life when the satellite is finished with a sim (a segment of the landmass; there is one real life server at Linden Lab for every “sim” in SL). With each sim’s height data, he can combine them to reflect the sim layout in SL and then create a full 3D representation of the virtual world in a 3D app – such as 3DStudio Max or Maya or Terragen. And now he’s released his SpinMass Grid Chart application for people to play with and use for their own purposes – including I guess doing something like creating a GoogleMap hack. Neat.

What I’d like to see next from Cadroe is some 3D spatial carving. Data collection might not be all that bad, but the algorithm for combining it all might be tough (“carving” was used in the film “Minority Report” to create the consumer hologram f/x). But he’d have an advantage over Google: while they’re sending out trucks with lasers, he can make a ground-level satellite to record data horizontally at different angles. I’d say he has the advantage. Anyway, cool stuff all around.

{Image Copyright © 2005 Accelerating.org}

The Ideas That Get Out

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A few days ago there was news (over on New Scientist no less) about a coaster that has embedded electronics that sense when a glass is empty and wirelessly notifies the barkeep. This struck me since I had that idea about 4 or 5 years ago and am surprised it’s now something new and innovative. Maybe it is. But there are practical reasons I discarded the idea – ranging from the obviousness of the idea (to me at least) to some of the patents I’d seen on the USPTO.gov site (yes I did some research). I have plenty of these kinds of things floating around in my head or doodled on scraps of paper I keep in a pile. Some of them extensions of this idea not discussed in any of the articles I’ve read, but which I’ve no doubt someone will now stumble upon.

What quite frankly bugs me is that someone could take an idea I had years ago and now claim a patent as if the idea first came to them before anyone else considered it. Yeah, I know, there’s a zillion people out there saying the same thing and I’m not alone. But there’s a difference now. I can broadcast that idea on the net so that some corporation can’t just come along and monopolize the idea. Just think if someone had broadbanded Amazon’s “One-click” patent, or Microsoft’s “Skin As Conducting Medium” patent.

So in the spirit of letting some ideas out, I just posted an idea on the Core77 forum. It has to do with the Nike/NBA2K6 videogame I mentioned earlier and updating content (which I discussed over on another blog). I’ll just quote the idea I posted directly:

This shouldn’t be hard to implement. A range of basic shoe models could be built into the game from day one and assigned a generic name. Each model has an associated UV map. When Nike or some other company has a new shoe design, they associate that with one of the generic models and generate a new UV map (or “skin”). This then gets streamed to the game. But in addition, that skin carries a “tag” – a code fragment. So say that when the real shoes are announced for sale in the real world, the virtual shoe code could be released so gamers can use that virtual model ingame.

For example:

Generic polygon model Code Main Fragment: 344566543
New shoe design skin: adfa433

Code to unlock the content: 344566543-adfa433

Next year’s shoe design using the same basic platform comes along and you get a new code frag: akea597

New product code to unlock updated content: 344566543-akea597

Of course someone probably has this one patented already, but regardless, it feels good to just say it. I’ve done this once before; the RadTag security device. Perhaps I’ll do this more often.

Nike iD, Fab-On-Demand, and Videogames

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Nike in NBA2K6

Well most everyone should have seen something like this coming as Nike is no stranger to either consumer-customizable product or videogame marketing. And now they’re doing what we can soon expect others to do: forming significant first links between the virtual and the real.

According to a recent press release, Nike is integrating it’s Nike iD program with the new basketball game, NBA 2K6, from Take 2 Interactive. From the Take 2/Nike press release:

Among the most compelling elements of the partnership is the integration of the Nike iD shoe customization feature within the game functionality. In 24/7, NBA 2K6’s Streetball Mode, players dribble across North America and compete in various streetball tournaments. As players advance through the mode, a new pair of Nike Basketball shoes is awarded to the user. Each shoe earned is then added to the player’s Nike Shoe Locker. The shoes are classified based on Nike’s Flight, Force and Uptempo categories and give the user enhanced performance when worn in the game. The player must choose the best performance characteristics, such as greater speed, to defeat the opponent. Once shoes are collected in the locker, gamers can use the exclusive 24/7 Nike iD customization feature to personalize their shoes. This feature mirrors the real-world customization capabilities accessible at the Nike iD web site.

Unfortunately, as noted in the quote, the current Nike iD-NBA 2K6 integration doesn’t allow for the game shoes to be automatically sent out for fabrication; it only “mirrors” the Nike iD customization site. That functionality might, however, be in the offering next year according to a story over on ClickZ news. From their report:

That may change next year, however, according to Nike spokesperson Trisha Burns. She told ClickZ News that next year’s edition may allow gamers to order personalized shoes using the game’s interface.

The article on ClickZ goes on to say,

Development on the product integration aspect of 2K6 has taken about six months, but the two partners worked out a way to get shoe models into the game as they become available on the market. Codes will be distributed throughout the basketball season, which will unlock new Nike shoes and products. The code and assets will exist in the game’s software at launch, but only become available at the appropriate time.

I’ll be looking forward to further news on this. I’m obviously interested in how they got the shoe models into the game. I’m going to take a guess that Nike made the models in Maya since I’m aware that it’s a not uncommon app for shoe design (edit: or Alias and then pulled the native .wire files over to Maya) . It also happens to be an excellent 3D program for game models. Furthermore (and this is the kicker), it has a built-in translation from NURBs to polygons – something that would facilitate the transfer of the designs. With any luck I’ll be able to confirm this beyond now noticing that 2KSports is hiring Maya modelers and Maya tool programmers. Now as to specifically how models are being updated on the client side is another question, and I suspect that will also be an interesting bit to learn.

Most people might not be aware that the Nike iD program is actually relatively long in tooth. If I’m not mistaken, it was originally launched in 2000 or so, but to little general fanfare. It was also more tentative – the site was nice (as one would expect from Nike) but not amazing; it wasn’t compelling. But to Nike’s credit, they understood the potential and had a much more impressive re-launch (of sorts) of the whole concept, which has been received with much greater fanfare than the original.

Within product design, there are plenty of examples of companies introducing products and services ahead of their time. Unfortunately, too often those failures cause companies to pull back permanently; “Once-bitten, Twice-shy” as the saying goes. I can think of a couple companies like that (one was bitten when they attempted to use a now common injection-molding process called Gas Assist; they subsequently avoided it and fell behind the competition). One has gone under and another is on the verge of bankruptcy. Perhaps someone needs to stencil that other saying on some foreheads: “Grow or Die”. This isn’t the time to be unreasonably tentative. Kudos to Nike.

{Image source: 2KSports}

{via Clickable Culture}

Much Ado About Ads

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Well, a portion of the Second Life virtual community is up in arms over an article over on the GameDaily website. The article is about the move of real life advertising into games and virtual worlds. Here are some excerpts from it, including bits of an interview with Linden Lab Marketing VP, David Fleck:

“There is a place for anybody to participate,” said Fleck, “including big corporations.”

Currently, Second Life has a program developed by Wells Fargo called Stagecoach Island, which features Wells Fargo ATM machines that give out “Linden Dollars” that can be used to buy products in “Second Life.”

Fleck said he is currently in discussions with other brands about advertising in Second Life and is hopeful that additional deals could be reached by year’s end. He mentioned he would even be open to the idea of using avatars as advertisements.

Of course this has some people screaming bloody murder. Apparently everything changes when the virtual Nike stuff residents covet for their avatars goes from being the product of illegal trademark violations to legitimate content blessed by the brand owner.