"Avatar Machine is a system which replicates the aesthetics and visuals of third person gaming, allowing the user to view themselves as a virtual character in real space via a head mounted interface." In other words, it's a camera that let's you see yourself from a third-person isometric perspective, just like in a video game. Trippy. (via brand flakes for breakfast). Related: Creating Out-of-Body Experiences
For a fee of about $20, Metropix will let you transform your flat 2d floor-plans into 3d walk-throughs with a click of a button and export it into Google Earth.
Georgio Armani and Herman Miller (Aeron chairs) are now in Second Life. Herman Miller is trying to fight virtual knock-offs.
CNN writes about how Second Life and similar worlds are great for testing ideas quickly and cheaply: "Aside from these cycles of hype and anti-hype, the original goal of uninhibited mass experimentation proceeds apace."
A review of Ben & Jerry's island in Second Life, particularly interesting because it is one of the several new branded gateways through which SL newbies are channeled and trained.
Bruce Sterling's 2o04 speech at SIGGRAPH about spimes: "The most important thing to know about Spimes is that they are precisely located in space and time. They have histories. They are recorded, tracked, inventoried, and always associated with a story." That sounds a lot like products in Second Life.
From pet rocks to Tamagotchis to on-screen pets: AdAge looks at toys that boost kids' abilities in virtual worlds, like this hi-tech Barbie that "unlocks tons of new features on BarbieGirls.com, including special fashions, furniture, accessories, pets, and access to Club Beauty!"
CNet: "Virtual-worlds platform developer Multiverse Network is set to announce a partnership that will allow anyone to create a new online interactive 3D environment with just about any model from Google's online repository of 3D models, its 3D Warehouse, as well as terrain from Google Earth." Another company with such partnership is Scene Caster.
A Mashable list of 27 best avatar-making applications.
Bonus track: cracked.com looks into the next 25 years of video gaming. Year 2018: "About five minutes after the eye-projection technology hits the market, advertisers will find a way to superimpose ads over every damned surface you look at. It will detect your eyes staring at some girl’s boobs, and suddenly across her cleavage you’ll see the URL for www.soyouliketolookattitties.com."
Year 2023: Advertisers will "be able to target their ads when they know your exact emotional state. The day after your girlfriend dumps you, the porn ads will blanket the landscape."
