Slashdot Mirror
Tele-Immersion at UC Berkeley
Roland Piquepaille writes "Tele-immersion is a technology which allows cooperative interaction between groups of distant people working in the same virtual environment. At the Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society (CITRIS) at UC Berkeley, interdisciplinary teams are deploying this technology. It involves three real-time steps: taking images of a subject with 48 cameras, transmitting the images over a network, and implanting them in a virtual world. For example, it will allow students and professors on different campuses to meet -- virtually -- and discuss -- lively -- while being in ancient sites of Greece or Italy. The technology offers more promises than academics discussions. Imagine a nurse telling a diabetic how to make an insulin injection while being far away from him. Of course, this technology is facing some hurdles, such as the cost involved to model you with so many cameras. This summary shows you some details about the image processing involved in this project."
I have a general question for the /.ers out there: do you feel that this kind of technology will tend to bring people together more, or apart?
I mean, when you can be 100 cool places at the flip of a button, why settle for wherever you are right now? Same with social stuff - why "put up with" the boring people next door instead of flipping on the immersive internet and talking to others who share your interests?
This is happenning already. Most of my communication with friends is IM, email, or cell phone. The amount of face-to-face talking, in real life, is astoundingly low. Is this a good thing? I mean, I can keep tabs with people around the country - and around the world. But it's not the same.
I can see a lot of legitimate business uses for this technology, and who wouldn't want to be able to attend famous lecturer's sessions without the need to travel (or fear of being caught sleeping)? I'm just worried that it will become an even stronger isolating force in our society.
Also, will telepresense bring about more outsourcing - why pay for a secretary who's right there, when for 1/10th the price you can have one from India, by telepresence, for the 90% or whatever things that need done that don't require actual presense.
Just some questions to think about.
Cheers,
Justin Wick
Imagine a nurse telling a diabetic how to make an insulin injection while being far away from him
Why would a diabetic need a nurse miles away to tell him how to give himself an injection? Shouldn't he already know how to do this? Or are we talking about amnesiac diabetics?
This is neat, but what is the minimum cost for a setup? All kinds of nifty communication technologies have been envisioned, but the cost and compatibility is always the deal-breaker.
Often the cost of upkeep on systems exceeds their actual worth.
For example, it will allow students and professors on different campuses to meet -- virtually -- and discuss -- lively -- while being in ancient sites of Greece or Italy.
No, this will be used so that horny people can play 'student and professor' virtually.. I mean, I read this and thought, "Wow, now I can do Paris Hilton without getting a disease."
In other words, the main purpose of this is porn. Shuddup.. PORN.
--- We need more Ron Paul!
Does our fracturing into interest-based communities bode ill for the future? I'm not sure, but it does seem that at least here in the United States it has helped to create a society where people talk past each other, avoiding unpleasant in-person discussions about social issues or political issues. Instead we retreat behind virtual walls, haul out Blogger, and start pounding on each other.
It is of course possible that I'm looking at this the wrong way, because as towns and cities become increasingly impersonal, gobbled up by cloned shopping malls, the need to find people you can relate to on any level increases. Slashdot is a great example of this. How many people in my home town with whom I could share Slashdotish interests could I actually meet through random encounters in the computer section of the bookstore?
I guess this sort of immersive virtual technology is just like most technology in that it is value neutral. It all depends on how we humans make use of it.
Read the EFF's Fair Use FAQ
That should generate more than a little network traffic.
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
"Dealing with such large amounts of data is an enormous task -- just to start the cameras you must press 50 start buttons," he said.
They always select a quote which paints you as a simpleton.
Java: the COBOL of the new millenium.
from summary: "Tele-immersion is a technology which allows cooperative interaction between groups of distant people working in the same virtual environment. " Wow, considering we barely have cooperative interaction between groups of different people working in the same office building
The big use for this technology will be companies that are offshoring high value jobs to low wage countries. Communication has been the only effective barrier to this happening... the more stuff like this comes out the worse the job market looks in high wage countries.
If the tech is "real" enough then people like sales and management, thought to be immune to the whole offshoring thing, will be that much less safe.
And why is he posting an article on a subject that was featured in Scientific American in 2001?