An image is a lonely place

Ivan Tomek ivan.tomek at acadiau.ca
Wed Sep 29 22:01:35 UTC 1999


We have implemented a working MOO prototype in VisualWorks, 
mostly just a framework with limited functionality. We are now 
designing another version, possibly to be functional around the end 
of the year.

Ivan

Date forwarded: 	29 Sep 1999 20:49:07 -0000
From:           	"Luciano Notarfrancesco" <luciano2 at mail.ru>
To:             	Tom Morgan <tmorgan at acm.org>
Copies to:      	squeak at cs.uiuc.edu
Subject:        	Re: An image is a lonely place
Date sent:      	Thu, 30 Sep 1999 00:47:33 +0400
Forwarded by:   	squeak at cs.uiuc.edu
Send reply to:  	squeak at cs.uiuc.edu

> 
> Tom,
> I've implemented:
>  o. speech synthesis (text-to-speech and singing voices)
>  o. simple gestures synthesis (2D faces, SouthPark-like toons)
>  o. 3D facial animation (the Waters' muscles model)
> I haven't released it yet, but if you want anything of this just
> e-mail me and I will send you a changeset. I think this stuff might be
> useful for you if you want to implement avatars.
> 
> Cheers,
> Luciano.-
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Tom Morgan <tmorgan at acm.org>
> To: squeak at cs.uiuc.edu
> Date: Wed, 29 Sep 1999 07:58:02 -0400
> Subject: An image is a lonely place
> 
> > I've been noticing how lonesome it is inside an image.
> > 
> > There are lots of strong place based/community elements
> > which surround Squeak.  These are currently formed
> > by the basic networked apps of email, the discussion Swiki,
> > the mail archives, and so on.
> > 
> > There is now lots of machinery which is available  which
> > would allow basic collaborative support right inside
> > a running image (and there are some spacey ones imagineable
> > using the 3D stuff that feel like 'Snowcrash')
> > 
> > The kinds of things that I have in mind revolve around
> > establishing a sense of 'place', which is shared, 'embodiment'
> > of you the user explicitly some how in the interface and
> > some amount of 'awareness' of the presence of
> > others in the shared place, all done with a light enough
> > touch that we don't end up with avatar fashion shows.
> > 
> > In this picture, an Morphic book wouldn't be found by
> > reaching out across the network and loading it; instead, there'd be
> > a more or less far away part of your image (maybe dressed up as an
> > Alice world) that would let you wander around and find the book you
> > wanted.  Perahaps the author would hand it to you, if he happened to
> > be around.
> > 
> > While working, instead of the discussion Swiki, there'd be
> > small knots of others, gathered around places of interest
> > to them.  You could glance around and see if anyone
> > was nearby, possibly interested in what you were up to.
> > 
> > Over the course of a few years, I have seen naive users
> > comfortably navigate incredibly complex  graph structures, when they
> > are presented with a place based metaphor.
> > 
> > I am not sure how universally appealing these interface
> > metaphors are, but they seem to be captivating for
> > at least some portion of the population.
> > 
> > I remember one posting about trying to incorporate the ICQ
> > protocols into Squeak.
> > 
> > Are there others padding around this collaborative territory?
> > 
> >    ...Tom M
> > 
> > 
> > 
> 



Dr. Ivan Tomek, 
Jodrey School of Computer Science
Acadia University
Nova Scotia, Canada
fax: (902) 585-1067
voice: (902) 585-1467


-- 
All wiyht.  Rho sritched mg kegtops awound?





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