Introduction
Welcome to the website of the Global Lab NII Grand Challenge project!
Virtual worlds, or the 3D Internet, refer to online three-dimensional world-like environments where people, represented as avatars, can interact with each other and virtual objects. The 3D Internet is manifest in the popular Second Life virtual world and the recent OpenSimulator open source software.
In our “Global Lab” project, we develop the infrastructure for advanced communication and participatory science based on the 3D Internet. To support natural in-world avatar communication, we have created systems that automatically add emotional expression and non-verbal behavior to avatars. Participatory science seeks to involve both experts and the general public into the endeavor of science. Using data from the Nat’l Agricultural Research Center (NARC), we have implemented a system for wisdom sharing and decision making in the field of environmental studies. In collaboration with the Nat’l Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ), we have developed a platform for synchronous collaborative visualization and experimentation of star cluster evolution. We are also starting to build systems that engage scientists and common users to collaborate on bio-molecular structures and examine models of climate change. We develop our systems in close interaction with the open source community of OpenSimulator and companies.
The Global Lab infrastructure contributes to the vision of an eco-friendly society by replacing movement by digital alternatives without sacrificing the quality of social communication. Furthermore, the Global Lab increases eco-awareness by allowing anyone to test environmental hypotheses in a realistic manner.
Keywords:
Authoring tools for agents and content in the metaverse, 3D internet infrastructure, synchronous collaborative visualization (astrophysics, agriculture, life sciences, etc), experimentation, eco-opinion processing, emotional communication, non-verbal communication.
Please watch our Global Lab video clips on our YouTube channel.
Papers can be found on the homepage of Helmut Prendinger.