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.
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