Since the release of his massive hit ‘Avatar’, director James Cameron has gotten plenty of deserved attention for his filmmaking innovations, having invented a camera system that captured live footage of his actors and integrated it immediately into fleshed-out scenes from his fictional world of Pandora. But movies may not be the only medium Cameron's innovation is pushing toward the future. In fact, the technology he and his visual effects partners built for the record breaking film may also provide our first real glimpse of the future of 3D virtual worlds. Today's virtual worlds have attracted millions of users, significant venture capital and sometimes impressive revenues. But some experts think it's a no-brainer that augmented reality tools like Cameron used to turn ‘Avatar’ into history's highest-grossing film could soon be the core of what millions of people experience in 3D virtual worlds that until now, we've only been able to dream about. Today, the term ‘virtual world’ means a lot of things to a lot of people. To many, it means 2D online social games like Gaia Online or Club Penguin. To some, it means large-scale massively-multiplayer online games like World of Warcraft. And to others, its open-ended 3D experiences like Second Life.
After Second Life took the world by storm in 2005 and 2006, introducing many to a 3D environment in which they could create nearly anything they wanted, there hasn't been a major next step forward. One could argue that virtual worlds have even taken a technological step backward, as most of the energy in the space these days is being put into building 2D Flash worlds for kids, or Facebook games played by the masses. It's big business, but hardly cutting edge. What Cameron created for ‘Avatar’ is the first peek at a tremendous leap of innovation, one in which huge audiences could be using virtual worlds that feature vast arrays of content and data coming in from sources like Disney and Google, or individual users themselves, and devices like Cameron's ‘Avatar’ camera, iPhones or car windshields with augmented reality overlays. An iPhone app that you point at the sky, which shows you all kinds of information about the stars and constellations you're looking at. That is the beginning of ubiquitous augmented reality and virtual worlds. For others, however, their demands might be more immersive: a virtual palace, a climbing gym or even a virtual representation of someone's farm, complete with avatars to welcome visitors.
More information:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13772_3-10443265-52.html
More information:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13772_3-10443265-52.html