Microsoft Plans VR Simulation of Everything?

Ian Lamont writes "Microsoft recently updated ESP, a virtual reality modeling platform that until now has primarily been used to model aircraft and flight simulations. Microsoft has plans to expand it to other industries such as real estate and urban planning, but one of the most interesting possibilities could be what one observer refers to as a 'simulation of everything,' based on Virtual Earth and perhaps even user-generated content. Indeed, Microsoft's research chief has been promoting the idea of commerce applications and other tools built on top of what he calls the 'Spatial Web', a blend of 3D, video, and location-aware technologies. He gave an example of a shopkeeper creating 3D models of his store's interior and goods with Photosynth and then uploading the results into a large 3D model of local shopping district. Customers could 'visit' the area, browse products, and order them for real-world delivery."

Comments

I've never understood this sort of thing

[fiordhraoi]

Is it really easier or more desirable to "virtually browse" store shelves than to browse a web page? It seems to me to be a clunky, uninspired way to interact in a digital environment.

Re:I've never understood this sort of thing

[TheRealMindChild]

It is, but lets be honest. The point of these "virtual world" interfaces is so that an unfamiliar person can use skills they already know to use the computer. When a 65 year old lady tries to use a computer for the first time, it can be strange and overwhelming. If she was able to see and interact with the system in a paradigm that she is already knows how to deal with, the anxiety and reluctance will come way down.

Re:I've never understood this sort of thing

[BornAgainSlakr]

Not at all. Metaphors only go so far and then you start running into the limitations of the hardware used to interface with the visuals.

For instance, making a virtual store sounds good and might seem familiar to your hypothetical 65 year-old. However, this person did not grow up using a keyboard and mouse to walk through stores. So, the metaphor breaks down very quickly when you have to start implementing controls for navigation through this world. Ultimately, the experience will be more inefficient and frustrating than if the person just went to a real store.

Further, you are only modeling one aspect of the experience: walking through the store. You are not using a "walk out front door, get in car, put key in ignition, drive to store" metaphor to model how to get to that virtual store.

If this hypothetical person is able to start his/her computer, start a web browser, and navigate to the virtual store page, then it is very likely that he/she is also able to understand how to use a web page like Amazon to find products to buy. Therefore, the effort to model the virtual world is moot unless all you want is eye candy that makes the whole experience incredibly inefficient.

Hasn't Google already done this?

[elrous0]

Between Google's Street View and their failed Lively, it would seem like MS is once again following the old "imitate, don't innovate" philosophy here. And even Google abandoned Lively when they realized that (like VRML and its many other predecessors) it wasn't of much use in practical application.

As someone who has never used Second Life

[Anonymous Coward]

I guess I'm not the target market, but this seems stupid beyond belief.

Some shopkeeper is going to use photosynth instead of simply setting up a catalog for online commerce?

People are having so much trouble shopping they have to have the real world modeled?

Things are laid out in isles and shelfs because that is a good way to use space in the physical world, not because people need to shop that way.
   

A blast from the past.

[mbone]

He gave an example of a shopkeeper creating 3D models of his store's interior and goods with Photosynth and then uploading the results into a large 3D model of local shopping district. Customers could 'visit' the area, browse products, and order them for real-world delivery."

With all due respect, this sounds very 1996. Why on Earth would anyone want to shop that way ?

The new twist: Photosynth

[dazedNconfuzed]

Yes, all the snide comments about VR being so '90s, been there done that didn't work, and rehashing of all the gung-ho fanboy rhetoric aside, there IS something new to this.

Photosynth.

A major problem with VR was having to construct everything manually. You want a shelf full of products? start drawing lots of polygons by hand - and that's a lot of polygons. Yes, there were some tools to help, but it still came down to a largely handcrafted virtual world - most of which turned out pretty lame.

Enter Photosynth.

Now said shopkeeper can spend 10 minutes wandering thru his store with a video camera running, take a gazillion frames of lots of angles of view, and let Photosynth stitch it all together into a fully-formed, fully-illustrated 3D model. Behold: a detailed, realistic 3D walk-thru rendering of the entire store in about an hour, mostly generated automatically.

And before anyone complains that it's slow, hard to use, etc. - it's little different from "first person shooters", which provide a familiar 3D interactive walkthru experience. Difference is, this one is the real world - without all that tedious hand-measuring hand-coding of agonizing detail of reality.

'bout time someone did this. Made sense to me long before I saw Photosynth turn pictures into 3D models, M$ just did it before I got to it (funny how deep pockets helps that...).

Re:And the codeword for the project is...

[TypoNAM]

Neo: If you're blue screened in the matrix, you die here?
Morpheus: The body cannot live without the mind