_ Teleportation | 3D Conferences / Classrooms_

[Gerry Mckiernan]

               _ Teleportation  | 3D Conferences /  Classrooms_

  The July/August issue of _Inside Technology Training- [now _Online Learning_ [ http://www.ittrain.com/]] had a *most* interesting article
article entitled "The Ghost of Training's Future"

         [ http://www.trainingsupersite.com/ittrain/feature5.htm]

  The article profiled "teleportation conferencing"  technology that enabled a 
'life-size image in the three-dimensional space where [a] ... person would normally stand." . In this case a 'futurist in a Dallas studio appear[ed] as a holographic image before an audience in England."

QUOTE

To make that happen,  ....a video camera [is used] to capture an image of the presenter in a studio. The system then translates that image into a digital format using a PC encoder. That data is transmitted over a high-speed broadband Internet connection (2 mbps) to a decoder with video output in the auditorium. The lecturer’s video image is reflected on a
laminated shield of semireflective glass. The reflected image then appears behind a specially designed lectern. 
[ http://www.realityinterface.com/teleport.html ]

UNQUOTE

"The system, which is being developed and produced by Reality Interface Co. (www.realityinterface.com) in Salford, England, is similar to videoconferencing."

Thanks Don H. for this article!

                                ********************************
 
  Several weeks later  on November 9, 2000, the New York Times had a most interesting article in its  _Circuits_ column entitled "Class in a 3-D Lecture Hall" Here's the most intriguing open paragraphs in the article by Jeffrey R. Young

QUOTE
 During a lull in a recent academic conference ― a presenter from Cornell was
holding forth on the subject of technology and science education ― Tobey Crockett, a graduate student at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, Calif., decided to fly around the room. Turning herself into a bee, she took off and hovered high above the crowd. 

Gravity clearly wasn't a limiting factor in that lecture hall. Ms. Crockett was attending the conference inside a three-dimensional meeting space on the Internet. 

UNQUOTE

  The article later continues:

QUOTE

Those attending the conference adopted the forms of on-screen characters. Animated renderings of little green aliens, tanned men with surfboards and other fanciful figures interacted with one another in what looked like a tent pavilion. And since the discussion was displayed in a chat window below the images shown by the browser, participants could explore the virtual room without missing any points from the presentations.

UNQUOTE

     The article goes on to note that "unlike a typical online chat room, the 3-D classroom lets professors and students see one another."

   The technologies noted include VLearn 3-D [ http://www.vlearn3d.org/] and ActiveWorlds [http://www.activeworlds.com/ ].

[The full article  
[ http://www.nytimes.com/2000/11/09/technology/093DDD.html] 

is  currently available free-of-charge to registered users of the New York Times on the Web [Registration is free] 


   I am greatly interested in learning about other application of  these or similar advanced technologies for current or experimental real or virtual  *professional/scholarly*  conferences or state-of-the-art Distance Education /Learning courses. Articles, reports or Web resources that discuss such applications using such technology would also be of interest.

  As Always, Any and All contributions, suggestions, comments, critics, queries, criticism, questions, or cosmic insights are Most Welcome.

/Gerry McKiernan
Teleportation Librarian 
Iowa State University 
Ames IA 50011

gerrymck at iastate.edu 

             "The Best Way To Predict the Future is to Invent It"
                                                 Alan Kay