Alot of features have been added since the last demo I saw over christmas 2010. To test it I logged into Second Life (Instructions in ‘read more’ section) and managed to have instant messaging chats with friends. A number of interface icons dont seem to work, like friending nearby avs and muting, so keep in mind its a beta. Though its missing alot of the goodies we take for granted in an average Second Life or Open Simulator viewer, it has all the ingredients needed to become a great service for casual interaction with the online world.

I visited two sims, that are both pretty busy. One being a hub, the other sim with a dance venue with quite alot of avatars. Prims and basic colors rez pretty quickly, but dont count on avatar shapes, meshes or detailed clothing for the appearance in the webviewer. The experience of walking around is pretty good, even at these otherwise heavy locations. I found myself stuck in the water at some point, flying up got me out of that.

Besides offering the viewer they have also tagged on a service to setup a large area of sims in one go if you have your own open simulator server running. I have not tested it, though it seems like an application that should be a part of a management suite for a grid.

For the future I hope the interface gets a good upgrade, on the webpage and in the viewer window. As the viewer is rooted in Unity, it would be a nice step to see this service become available as a iPad app for couch surfing the metaverse.

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Instructions on how to use:

The Read Me file for BuiltBuy.Me is here

To connect to Second Life or a open simulator server, you need to go through the following steps. You will need to know the ‘Login URI’ for the grid or server you want to connect to. Most Open Simulator grids have it published on their FAQ’s, the login URI for Second Life is https://login.agni.lindenlab.com/cgi-bin/login.cgi

1. Generate a login URL  with the URL Generator
2. Visit the url, and click the ‘Generate Exception’ button before you do anything else
   (A new window will open producing an  error, or asking you to continue with a potentially unsafe action. This happens to trick Second Life into letting the viewer log in)
3. Log in with your existing Second Life account

What is supported in this current version of BuiltBuy.Me:

What is not supported

Tested browser:

PC: Chrome, IE and Firefox
MAC: Safari and Firefox: We have noticed some MAC’s have issues running Unity3d. If you have a MAC that is not able to load Unity3d at all please email us at macbrowser@builtbuy.me with your MAC details (Apple menu > About this MAC and tell us OS version) and we can get a handle on the version of MACs that are having issues.

After starting my world and logging in to my sim at Kitely, (which was very very easy), I ended up in the basic openVCE offering as a collaboration environment. The next movie is from 2009, but it explains pretty precisely what you can get out of open VCE. (The setup in Kitely looks like this too in the layout of the buildings).

Tho openVCE seems like an interesting offering and Kitely offers openVCE’s basic buildings, I am still missing the components in Kitely that make a collaboration environment interesting. At the landingpoint I have the choice out of 8 boxes ranging from textures to housing, but I would be better off in this situation with a powerpoint presenter and inworld note making tools. Also the absense of voice is paining, as collaboration and brainstorming runs alot smoother when spoken instead of typed on a keyboard.

I hope Kitely gets round soon to supplying users of any premade environments with the right content and tools to actually use it succesfully. If handled properly, they have a good case, expanding the premade options with other systems like RiversRunsRed’s collaborative environment or moodle for e-learning.

With 70% of iPad2 buyers being new to the iPad, and sales going through the roof, we are going to see an increasing shift from deskchair to sofa for our daily online content consumption. The iPad encrouches heavily on television time as it is now possible to be online, but not unsociably stuck up in the office room of the house. Pocket Metaverse has been around for a year or so and is downloadable from the iTunes store. It has a free and a premium version, the premium version ($4,99) allows you to connect to any open simulator grid, including your own.

we have had mobile apps before for virtual worlds, but being able to take and share a mobile virtual world into the social area of the real world home will continue blurring the lines between the on- and offline communities more.

Research among the general population of the netherlands has revealed that one in 25 of them will at some point in their life suffer an anxiety disorder. panic attacks are a typical marker for these disorders.  People suffering with this infliction will avoid being in places that invoke a panic attack, in some extreme cases leading an isolated life indoors.

The researcher conducting the trials want to determine whether a controlled, gradual increase of exposure to the panic inducing places within a computer generated visual environment can be benificial to these people. A busy market place could be simulated for instance, combined with the use of immersive 3D glasses.

Current treatment consists of therapeutic coaching, sometimes in combined with medication, to eventually lead to the moment when a client has to confront the feared situation. It turns out that this last step is one bridge to far according to these scientists.

They claim exposure through virtual reality has a number of advantages. First off there is a controlled environment in which exposure to the anxiety can slowly be increased. It also has a higher level of privacy. They believe a higher number of people will be willing to get into a treatment program.

(red:
I assume the privacy reference is for the fact that VR exposure therapy means
it doesnt matter if you 'freeze up' on a virtual market place, as you are in a walled room in real life and no one can see you.)

The department of clinical psychology at the University of Amsterdam has already been offering treatments for airplane-fear and fear of height along the same principles. Although research into the application of virtual reality for the treatment of street fear is still in its infancy, the first results are promising, say the researchers.

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Source :  telegraaf.nl translation : mjw

Read more for the original dutch article

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AMSTERDAM -  Psychologen van de Universiteit van Amsterdam (UvA) zoeken mensen met straatvrees die willen meewerken aan onderzoek naar een nieuwe behandelmethode met behulp van virtual reality. Dat maakte de UvA donderdag bekend.

Uit bevolkingsonderzoek blijkt dat één op de 25 Nederlanders ooit last krijgt van een paniekstoornis. Zo’n stoornis kenmerkt zich door paniekaanvallen. Mensen die daar last van hebben, mijden vaak plaatsen waarvan zij denken dat die zo’n aanval kunnen oproepen. In extreme gevallen durven zij helemaal de straat niet meer op.

De onderzoekers willen weten of die mensen er baat bij hebben om in een gecontroleerde, door de computer gegenereerde omgeving geleidelijk met hun angst te worden geconfronteerd. Zo kan met behulp van een driedimensionale bril bijvoorbeeld een drukke markt of winkel worden nagebootst.

Nu krijgen mensen met straatvrees meestal therapie, soms in combinatie met met medicijnen, waarbij zij zich aan het einde daadwerkelijk moeten blootstellen aan de door hen gevreesde situatie. Dat blijkt voor veel patiënten evenwel een te grote stap, aldus de wetenschappers.

Blootstelling via virtual reality heeft volgens de onderzoekers een aantal voordelen. Zo is er sprake van een gecontroleerde situatie waarin de mate van bedreiging langzaam kan worden opgevoerd. Ook is de privacy beter gewaarborgd. Daardoor zullen mensen zich sneller laten behandelen, denken zij.

De afdeling klinische psychologie van de UvA biedt al een aantal jaren volgens hetzelfde principe behandelingen aan tegen hoogtevrees en vliegangst. Het onderzoek naar toepassing van de behandelmethode bij straatvrees staat nog in de kinderschoenen, maar de eerste resultaten zijn volgens de wetenschappers zeer hoopgevend.

]]> http://www.tothport.nl/university-of-amsterdam-trials-treating-anxiety-of-outdoors/feed/ 0 http://www.tothport.nl/virtual-campus-helps-financially-disadvantaged-students/ http://www.tothport.nl/virtual-campus-helps-financially-disadvantaged-students/#comments Sun, 13 Jun 2010 11:46:07 +0000 admin http://www.tothport.nl/?p=389

Pepsi is handing out $1.300.000 dollars each month to fund great ideas.  HBCU is one of the organisations trying to land funds so they can set up a virtual campus with which to inform minority group students with financial difficulties how to still finish a degree with support from the HBCU funds.

Full article here