Being a newbie is always a miserable experience. Novices in the virtual world have problems with controlling their avatars’ movements. But this is about to change. New technology from Japan could help make navigating online virtual worlds simpler by letting players use their own bodies.
The new position-tracking system, developed by Tokyo University, uses a mat printed with colorful codes and an ordinary Web camera to calculate the player's position in three dimensions. As the user moves, the patterns on the mat change from the camera's perspective and the images can be processed to calculate vertical distance and tilt. In other words: when the user turns left, the avatar turns left too; when the user squats, and the avatar does the same.
This is how a human body became a joystick.
2007-12-02
Making avatar navigation easier
Your Linden dollars might not be safe anymore
The Mercury News report that security researchers have found a flaw in Second Life that allows pickpockets to strip avatars of all of their virtual money.
Hackers Charles Miller and Dino Dai Zovi claim they have found a vulnerability in the way SL protects its users’ virtual cash, which can be converted into real world currency (about 250 Linden dollars equals one U.S. dollar), from being stolen. Researchers, however, say the flaw can be quickly patched.
Miller and Dai Zovi found the flaw by exploiting a known problem with Apple’s QuickTime movie playback software, which is used to play movies inside the virtual world. When an avatar comes nearby and is within view of the object, the Second Life software activates QuickTime so it can play the video or picture. In doing so, QuickTime directs the SL software to a web site. By exploiting the flaw in QuickTime, the hackers can direct this software to a malicious web site that then allows them to take over the avatar and force it to hand over its Linden dollars. The range of the hack is approximately 100 virtual feet. This security breach poses a serious threat to those of the 10.5 million registered Second Lifers who are trying to make a living in the virtual world by selling goods and services.
Second Life does not have bank-like security. The best way to keep your virtual money safe from potential pickpockets would, for now, be doing regular Linden dollars/US dollars exchanges so as not to keep too many Lindens in your SL account. Players can also turn off the "play streaming video when available" feature in the edit preferences menu of the Second Life software. Luckily for them (and their money), Apple is moving to fix the QuickTime flaw.
Hackers Charles Miller and Dino Dai Zovi claim they have found a vulnerability in the way SL protects its users’ virtual cash, which can be converted into real world currency (about 250 Linden dollars equals one U.S. dollar), from being stolen. Researchers, however, say the flaw can be quickly patched.
Miller and Dai Zovi found the flaw by exploiting a known problem with Apple’s QuickTime movie playback software, which is used to play movies inside the virtual world. When an avatar comes nearby and is within view of the object, the Second Life software activates QuickTime so it can play the video or picture. In doing so, QuickTime directs the SL software to a web site. By exploiting the flaw in QuickTime, the hackers can direct this software to a malicious web site that then allows them to take over the avatar and force it to hand over its Linden dollars. The range of the hack is approximately 100 virtual feet. This security breach poses a serious threat to those of the 10.5 million registered Second Lifers who are trying to make a living in the virtual world by selling goods and services.
Second Life does not have bank-like security. The best way to keep your virtual money safe from potential pickpockets would, for now, be doing regular Linden dollars/US dollars exchanges so as not to keep too many Lindens in your SL account. Players can also turn off the "play streaming video when available" feature in the edit preferences menu of the Second Life software. Luckily for them (and their money), Apple is moving to fix the QuickTime flaw.
Avatars help autistic patients practice their social skills
Researchers at the University of Texas at Dallas Center for BrainHealth are using avatar-based simulations to help patients diagnosed with a form of autism called Asperger's Syndrome (AS) to practice their social skills in a safe, virtual world.
Patients diagnosed with AS, while of normal intelligence, have trouble reading non-verbal cues, adapting to change and learning social behavior. Inside the virtual world, which includes settings commonly encountered in everyday life such as restaurants, shops, offices, parks and other social spaces, they're able to interact with other real people's avatars as practice. This method of virtual training is distinct from another widely used method of role-playing, in that they feel the same emotions as they would in direct encounters. Patients can for example practice their interviewing skills with real people on-line until the fear and anxiety of a real meeting with a potential supervisor diminishes. In addition to the virtual-world therapy, the participants receive plenty of one-on-one coaching as they are trained to develop the insight to assess their own responses.
BrainHealth researchers say they detect dramatic improvements with many of the virtual training participants in terms of simple awareness of their social problems. This kind of therapy is also suitable for people who suffer from schizophrenia, attention deficit disorder, addictions, strokes and brain injuries.
Patients diagnosed with AS, while of normal intelligence, have trouble reading non-verbal cues, adapting to change and learning social behavior. Inside the virtual world, which includes settings commonly encountered in everyday life such as restaurants, shops, offices, parks and other social spaces, they're able to interact with other real people's avatars as practice. This method of virtual training is distinct from another widely used method of role-playing, in that they feel the same emotions as they would in direct encounters. Patients can for example practice their interviewing skills with real people on-line until the fear and anxiety of a real meeting with a potential supervisor diminishes. In addition to the virtual-world therapy, the participants receive plenty of one-on-one coaching as they are trained to develop the insight to assess their own responses.
BrainHealth researchers say they detect dramatic improvements with many of the virtual training participants in terms of simple awareness of their social problems. This kind of therapy is also suitable for people who suffer from schizophrenia, attention deficit disorder, addictions, strokes and brain injuries.
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