Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Synthetic Environments 3/30

In today's class we got a basic background of virtual reality as well as a ted speech from the founder of Second Life. The most interesting thing to me about the history of the technology is how far it dates back to. The Worlds fair in New York was the first to show these immense projection technologies but it was the US military that seemed to be driving it to the next level. I never realized how much of a roll the military has in pushing these technologies with things like flight simulators and anti-aircraft gun training.

The second life presentation was also very interesting. He talked about what could be considered the human condition to always want a place where they can do and create anything. The dream of so many to start over on a different planet is in a way granted by Second Life's enormous ability to support user based content. It is not as inclusive as the holo-deck in Star Trek but at least it is a start.

No comments:

Post a Comment