Metaverse, Wii-Style: Mitch Kapor Explains More About Handsfree 3D

This tech demo of Handsfree 3D, narrated by Linden Lab board member/computing pioneer Mitch Kapor and engineer Philippe Bossut has been titillating the blogosphere since it went up late last week, and that's no surprise: it casually introduces a revolution in virtual world interactivity, potentially as profound as the Wii's motion controller has been to gaming.  The computer-mounted 3D camera from 3DV Systems detects body geometry and motion; the Handsfree software uses that data to generate intuitively causal avatar behavior (lean forward to walk, lift hands to fly, and so on.)

Duly impressed, I asked Mitch for more background.  As fun as this looks, I wondered, wouldn't all this full body pantomime get exhausting after 15 minutes?

"We're redoing the demos to show how you'd use the camera while seated," Kapor tells me by e-mail.  "The gestures and movements will be different, but we don't see a fundamental problem.  We haven't done the work yet, so we're not sure of the details, but stay tuned there's much more coming."

And even more crucial question: when do average consumers get to play with this themselves?

"It's all a function of when the cameras are available, which is up to 3DV, not us," he says. "Not sure what their plans are for coming to market."  So stay, as they say, tuned.

Bossut has still more background on the Handsfree blog.

Comments

[Diana Hooper]

This really sounds awesome! Perhaps this could be linked to the version wired to the brain.

It could perhaps solve the problem of the controlled movements. The goal was to trigger random animations based on the person, on mood perhaps. This could apply here. However, it might be troublesome when you'd want to use the common actions.

[Virtual Spitzer]

I can't wait for SL brothels to start using that technology.