Birth of the 3D Internet

What if – when you reserve a trip – you could see other people using the same service and chat with them? Or meet colleagues from around the world in a virtual environment?

In Oulu, a virtual world technology platform based on an open source code is under development. Unlike Second Life, the realXtend virtual world is free of charge to everyone. This means, for example, that it provides companies with opportunities for a wide range of applications. Both Nokia and Microsoft have expressed interest in realXtend.

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The idea for development of the realXtend virtual world platform originated with Juha Hulkko, a wellknown technology leader from Oulu. He presented the idea to a group of Oulu businesses and people interested in the virtual world. In the end, LudoCraft, which has won international awards for its games, and ADMINO technologies, which creates virtual world presences for real world companies and offers solutions and services on how to successfully use virtual worlds to their advantage, signed on. Later on Benjamin Goertzel, an American author and researcher in the field of artificial intelligence, also joined the effort. The project has many sources of funding. Oulu Innovation Ltd. handles the administrative side. “Our goal is not to make a profit, but to speed up development of the global standardized 3D web of virtual worlds by making the best technology available to everyone, and entirely free of charge. It is free because the true value of interconnected 3D worlds is in the applications, not the platform,´ explains project leader Jani Pirkola of Oulu Innovation.

Countless business opportunities

“It is our vision that realXtend will eventually work for all virtual world applications. It could be the basic platform for the 3D internet,´ says Pirkola. The realXtend platform will achieve the demanding standard required for business use in 2009, and after that business applications can be made. In practice, anyone interested can download the platform to their own server and develop their own applications. “At this point, we´d like to invite any and all companies to develop new applications. The virtual world is excellent for support center and meeting use and of course for games and other forms of entertainment. It will obviously not replace the existing internet, but instead complement it,´ adds Pirkola.

Virtual personal identities

According to Pirkola, users create their own identity in the virtual world. They appear in this guise in various virtual applications. This identity or avatar functions like an email address. “You can make it look like you by using your own picture or like the identity you seek by using the 3D modeling tool now available. No one else can use your identity,´ Pirkola explains. At present, use of the virtual world requires the latest hardware and top internet speeds. According to Pirkola, this will not be an obstacle to widespread use of the virtual world because the problem itself will disappear as technology develops. “Our technology is the best in the world; many of the top companies in the sector have signed on and development work is open to everyone interested. Right now the challenge is to come up with applications that really attract people,´ Pirkola sums up.