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Three-dimensional (3-D) spaces are proliferating on the Internet, and a variety of signs are indicating that they will eventually play a primary role in the way users access information using computers and digital devices of all kinds. Yale University computer scientist David Gelernter believes that 3-D spaces, even when on a two-dimensional (2-D) computer display, provide a richer, more intuitive way for users to find their way around the increasing amounts and complexity of data that are engulfing the Internet and the Web. "The current Web might be capable of presenting all the real-time spatial data expected to flow into the Metaverse...but it wouldn't be pretty. And it would keep us locked into a painfully mixed and inaccurate metaphor for our information environment—with 'pages' that we 'mark up' and collect into 'sites' that we 'go to' by means of a 'locator.' But I know my physical surroundings. I have a general feel for the world. [A 3-D environment] is what humans are built for, and this is the way they will want to deal with their computers." ("Second Earth" in Technology Review, 1 July 2007, page 39.) |
Current developments that are either driving or enabling implementation of the 3-D Internet include:
- The increasing popularity of 3-D virtual worlds of various types, including social, gaming, and immersive
- The proliferation and popularity of mashups that overlay data-access mechanisms on top of 2-D maps
- The availability of mirror worlds such as Google Earth, Microsoft's Virtual Earth, and NASA's open-source World Wind
- Emerging affordable 3-D user-interface devices such as Nintendo's Wii Remote and Novint's Falcon controller
- Emerging software tools to allow users to construct their own 3-D worlds on the Web
- The increasing availability of high-bandwidth computer connections
- The existence of 3-D software standards such as X3D
- The emergence of increasingly sophisticated computer-simulation capabilities
- The availability of graphics cards capable of rendering 3-D scenes quickly and efficiently as standard equipment on office and home computers.
3-D spaces will require new navigation devices as well. Users will be able to access the 3-D Internet and its associated information spaces either through the window of a computer display or a cell-phone display using the displays as peepholes into the information landscape or through more immersive technologies that involve 3-D positioning devices and pointers, 3-D controllers similar to Nintendo's Wii, 3-D haptic interfaces, balance boards, body suits, and a host of other not-yet-invented devices.
Navigating 3-D spaces using the keyboard and computer mouse can be unwieldy if not downright difficult. The mouse is a 2-D interface device that navigates the 2-D space of a computer display by mapping out a 2-D space on the user's desktop on which the mouse travels. Truly efficient navigation of 3-D spaces will require interface devices that map the user's hand or eye movements and his or her spatial sense directly into a representation of a simulated 3-D space on the computer screen.
The world has considerable ground to cover before we see the capabilities of a system that science-fiction writers anticipated years ago. But we now have most of the tools necessary to build a 3-D information metaverse, and we know that the vision is practical. The tools just need integration and implementation in a way that people find useful, intuitive, and fun. Wade Roush's prediction that the "World Wide Web will soon be absorbed into the World Wide Sim: an immersive, 3-D visual environment that combines elements of social virtual worlds such as Second Life and mapping applications such as Google Earth" becomes more believable every day.
Table of Contents
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| Multiple Worlds | 2 | ||
| Mirror Worlds | 2 | ||
| Mashups | 3 | ||
| Virtual Worlds | 4 | ||
| Components | 5 | ||
| Interface Devices | 5 | ||
| Interface Software | 8 | ||
| Standards | 9 | ||
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