Internet goes into the third dimension

Original author: technologyreview.com
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Big players are looking for a standard for three-dimensional Internet.

Today, virtual worlds are closed reservations, whose three-dimensional landscapes are separated from each other in much the same way as the AOL, Compuserve and others companies that shared the two-dimensional Internet in the 1990s. Now a group of more than 20 companies, including IBM, Linden Lab, Multiverse and Forterra Systems, have raised the question of how it is possible to combine modern virtual worlds to establish a single set of standards in order to create a three-dimensional Internet. Although, so far, there is no unanimous opinion on what form this 3-D Internet should take, the main goal is to provide users with the ability to move as easily between virtual worlds as they are now moving from site to site .

“We believe that this will be the next logical step in the development of the Internet,” said Michael Rowe, head of IBM's corporate three-dimensional network (intraverse). He believes that the current situation with the demarcation of virtual worlds inhibits the development of the Internet, because it does not allow to organize a single market for virtual goods and services. For example, according to him, if someone wants to open a three-dimensional online store, he must create it separately for each of several virtual worlds, moreover, using completely different technologies. At the same time, a single standard of three-dimensional Internet could allow the store owner to give users a link where they could go to his store from anywhere, in which of the other virtual worlds they were, in the same way

To organize a full-fledged virtual Internet, according to Rowe, developers must find ways to handle three-dimensional objects - including avatars that people use for self-presentation - in several virtual worlds. For example, he said, someone who made a car in the virtual world Virtual Pimp My Ride , which belongs to MTV, might want to take it with them to Second Life , owned by Linden Lab. In order for this car to look the same in both worlds, its program code must be adequately perceived by both systems. By approving common standards for the three-dimensional Internet, Row believes, developers will have the opportunity to solve such problems and erase the boundaries that separate individual worlds.

However, the problem is much wider than pokatushki on virtual machines and shopping in a three-dimensional department store. The scientist and pioneer of the virtual worlds from the Center for Entrepreneurship and Technology at the University of California at Berkeley, Jaron Leinir, believes that it is especially important for humanity to develop search technologies on the three-dimensional Internet. “The human mind is designed to work in a three-dimensional environment and our computational abilities already allow us to organize a full-fledged three-dimensional interface that can work at the level of the human brain,” says Jaron. He believes that people should find a way to combine the three-dimensional physical perception of the world with the capabilities of the Internet.

In addition, some steps in this direction have already been taken. Forterra Systems' CEO, John Wet, proposed a standard called the "page landscape format" developed by his company and which, according to Weth, could provide virtual worlds with common ground, literally. If the standard is adopted, it will allow developers to create such landscapes that will be equally correctly perceived on any system. The page-based landscape format allows developers to use high-resolution graphics, which is not available with existing landscape standards that were developed by the military. Forterra is going to give everyone free access to the specifications of its format.

Other companies, including Multiverse and Linden Lab, have developed platforms on the basis of which independent developers can create their virtual worlds more easily than if they had to do everything from scratch, which created entire networks of virtual worlds that can be combined with the other, because they are built on the basis of the same technology. These networks of virtual worlds are a smaller version of what a three-dimensional Internet can be. It remains only to develop such standards that would combine networks based on different technologies.

The head of Multiverse, Corey Bridges, said that his company has developed a special program code that is placed in a specific place in the system, so that users can transfer their avatar from one system to another using Multiverse technology. Bridges said that the main problem was to develop a system so flexible that to ensure a connection of different worlds, developers were not forced to create the same worlds.

Linden Lab's chief executive, Corey Ondrejka, said the first step toward unifying virtual worlds is to find a suitable candidate for a single standard. He is going to turn to systems such as OpenID, which allow you to store personal information and transfer it between different worlds at your own discretion.

Leinir, who claims to have extensive connections among people related to virtual worlds, believes that although he personally would like the idea of ​​a three-dimensional Internet to be successfully implemented, he is not quite sure that the adoption of a single standard will positively affect developers . “Certain people seek to exploit the emergence of standards for personal commercial purposes,” Leynir notes, pointing out that the history of IBM and Microsoft shows real-life examples of how standardization can benefit specific players. However, Leynir believes that the standard of the three-dimensional Internet is unlikely to be developed in the same way as the HTML standard was developed, namely, in the form of an abstract definition that was accepted by the people. He believes it’s more likely that the standard will be some particular of the most successful systems,

Translation from English: Roman Ravve

Specially for worldwebstudio

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