Thai Phan and the University of Southern California’s Institute for Creative Technologies have created software which allows a user to play Second Life using Kinect. It recognizes your gestures in a natural way and allows a deeper level of engrossment with the second life world and better control over their avatar.Check out the video…

At the MxR Lab at the University of Southern California Institute for Creative Technologies we are developing methods of recognizing social gestures in order to explore the transference of emotion and gesture between a virtual world and the real world. Thai Phan an engineer at the MxR Lab, using the OpenNI toolkit as a foundation has developed new software which utilizes Kinect to read gestures and triggers corresponding server-side scripts within Second Life. These methods may allow the user to feel a deeper emotional connection to the social gesture performed by their virtual avatar, regardless of the bond which already exists between the user and his recipient. Instead of having to think about pressing the right sequence of keys to make a ‘wave’ gesture, the user can simply raise their hand and wave.

NEW ORLEANS—Jones Walker is one of the first and few law firms to make a foray into the virtual world. In the summer of 2009, the firm developed a presence in the virtual world of Second Life, leasing space in the ViO office park. ViO offers space to business enterprises in Second Life and provides its tenants the full range of support businesses would expect from any commercial office space in real life.

Jones Walker had several objectives in entering the virtual world. The firm’s Chief Marketing Officer, Carol Todd Thomas, said that she had explored the space to identify new opportunities. “Second Life, as well as other social media, was clearly emerging as a force that would drive marketing, recruiting, training for the law firm, and service delivery to our clients.

“We created office space where we could conduct meetings, make presentations, provide training, and explore the applications of Second Life to the law firm environment. It has exceeded our expectations, and we have gotten tremendous support from the ViO office complex,” she said.

“We are excited to have a prestigious law firm like Jones Walker as a member of our innovative business community,” stated Tony Coolidge, President of ViO. “In an industry not known for its early adopters, they have set themselves apart by believing in the viability of the virtual world, and as a result, they will be a leading legal resource to the business community that resides there.”

The firm is exploring offering continuing legal education (CLE) programs to attorneys and clients through Second Life, as well as making presentations and hosting seminars in the space. Jones Walker is considering offering its new associates the opportunity to create a “virtual law firm of the future” to present to the firm’s partners at an upcoming firm retreat.

“There is no end to the opportunities that could be explored in this space,” said Ms. Thomas. We just need to be willing to rethink the usual assumptions, and look at ways to use the tools offered in Second Life to reach new markets, new clients, and reduce the costs of being physically present in the real world.”

The Viewer 2 Beta is finally here, and with it comes a whole host of amazing improvements and new features. There’s so much to be excited about that it’s impossible (and unnecessary!) to pick a favorite. But — if I really had to pick — I’d choose Shared Media, since I’m the Product Manager for Shared Media. So, let me tell you about it.

Shared Media Brings the Web Into Second Life

Second Life Shared Media, a new Viewer 2 capability, makes sharing standard Web-based media in Second Life easy and seamless. It enables content creators to make more compelling, interactive experiences. Basically, Shared Media brings the Internet inworld.

For the more technically inclined, what this means is that you can now put media textures on any prim in Second Life. More specifically, the viewer uses WebKit to create a fully interactive, dynamic texture from a Web URL. This even includes support for Web-browser plug-ins, like the Adobe Flash Player. And, you can place dozens of them on the same region. (We still don’t know what the upper limits are. I’m sure that you’ll let us know.)

A World of New Experiences and Businesses Possible

By seamlessly integrating the Web into Second Life, Shared Media unleashes a new wave of creativity and new business opportunities. Imagine the richness of a SL store with interactive signs and displays. Think about Flash-based games, theaters, and innovative Web-based services appearing inworld. Display your Twitter feed on the front of your house! (Okay, don’t.) Build a HUD to read your email inworld. Interact with walls that encourage graffiti or use your signature to sign guest books. Educators and their students can now interact in even more immersive classrooms. For the enterprise community, online collaboration tools (such as Google Docs, EtherPad, Webex, and Acrobat Web Connect) combine with the power of Second Life to make working inworld much easier and more powerful.

You’re in Control of Shared Media

Viewer 2 introduces a new UI for controlling Shared Media. Shared Media authors have the option to offer a 2D menu bar (similar to a browser-like URL bar) that will appear in front of a Shared Media object when any Resident mouses over it. Also, a new Nearby Media control will enable Residents to more easily control what media is allowed to play.

Web Skills Will Drive New Inworld Building Techniques

There are also new Second Life build features for Shared Media: assigning URLs to objects and faces, controlling auto-play, auto-scale, size settings, etc. With Shared Media, SL building now extends well beyond SL into the vast and varied skill set of Web development. Suddenly, skills like PHP, SQL, ActionScript, Apache and FMS can be used to create compelling inworld content. Flash and Flash Media Server (FMS) become particularly useful tools for creating animated, interactive Shared Media that can be kept in sync. Flash media server hosting services, such as Influxis, offer low-cost hosting.

Synchronicity is Content- and Context-Specific

Behind the scenes, Shared Media is different. Second Life always stays synchronized for all Residents. That is, the simulation takes place on our servers, and each person’s viewer renders their perspective on that simulation — everyone is looking at the same thing. Shared Media, on the other hand, can look different to different people — sometimes. Everyone’s instance of the Shared Media is always presenting the same URL. However, not everything will stay in perfect sync unless the content is specially designed to do that. For example, a simple Web browsing session will keep the pages synchronized, but not the position of the scroll bars. We may both be looking at the same Web page on the same inworld object, but I might be looking at the top portion, while you might be viewing what’s below the fold.

Consider a URL that doesn’t always serve the exact same page, perhaps a Web page that displays a random background color each time it loads. If an inworld object’s surface displayed that page, I might see a green background while you might see a blue one. Even more striking: if an inworld object’s surface was pointed at a site with user login like Gmail, you and I could both log into it, and we’d be looking at our own inboxes, not at each other’s.

What’s really cool is that sites that are specifically designed for synchronous collaboration, like EtherPad, for instance, will stay in perfect sync. So if it’s the intention, it is possible to design content that uses a back-end server to stay perfectly synchronized in all cases.

In short, synchronicity is content- and context-specific, making possible a world of new applications and interactions.

A Frank Lloyd Wright Museum has been in operation in Second Life for six months [SLURL]. Now, though, it’s officially working in partnership with the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation under the new name of the Frank Lloyd Wright Virtual Museum, incorporating in the U.S., and seeking official non-profit status.
Four months ago the Foundation approached the Museum and expressed a desire to work together. While other real-world organizations have approached virtual counterparts and sought to compete or simply shut them down through legal proceedings, the Foundation has taken a tack of cooperation in order to build out the virtual presence of Wright with passionate people already doing the work.

Read it all from the great Virtual Worlds Blog HERE.

Hola! Ciao! Boas Tardes!

With roughly 60% of Residents based outside of the United States, localizing the Second Life experience is an important area of focus for us, so we’re pleased to share two pieces of good news on that front.

On Wednesday, we launched SecondLife.com in three additional languages: Portuguese, Spanish, and Italian. We now have websites localized in English, German, French, Japanese, Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese, and are looking forward to continuing to grow this list.

Additionally, as you may have seen, we’ve recently signed an agreement with Gisland (actually, you may have seen it called Dragonfish or 888 – 888 Holdings is the public limited company, Dragonfish is the brand name of 888’s B2B Division, and Gisland is the operating company). This is a company with a great deal of experience in providing secure payment processing, andthis relationship will enable us to begin accepting payments from Residents outside the US in a broader range of currencies than we currently do.

Read the whole post HERE

Tomb of the Unknown in Second Life

“It is important to note that the US military does not just go to war … we also provide support for others in the form of protection & aid when it is asked for or needed, such as humanitarian aid following tsunamis, earthquakes, hurricanes, and yes… war…” These words were spoken this morning by Dahlea Milena, a Cherokee Native American and 22 year veteran of the United States Armed forces who served in Persian Gulf during Desert Shield and Desert Storm, but who also served in United Nations humanitarian work. She is currently 100% disabled.

We were on Second Life’s Patriot Island, the location of the U.S. Military Veterans Center, owned by the US Military Veteran group, which emphasizes that it is not a role play group. Membership, currently about 900, is restricted to veterans and current active members of United States armed forces, and their families. “Mostly we provide a social center for US Military Veterans, family & supporters,” Dahlea said, “We also offer links to resources for Veterans information & benefits.” She also mentioned a very important way in which Second Life can serve veterans who are incapacitated, saying that for “any disabled person who may be homebound due to their circumstances … SL offers both a social networking opportunity, and the chance to do things that a disabled person can no longer do in RL.”

The Tomb of the Unknown, shown in this picture, stands at the center of Patriot Island, with a 24 hour honor guard and surrounded by the U.S. flag and flags of the various services.

Visit this site to read the rest by clicking HERE.

GfK Romania has conducted a research project on tourism web site Virtual Bucharest, using the Second Life social networking platform.

Second Life research participantsThe firm set up first focus group to explore the opinions, attitudes, motivations, expectations and lifestyle of Second Life users on the platform.

Virtual Bucharest is a three-dimensional replica of the city in the virtual world, which has already generated interest from international firms, keen to develop marketing programmes on the site – including conferences, live concerts, product launches and live competitions.

The first Second Life focus group is part of a qualitative research project to investigate the lifestyle of young people aged between 15 and 22. For the project, GfK Romania used a mix of qualitative methodologies including standard focus groups, discussions on online forums, and the virtual focus group among Second Life users, where the moderator and the respondents met in Virtual Bucharest’s conference space.

Participants were selected through a process which assessed details about their historical interaction in a group setting, and opinion leaders were chosen on this basis.

‘It is obvious that the younger generation and the opinion leaders adopt new technology very easily,’ stated Oana Mirila, Director of Qualitative Research. ‘Therefore, any company that wants to know what trend setters think, must find them where they spend time – in these social environments.’

GfK Romania, which was founded in 1992, is online at www.gfk-ro.com .

Special Thanks to Dr. Lisa Hannold, PhD, Dr. Margaret Steinman, Dr. Margaret Nosek, and Gigi Gernard of ACRM for the opportunity to show off what we could do. It was truly an honor to be of assistance to such a spectacular group of professionals. We are Looking forward to our next endeavor soon!

Highlights of the new secondlife.com from Torley on Vimeo.