ARCHITECTURAL PERSPECTIVES


IEEE Internet Computing, January/February 2008, pp. 88–92

A face integrated with a digital world

3D Social Virtual Worlds: Research Issues and Challenges

by Adel Hendaoui, Moez Limayem, and Craig W. Thompson

The advent and success of 3D social virtual worlds (SVWs) reveal challenges worth exploring for both researchers and managers. In his famous science-fiction novel Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson envisioned the Internet evolving into what he called a "metaverse," a 3D virtual reality (VR)-based space in which people interacted and communicated with each other through their avatars (graphical representations of themselves).

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POPULATING VIRTUAL WORLDS

The boundaries between the real and virtual worlds are breaking down, not only in the entertainment arena, but in business, politics, education, and beyond. Read more

More articles:

3D Social Virtual Worlds: Research Issues and Challenges
Three-dimensional social virtual worlds such as Second Life reveal challenges worth exploring for both researchers and managers.

Brain-Computer Interfaces, Virtual Reality, and Videogames
Major challenges must be tackled for brain-computer interfaces to mature into an established communications medium for VR applications.

Procedural Urban Modeling in Practice
Film and game studios are turning to procedural modeling to model cities. Learn about the CityEngine tool and the use of procedural urban modeling in Electronic Arts' Need for Speed games.

Modeling Crowd and Trained Leader Behavior during Building Evacuation
Crowd simulation can shed light on the behavior of individuals being evacuated from a building who might not know the structure's connectivity or who find routes blocked.

Brain Springs: Fast Physics for Large Crowds in WALL•E
WALL•E required believable physics for human and robot crowds, which Pixar technical directors created by combining a custom spring-physics system with traditional simulation methods.

Modeling Groups of Plausible Virtual Pedestrians
This proposed methodology for modeling dynamic crowd scenarios uses perceptual studies to improve the crowd's visual plausibility.

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