The Alphaville Herald

Mad SL Science Experiments

by Pixeleen Mistral on 31/01/07 at 8:26 pm

Flickr-ing light and streaming video

by Fiend Ludwig

Answering an invitation to preview their newest creations, I recently met up with Hallie the Chatbot developers Anthony Reisman and Navillus Batra, founders of Metaverse Technologies, at their newly acquired location for ‘mad scientist experiments,’ as Reisman puts it. Upon arrival I am greeted by a giant display streaming individual Flickr photos to each of the six screens that make up the panel. Batra explains, “This is splitting the single video feed into six at the same time. Right now this is in the Flickr mode, showing the latest public pictures uploaded into Flickr. You can also put your own Flickr username into the notecard, and it will browser those specifically.’

six screens of Flickr

“It is a bit heavy on the sim, but it will also show six videos at once – let me turn on the video example. This has three videos, two pics, and a text file showing all at the same time. Everything is linked to URL outside SL; none of what you see is saved in SL. Each little screen is clickable, and will expand to the full screen, and we provide scripts to make your own copies of each screen.”

Video, image, and text streamed to screen

After hopping over a little wooden guardrail, Reisman introduces the next invention, “So for places that want less lag, but only need to show a single stream to a user at one time, we have this little deal. If you walk in front of a screen, it will play a video for you; but it will only be for you.” They elaborate, “This setup lets you have many different screens with a single video feed. The video will change as you move to each different screen. Each screen has a different movie, and you walking in front of one screen does not affect someone else’s view. So if you have a big mall and want to keep the lag down, but want different video in different stores, this works well. And it is focused to only activate when someone walks in front of it, and can have different videos for multiple products depending on which one the person walks over to.”

Avatar-targeted video screen

Avatar interaction also features in the newest of their devices which is still under development (and safely under wraps in their top secret lab located elsewhere). “I’m going to give you an item that you’ll need to attach,” says Reisman, “Once it’s attached, go into mouselook, and point and click on that screen over there.” Doing as instructed, I notice a pointer move around to match the movements of my mouselook cross-hair. Reisman explains, “Basically [it is] one prim, and can detect exactly where you are ‘clicking.’ This will turn into a developer product to make ‘clickable regions’ on single prim objects. Not too flashy, but we think is important.”

Important indeed. And refreshing. With all the recent froth land-bots and bot-caves, it gratifying to witness the SL platform used with thoughtful ingenuity instead of avaricious self-aggrandizement. And just in case you think these guys take themselves too seriously – go have a chat with Sparky.