(I focused on the subject how can 3D Internet was realised and utilised for users on the web to create private virtual space for digital entertainment last time. To response the question, I explained two important things in terms of hardware and software to attain 3D Internet, which linked to VRML or JAVA 3D as computer programming language of software power and CPU as hardware device in computer.)
At this point, it must be mentioned the following questions how
users could recognise their identities in virtual space and realize
virtual daily lives. Yes, we need our own avatars (as well as
cyberspace) having virtual sprit and identities.
What is the meaning of avatar and where does it come from?
Its original meaning is “the descension of God in the material
realm” as the Sanskrit
word_a term rooted in Hinduism (1). In the digital era, however,
it changed as the meaning of “the visual representation of self or ego
of users”, which comes from one of the most famous sci-fic novel, Snow Crash (1992) by Neal
Stephenson (ibid).
In his novel, what is most important things are to present avatar and
metaverse as a virtual reality space where users’ life would move into
cyberspace to accomplish 3D Internet.
What is an important role of 3D avatars for web users currently?
Internet-based virtual environments and 3D humanoid avatars on the web offer users human friendly communities and communication system such as Second Life (2). Nonetheless, the big problem when users employ their own avatars is that they should have responsibilities. This is because users might require and expect not only believable behaviours but also realistic behaviours like human life to block committing cyber crimes (3).
What is the next technology for users utilizing 3D avatar?
2D avatar is not attractive any more on the web. The new generation need novel avatars resembling humans in real world even if they usually dream fantasy. To create humanoid avatars for the next generation, it requires 3D avatar animation technology in real time which represents the user for verbal interaction with others using facial expressions and gestures of users like real humans’ face-to-face communication as the real-world facial actions (4). It could be transferred onto a representative avatar, while the 3D avatars and virtual space perceives these actions and corresponds through peer-to-peer multimedia communications as a 3D simulation working (2).
Nevertheless, real-time control of 3D avatar animation technologies using a common consumer PC platform over the World Wide Web face problems in terms of huge motion database (5) and morphing 3D models that animate in response to the user’s voice (6). This is because 3D avatar animation and control is very difficult to represent a large and heavy repertoire of avatar facial expression as well as behaviours of users in real time promptly and accurately to synchronize the movement of users (5). Unfortunately, to avoid it, users must select a low-dimensional input device as accepting unnatural reactions of avatar on the web (ibid).
In the near future, it could be that 3D avatar animation technology in real time and Internet bandwidth acceleration will be the first step to attain shared networked Virtual World Application (7). Personally, it seems to be a strong demand of the digital age.
Bibliography
(1) Scola, N. (2006) Avatar Politics: The Social Applications of Second Life, National Journal’s The Hotline on Call.
(2) Fu, Y., Li , R., Huang, T. S., and Danielsen, M. (2007) Real-time Humanoid Avatar for Multimodal Human-Machine Interaction, Multimedia Research Lab (MRL), University of Illinois, USA.
(3) Imbert, R, Antonio, D, A. and Segovia, J. (2001) Improving Communication in 3D Virtual Environments by Means of Task Delegation in Agents, Facultad de Informática, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid Campus de Montegancedo, Spain.
(4) Orvalho, V, Costa. And Susin, A. (2007) Creating the Virtual Self: Re-Using Facial Animation in Different Avatars, Laboratorio de Simulaci´o Din`amica, University of Polit`ecnica de Catalunya.
(5) Lee, J. and Reitsma, P, S, A. (2002) Interactive Control of Avatars Animated with Human Motion Data, Media Lab in University of Carnegie Mellon and Brown.
(6) DiPaola, S and Collins, D.(2003) A Social Metaphor-based 3D Virtual Environment, ACM SIGGRAPH 2003 Educators Program Paper.
(7) Yen, S. (1999) Internet Based Multi-Participant Virtual Community, Computer & Communications Research Labs, Industrial Technology Research Institute, Taipei, Taiwan.
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