Universal is the latest in a long line of ?IOI? worlds ? infinite object interactivity. The PR blurb proclaims a world where you can do anything. As a member of a galactic, spacefaring civilisation, it seems like a mix between Eve and Elite, with a bit of everything else thrown in.

 

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A 3D Scanner for which No Object is Too Big or Too Small
3D scanners are considered the normal way to turn a physical object into a 3D construct in avirtual environment. Detailed, efficient, relatively fast - providing your object is roughly the same size as your scanner. If it is not, well, maybe a new paradigm is required...

External-Grade 3D Scanners
All 3D scanners have had one thing in common: You place the object inside the scanner, which performs a scan either around the object or through the object. However, if the item is too big to be encapsulated in this fashion, and you still have to scan it, you need an entirely different type of scanner.

Proof of Concept for “The 3D Printer Problem”
For SIGGRAPH 2013, one joint research team presented a proof of concept method to solve the 3D printer problem - the ability of any 3D printer to theoretically counterfeit any physical object small enough for it to print. They demonstrate a terahertz-radiation 'watermark' that can be 3D printed inside a genuine object, is easy to scan for, and very difficult to duplicate from the scan data.

ActiveWorlds released it's 4.1 codebase in early June 2006. This was a radical departure from previous versions, with focus on collaborative interactivity, and realistic effects.

A different sort of iWear device, Vuzix's AV 230XL is panoramic, yet designed solely for audio-visual playback, not for interactivity,

The Infinite Office
Offices are key to commercial success. If you don't present a professional appearance, and, more importantly, don't have space for all your workers, you cannot function as an efficient organisation. That can be costly, at least if you think physical property. It doesn't have to be that way, and the rewards can be staggering.

A geneology of virtual worlds
Whilst we look ahead, to the future of virtual worlds, we still need to remember what has come before. This lengthy article takes a look at the development of virtual worlds, from the first, early games, and the progression from games, into the far more serious entertainment, and social interactivity of today.

Algorithms for an Infinite Universe
Based more for games on a single machine, this excellent little article discusses generation of a world on the fly, using minimal resources. Parts of this article are suitable for exploitation in virtual worlds.

If you have ever played the original Zelda games, then you will be familiar with what Graal is. This top-down 2D world system uses an almost infinite combination of square areas one and two screens wide, which slot together to form a world.

(26/09/2011)
A few million virtual monkeys are close to re-creating the complete works of Shakespeare by randomly mashing keys on virtual typewriters. A running total of how well they are doing shows that the re-creation is 99.990% complete. The first s...

(22/06/2012)
To honor Alan Turing, the Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica (CWI) built a simple LEGO Turing Machine — part of the Turing’s Erfenis exhibition at CWI — to show how simple a computer actually is, making every operation as visible as possible an...

(09/05/2010)
Object recognition is one of the core topics in computer vision research: After all, a computer that can see isn't much use if it has no idea what it's looking at. Researchers at MIT, working with colleagues at the University of Californi...

(30/09/2011)
Six-month-old babies are severely limited in what they can remember about the objects they see in the world; if you hide several objects from an infant, they will only remember one of those objects with any detail. But a new study, which wi...

(01/10/2009)
Colour is normally thought of as a fundamental attribute of an object: a red Corvette, a blue lake, a pink flamingo. Yet despite this popular notion, new research suggests that our perception of colour is malleable, and relies heavily on bi...