Lecture 8

Collaboration

Collaborative Virtual Reality

• MUDs and MOOs -http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MUD and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MOO
• Internet based - second life http://secondlife.com/ and the older active worlds - http://www.activeworlds.com/
• NPSNET 
• Diamond Park
• Local Work

  Caterpillar - video on moving screens showing the position of the various collaborators
  

  Virtual Temporal Bone - full body avatars would get in the way here so only different coloured pointers are used
  

  CALVIN - simple articulated avatars

  NICE - more articulated avatars
  
  

  TIDE - pointers with static photographs attached

  

  Round Earth -

• Avatars - articulated vs video - detail/bandwidth needed for each?
  
• Audio and Video

  Audio as the most important channel

  Video as a window, video as the avatar, video for just the avatar face

You can also scan people in and have 3D realistic, but not mobile, 'statue' avatars

Some more avatar bodies:

- one that may show where you are from

- another to make you look a bit more 'professional' - note the 'nametag' on the avatar to help identify who this is and where he/she is looking

• high bandwidth
• low latency
• low jitter

• N = 1
• N = 2
• N >= 3

Our experiment at Supercomputing 97

Heterogeneous Perspectives

Paper at IPT 2000

Asynchronous Work

While collaborative VR across continents is rather easy to do technologically, somebody has to stay late or come in early to collaborate synchronously with people on the other side of the planet. Sometimes asynchronous collaboration is better.

Virtual Harlem / V-Mail

Coming Next Time

Inexpensive VR setups