As we could hear in Reuter's interview (thanks to Hiro Pendragon), Mitch Kapor is working on a prototype of 3D camera. Idea is to make a camera that will add an infrared generated layer of data, so for each pixel it also streams the distance from the camera. Then, with a bit of software, system can trace what your human body is doing and your avatar can follow your body language, imitate your face expressions, look where your human looks and generally be much better connected to you.
I won't doubt that we'll have all the kinds of reactions when this come (and it is expected in the first quarter of 2009). There will be privacy concerns, change-of-the-world-as-we-know-it concerns, role-playing and grid performance concerns… all the stuff we already heard so many times. If you need inspiration, just roll back to the discussions about voice.
And this is going to be a greater revolution than the voice was. This one is going to introduce our instinct reactions on the grid. So far, if you wanted to smile, you had to type about it, to use signal made of column and a bracket or to click on the HUD. Well, none of those is much of a genuine smiling reaction. For that matter, avatar and human are so desperately disconnected. We can fake that we are smiling or we can hide that we do. But worst of all, when we smile and want to show that, there is a whole process of transmitting the information. And that process happens so far away from spontaneity.
All this makes me thinking about that think line between better communication achieved by better connection of humans and their avatars on one side and "played" behaviour and protecting layer that makes this world what it is. Both are ways to better express ourselves and to communicate more efficiently. It seems that with each change of the way we live the second life we are tempted to find new way between use and abuse. Each can make us happier but also crash all that we achieved so far. One set of skills is replaced by the new one.
If nothing else, it will be interesting to watch how we deal with this turn. Sure, with presumption that residents will like the idea and use the 3D cameras. As we have seen with voice, not every idea is accepted with a sincere smile.
Initially it seems I’m pretty excited by this! I’m quite happy about anything that will help my marionette self along in life, and although facial expressions are pretty human, it beats having to botch typing “/me” all the time. Then again, I don’t want another round of crashes trying to implement something I may decide never to use again (a right which still extends to Voice, people..). Still, Linden Lab are human. They’ll have learned from last year’s hiccups.
Nope, they never learn from the last turn, it seems :)
Btut I like this too much to think about all the crashes that will come. I’ll leave that for later :)
Well, actually (it’s a personal crazyness, I know) some avis do “shine” to me… I can feel their “expression” trought the monitor and enjoy them…
That’s why I love to get in touch with people… To establish a connection… To “see” trough them…
As an example my dear (and longtimer ;)) friend… I love the picture you posted on this blog entry…
But it’s not you.
Believe me, you look absolutely much more stunning when you smile with your heart :)
P.S.
I agree with Vidal about the crashes…
*blows a kiss to Eidur.
Yes, I agree we could all benefit from new set of facial animations.
My excitement about this is not so much about the look as much as about spontaneity.
my excitement about this is about the lag it will stream all over the grid… :P
LOL
Providing that there is some clever coding… it shouldn’t lag all over the grid. Just the resident who is using it. The rest should get just anims. Hmmmm… though, there will be a hell lot of custom anims in permanent use :)
What a coincidence, as when I was reading this (and didn’t have time to comment immediately) I was actually very frustrated about the lack of appropriate expressions, particularly when it comes to more complicated emotions. And indeed, it’s the spontaneity that often is the bottleneck :(
Besides that,I fully agree with Eidur about the “see through people” and smiling from your heart. I actually never use the facial animations, except for a joke or a picture.
While this is something that I would really like to have, as I often feel the urge to make my avie move or react in a way that is not possible at the moment, I do see another downside to this, besides the expected lag and other technical problems … did you ever think of all the permanently masturbating avies we will see all over the grid then? ;-D
*makes the mental picture then cracks up laughing* You mean interconnected worldwide bukkake?
*makes note to register her next dominion as “I W B.com”…
A 3D camera for avatars would be nice to have for creating references for face expressions for artwork. I usually use http://www.faceturn.com to reference face expressions for art, but if I could get my own camera to do it, then that would be sweet.
That is a really nice tool on faceturn, thanks for sharing.
Yes, I guess that 3D cameras will actually have more use in off-line production than in real-time communication.