What is a virtual World?

Literally it is an artificial environment

The Future of Virtual Worlds created within cyberspace.

It is like nothing that you will see in the real

world. The laws of physics and economics
Dr. Paul D. Tinari Ph.D., P.Eng.
do not have to be obeyed in this world.
Director
Pacific Institute for Advanced Study
pacific@imag.net Within this world, options are unlimited
www.pacificinstitute.com

Photo credit: SecondLife

What is the history of Virtual Worlds?

1977 – First multi-user dungeon (MUD)

1984 – Neuromancer published by W.

Gibson, introducing the term:
“cyberspace.”

1985 – Lucas Film releases “Habitat” for the

Commodore 64

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1992 – Book “Snow Crash” published by N. 1997 – Active Worlds, a 3D VW allowing
Stephenson introducing the term users to communicate with each other is
“Metaverse.” released

1995 - Contract Consortium experiments 1999 – Movie “The Matrix” released,

with new apps of VWs beyond gaming introducing concept of VWs to the public
such as education.
2002 – The Sims Online is launched
1997 – “Avatars, Exploration & Building
Virtual Worlds on the Internet” published 2003 – Second Life (SL) and There.com
by B. Damer. launched

2004 – Massively multiplayer online game 2007 – J. Edwards establishes a compaign

(MMOG) “Final Fantasy XI” reaches a half headquarters in a VW – the location is
million players attached and defaced by cyber protesters.

2005 – Linden Labs launch LindeX, a currency for Disney buys “Club Penguin for $700
SL. EverQuest, the first massively multiplayer million
online role-playing game (MMORPG)
established 2008 – Google launches “Lively.” IBM
works with SL to develop VW
2006 – IBM establishes a corporate property for interoperability and with Linden Labs to
meetings & research and Anshe Chung has a deploy “enterprise ready” VWs.
VW new worth > 1 million.

What is an Avatar? What are Fortune 500 companies doing?

It is a person’s digital representation in the VW.
It can be anything – a person, robot, superhero, Many of them have bought VW property and
Greek God, cartoon character or an animal. have launched cyber versions of themselves in
SL. Many charities and clubs also have a
presence
Once you have an avatar, buy property and have
some experience, can you make money?
What is “Griefing?”
Yes, money is made by creating and selling
This is the term for cyber-vandalism. Chung
virtual goods and services, but in general, it was griefed during an interview and in May
takes as much “work” to make money in a VW 2007, the ABC Island was “cyber bombed” and
as in the real one. completely destroyed

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What is happening at the leading edge now?
By seeing and experiencing the
SL is changing how companies design products
& interact with their customers, professors train consequences of actions and interactions,
medical students, how people explore ideas, perhaps new behaviours and decisions
interact and have fun. can be encouraged as part of wider
training and rehabilitation.
Now VWs will soon allow people to 'see their
future selves', help them to understand the
impact of their actions, personal choices and VWs are serving to improve corporate
behaviours. internal processes. IBM and Diageo are
fundamentally looking at them as an
Example: By watching people burn calories on a extension of the office for collaboration
treadmill, people are encouraged to exercise; by
seeing themselves as elderly encouraged to and new ways of working.
save.

IBM simulates project management and

customer interaction in VWs

Rehearsal services in VWs provide the benefits

of face-to-face rehearsals and role-playing, while
saving time and travel costs because VWs are
flexible in ways that reality isn't.

You can experiment with a lot of alternatives and

designs, and as you start developing these
rehearsal services, you can start reusing the
components from one service to another

Multiverse: is different from most virtual worlds

platforms in that it's just building software, which
it is licensing out to other people to build their
own worlds.

The first worlds built using Multiverse technology

will be available to the public in the third quarter
of this year, but until then Multiverse has built its
own Virtual Times Square and fantasy kingdom
as demo worlds.

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Multiverse Business Model: Anyone can use the What are the problems?
software and build public worlds for free, without
paying so long as the developer lets users into SL is sometimes unstable, difficult to use,
their world for free. and users need to be running powerful PC
with a fast Internet connection.
If the developer charges for access to the world,
Multiverse will take a 10% cut of the revenue.
Many companies, including American
The server available for free to many developers Apparel, Starwood Hotels and Pontiac,
in order to build an ecosystem – to encourage have left the service. United Business
end users to download and install its client -- by Media, shut down its CMP Metaverse
making many worlds available that can be
accessed through the software business.

Military Applications
The Infantry Immersion Trainer (IIT) provides a
vivid and realistic virtual environment to prepare
warfighters for a range of possible scenarios.

Marines utilizing the trainer emerge with a

heightened ability to recognize threats and make
split-second decisions in dynamic scenarios
before deploying to face real combat.

IIT demonstrates the feasibility of affordable

technologies to enhance joint warfighting
capabilities during complex, stressful combat
conditions.

IIT focuses on saving the lives of Marines and What is the future of VWs?
warfighters by use of scenarios are repeatable
and scalable allowing participants to develop
and improve necessary skill sets.
It will soon be difficult to distinguish VWs
from RWs. SL already has luxurious
The sights, sounds, and smells of combat are
reproduced in detail, abbreviating the time it hotels on tropical islands…skydiving and
takes to develop proficiency. skateboarding …virtual campus including
teachers and lecture rooms…virtual sex,
Improving mission performance through training escort agencies, red-light districts,
technology is an objective the IIT program. The
software-based systems enable rapid tabledances…purchase and vending of
improvement of training delivery and the land, real estate, cars, furniture, clothes
simulated environment can be tailored to suit …3D-chat…and all the rest of it – and this
mission or individual training needs.
is only the beginning!!!

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 Artificial Playmates
Children with autism are unable to sustain
play or social interaction with real people.

But interaction with virtual peers releases

hidden social skills in these children.

Autistic children may be more at ease with

virtual playmates because the virtual
children are more predictable, which could
make them seem less threatening.

Extension of P2P to VWs

Visitors to virtual worlds
can't be spread across
different servers arbitrarily,
to balance the load.

Research is now underway

to use peer-to-peer
network protocols – these
would work best for social
worlds that include a lot of
user-generated content

fMRI scans of the brain show that when volunteers

Virtual Reality Therapy engage in VR programs during painful stimuli, the
pain-related activity significantly subsides.
It has long been known that the best way
to alleviate pain is by brain distraction

Virtual-reality (VR) immerses users in a 3-

D computer generated world that is ideally
suited to distracting patients from their
pain

Source: Scientific American August 2004

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 Burn Patient uses VR program to relieve the pain of
wound care. VR programs are significantly more
effective than video games at distracting patients from
excruciating levels of pain

Source: Scientific American August 2004

Research Results:
Scene from the VR program “SnowWorld”,
made especially for burn patients
Patients using traditional pain control
(opioids alone) stated that the pain was
almost twice as severe compared with
when they were actively interacting with a
stimulating VR simulation.

Spiderworld is a VR program designed to help

Phobia Therapy phobic patients overcome their fear of spiders.
The system provides tactile feedback, allowing the
patient to “touch” the furry virtual spiders.
VR can be used to combat phobias by
exposing patients to realistic graphic
simulations of their greatest fears

Like pain control programs, by altering the

chemistry of the brain, exposure to the
simulation changes the way people think,
behave and interpret information.

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 Conclusion Cyberkinetics

VR will help reduce the reliance on drugs FDA approval received for a clinical trial of a
and will permit more aggressive wound brain implant designed to allow paralyzed
care and physical therapy, speeding up patients to interact with a PC
recovery and cutting medical costs
Many types of internalizing technologies such as
cochlear & optic nerve implants are converging
The rapid fall in price of high quality VR into interactive chips that can retrieve detailed
systems means that hospitals will soon be and specific info from the brain so that complex
able to afford this approach to therapy. tasks can be done by thought alone

A Brain-machine interface helping

a patient paralyzed by a spinal Rat Driven Robot:
injury. Chip converts thoughts of
movement into codes transmitted Neural signals from an
by RF signals to the controller electrode implanted in a
backpack. Controller converts the rat’s brain are used to
signals into motor commands that control a mobile robot.
are transmitted wirelessly to chips
implanted in various muscles,
allowing them to move.

Source: Scientific American October 2002

EEG Readings of
thought patterns EEG readings of thought
guide a miniature patterns act as interface to
robot through a translate a subject’s
model house thoughts into words on
the computer screen

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 Magnetoencephalography (MEG)

Magnetic Brain Imaging Can accurately detect the faint magnetic

fields generated by neural activity
Standard electroencephalograph (EEG) is
The sensitivity of the MEG detector is
inadequate for detecting localized neural
achieved by use of a Superconducting
activity in the brain because electrical Quantum Interference Device (SQUID)
fields are spread out and distorted as they magnetometer that can detect magnetic
pass through the skull fields more than 1 billion times weaker
than the Earth’s field

Patient undergoing
brain analysis in a MEG
unit
The individual SQUID readings are
translated by software into a detailed
schematic showing the strength of the
magnetic field at each location in the
brain

Source: Technology Review, Nov. 2004, p. 72

Functional Magnetic Resonance Goals of present research:

Imaging (fMRI)
• Understand the brain patterns associated
Blood low in O2 causes a slight distortion as it
with each specific human emotion – love,
flows through a magnetic field. Blood high in O2 fear, humour etc…
does not.
• Learn about the neurology of decision
Allows the “hyperscanning” of the brains of people making
carrying out daily activities.

• Development of the new science of neuro-

Resolution has progressed from 1 cm3 to 1 mm2
representing ~100,000 neurons. economics

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 Magnetic Brain Stimulation
The therapy can be fine tuned by adjusting
Transcrainal magnetic stimulation (TMS) location, intensity and pulse frequency
uses pulses of magnetic energy to induce
electric currents in pacific brain regions
Typical treatment induces an electric field
A powerful magnet over the frontal regions of 500 V/m in the cortical region near the
of the skull and delivers magnetic pulses instrument

Treatment alters the biochemistry and

firing patterns of the neurons in the cortex

Researcher delivers magnetic pulses to the brain

Thousands of military personnel suffer to generate instant happiness and well being
from various forms of PTSS and clinical
depression that does not respond well to
conventional antidepressants
(Prozac, Zoloft).

TMS may offer hope for an effective

treatment of the suffering of these
individuals

Source: Technology Review, March 2004

Internet 2

The new all optical Internet will have from The ultimate experience will be a “full
10,000 to 100,000 times the capacity of sensual immersion” so that the user will be
Internet 1. unable to distinguish reality from digital
reality
The result will be hyper-realistic avatars
that will be able to interact with others in
ways that will be indistinguishable from
living beings

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