HowManyIdentities

HowManyIdentities, originally uploaded by saumier.

Where is My Virtual Model in this maddess?

ecard - Sears / Kmart

ecard
Originally uploaded by saumier.

Holiday shopping and planning made easier on ReadySetHoliday.com

Send a free Holiday Ecard. Brought to you by http://www.mvm.com (the company I work for, in case you hadn't guessed :-).

Sears - Home Entertainment

Entertainment
Originally uploaded by saumier.

View televisions, DVD players, electronics, home audio, computers and furniture for your Home Entertainment room. Brought to you by http://www.mvm.com.

http://searsmve.mvm.com/sears_mve_ctx/jsp/handlers/main/mvmvdrhandler.jsp?roc=sears_mve&pop=GEN

Lowes - Creative Laundry Spaces

TechRoom_12x10
Originally uploaded by saumier.

Creative Laundry Spaces - An interactive planner and workbook for the restless renovator in 3D! Brought to you by http://www.mvm.com.

http://www.restlessrenovator.com/

Try-on garments with semacodes!

A very interesting development in the barcode space. 

 

Imagine a user walks into a clothing store, walks up at a garment, and with a simple click on their phone visualises the garment on their Virtual Model.  The user then clicks clicks their phone again to purchase the garment - and walks out of the store using their existing "recycled" shopping bag to carry their legally purchased products home.

 

Introducing the "semacode"!  Place a semacode printed label on each garment and all the user has to do is take a picture with their camera phone.  Phones equiped with a small software to interpret the semacode will open up the phone's web browser and display the garment on the screen of the phone.  "Semacode works by embedding a URL (web address) into a sort of two-dimensional barcode which looks like a dense crossword puzzle (pictured) — called the tag. The SDK software contains the capability to detect and decode the tag very rapidly with the camera on your phone. It extracts the URL and sends you to that address using the phone's built-in browser. "

Here is an example:

 

I actually tried this with my phone (Nokia 60 series) and it worked like a charm.  Now the question remains, what URL link will retailers place on their garments?  Of course the right answer is a link to try-on the garment using My Virtual Model technology.

 

Read more about it here:

http://semacode.org/

My Virtual Model's new Badge!

Men are not yet available, so I created the Virtual Model of my wife Sylvie. Here she is sporting her autumn look!

www.mvm.com

Weight Loss Community

My Virtual Model has a grass roots community of people seeking to loose weight.  I am putting together a photo gallery of people's blogs to help us understand what this community is all about.

 

From my observations so far, it is clear that people in this community want to go shopping, and do go shopping using My Virtual Model's virtual dressing rooms.  Not only do they want to shop for plus size garments, but they also want to start shopping for smaller sizes based on progress towards their goal figure.  This quote is from a blog that illustrates how people distinguish between plus size VDRs that offer clothing for Plus sizes, and regular VDRs that only offer smaller size garments.  This shows how a "long term" relationship is valuable with these shoppers, and how MVM can develop a relationship and even help people return to shop as they approach their goal weight!

 

From blog http://blog.designedlykristi.com/?p=166

"The pics I pasted together from a site call My Virtual Model. These images came from the Prevention Magazine one, though I have played with all three of the "All Sizes" variety. I'm not quite [clear if all] of them would work for me, though once I hit my goal weight I'm home free and can use any of them. Thanks for all the kudos too! I really helps keep yourself motivated!"

In the quote above, the "All Sizes" reffers to how we categorize our VDR sites on our home site.  Today, most of the VDRs are not under "All Sizes" but under "Regular sizes".  The quote above illustrates the excitement about returning some time in the future to shop of all of the "Regular sizes" stores.  If MVM could help people track their goal weight and remind them to return to MVM for shopping by developing a personal relationship with them, a significant and loyal community could be built.  On the other hand, it looks like this community is so motivated that they will come back to go shopping even without any reminders from MVM! 

Visual Search - using a camera and Google?

Here is a quote from the "Cool Hunter":

 

"Designed by a young UK designer, Pei Kang Ng, Google3D is meant as a viable business proposal for Google, five to ten years from now. With Google3D, the idea is literally, to bring the conveniences of the search engine to your fingertips.  Now, you can find out things on the move - wherever and whenever you want to - just by taking a picture. You don't even have to type!"

 

This is Pei Kang Ng site.

http://www.ngpeikang.com/

 

In my opinion, this device will first appear in the notoriously popular iPod equiped with a camera and wireless link.

 

Note that this concept of visual search is not the same approach as our MVM Visual Search.  Our notion is that you build a model (in 3D or 2D) of what you are looking for to drive your search.  Your model is then translated based on the model's attributes and specific domain knowledge enabling products that don't even have a photo to be found.   The trouble with a photo is that the software has no idea what is important to the user.  Unless you are looking for an exact match.  The other difference is that our approach in feasible today, and not only in 5 to 10 years from now!

 

Day of the Longtail

Excellent and comical look that puts the hype around the Long Tail into perspective! This is really worth 5 minutes of your time.

Articles on the MVM-Higgins-BestBuy Demo

Artices on the MVM-Higgins-BestBuy demo at the Identity Mash-up Conference in June. This conference was organised by the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at the Harvard Law School in Boston. Also a good explanation of Parity Inc.

The prompt of doom (or is that despair?) by ZDNet's David Berlind -- Having recently switched computers because of a hard drive failure, I can completely relate to Tim Bray's angst over what I'll call the prompt of despair (he calls it the prompt of doom): the one where your browser asks you if you want it to remember the password your putting into some site for you. [...]

Passion, common vision drove Higgins to success. Not big vendor agendas. by ZDNet's David Berlind -- There's something special about witnessing innovation as it happens right in front of you. To a large extent, that's what this week's Identity Mashup Conference at Harvard University was about. Sure, there were a lot of interesting panel discussions that dove deep into all sorts of thought-provoking issues that were relevant to identity. But, [...]

MVM's new game - create your dorm room at Sears

Sure I may be a bit old to go back to school, but I am proud to show you my dorm room decorated with real products from Sears. Have fun here!

Will Wright's new game - Spore

Will Wright, creator of SIMs, the most popular game of all time, has launched his new game called "Spore".  Read about it here.

Second Tense: Googlezilla vs. Linden Labjira

Here is a good overview of the exciting and tenous place Second Life has in the metaverse race. The author of this blog have also opened a full time consulting job to provide services in Second Life.Second Tense: Googlezilla vs. Linden Labjira

Virtual Model on MySpace

Another example (thanks to Frank) of how people in web communities use My Virtual Model to present themselves.

 

Scroll down till you see the model on the right side.  Note that the person does not want to show photos or use a web cam, but is excited and pround about sharing her current Virtual Model and a slimer one with several pounds less!

 

 http://www.myspace.com/country4life

THE GENERATIVE INTERNET

THE GENERATIVE INTERNET
by Jonathan L. Zittrain 

 

Here is the link to the Harvard Law Review article:

http://www.harvardlawreview.org/issues/119/may06/zittrain.shtml

 

Zittrain presents his case for describing the internet as a "generative" phenomenon and goes on to describe how mounting internet security problems threaten to engender a consumer backlash against the openness of the net and hence its generativity.

Web 2.0 - The dark side?

Intersting blog by Nicholas Carr linking to some articles on how the dream of Web 2.0 may be in danger.

 

http://www.roughtype.com/archives/2006/06/hear_no_evil.php

 

Worth reading in preparation for the Identity Mash-up conference next week at the Berkman Center for Internet & Society!

Identity Mash-up Conference June 19 - Car Pool!

The Berkman Center for Internet & Society is holding a fascinating conference on Identity.  This conference will be in Boston from June 19-21.

 

Here is the link to the conference:

http://www.identitymash-up.org/

Louise Guay will be presenting MVM's Virtual Identity and MVM will be present in force.  The first 2 days of the conference, Monday and Tuesday, will be the presentations followed by discussion and debate on Wednesday. 

I am coordinating a car pool for those going down - so be sure to let me know if you want a lift by leaving a comment on this blog.  We are planning to rent atleast 1 car for departure on Sunday afternoon, June 18, to Boston and return to Montreal Wednesday late in the evening of June 21.

Reuben Steiger launches "Millions of Us"

When I first contacted "Second Life" I had the pleasure of speaking with Reuben Steiger.  When he left Linden Labs, the makers of Second Life, to found his own company I was pretty sure he was up to something special. 

 

Now it is official!  Last Thursday his new company "Millions of Us" was launched and is already in the news.  "Millions of Us" is a company to help real world companies get the upper hand in virtual communities!  Read the news article - Online spaces: The new frontier.  It is well worth your "real" time :-)

Some other companies offering avatars

Comverse <http://www.comverse.com/>, based in Wakefield, Mass., is one of the first U.S. companies to jump headlong into the avatar market.

Other sites where avatars can be obtained are:
Avatarity <http://www.avatarity.com/>,
HotAvatars.com <http://www.hotavatars.com/>,
Avatara.com <http://www.avatara.com/avatars/>.

Les mondes virtuels génèrent des emplois bien réels

Article du cyberpresse.ca sur "Second Life" en français.

Entropia: another MMORPG hyping the real world currecy exchange

 

Space Station in Entropia

Article Link: A real world cash card that allows gamers to spend money earned in a virtual universe has been launched.

 

Seems like more and more MMORPGs are attracting the attention of gamers by anouncing real world currency exchanges.

 

What I find particularly interesting is that "Currency Exchanges" remove the barrier between virtual worlds enabling users to harness their treasures and pool resources, without being totally dependant on a single silo.

 

Actually there are 6 companies that are well know Secondary Market companies that offer INTRA-METAVERSE platforms to help gamers manage their virtual fortunes (reference for MVM employees).

• IGE - Currency speculator
• Gaming Open Market - Currency exchange platform
• PlayVault - Free game to game currency transfer service
• eBay - Auction site
• PlayerAuctions.com  - Account, currency and goods trading site
• Virdaq - Account, currency and goods trading site

 

Perhaps the most interesting is PlayVault:

"One value added service provider that has formal agreements with publishers is PlayVault. Through PlayVault, players can transfer virtual currency from one game to another. With the ability to migrate their currency that they have spent hours amassing online, players are more inclined to try new games. The service is free to players. PlayVault receives a referral free from their partners."

Conference on virtual worlds!

This Thursday, May 4th, there is an SDForum conference on virtual worlds geared towards VCs, entrepreneurs and
marketers.

 

Of course, such a conference would be incomplete without it's virtual half: the event will also be streamed live on Sheep Island in Second Life!

 

Speakers:

• Linden Lab CEO Philip Rosedale will give a keynote
• Electric Sheep Company's CEO Sibley Verbeck
• New World Notes blogger James Au
  Millions of Us CEO Reuben Steiger
• Philip Torrone is making a "News from the Future"-style VW video
• Others...

 

See I'll see you on Sheep Island in Second Life for what looks like a promising conference!

BTW, my SL in world avatar name is Primo Levitt.

Second Life on the cover of Business Week

Second Life is gaining momentum. Time for MVM to start building up their island!

 

Here is the story.  And here is the link to the front cover.

 

Quote:
"A journey into a place in cyberspace where thousands of people have imaginary lives. Some even make a good living. Big advertisers are taking notice."

 

THERE.com in association with Yahoo!

 

A competitor to Second Life? There.com and Yahoo join forces to create another metaverse.

 

What is There.com?

"There is an online getaway where you can hang out with your friends and meet new ones -- all in a lush 3D environment that's yours to explore!".

Check it out.

MTV Overdrive Feature on Second Life

Message from Reuben Steiger:

MTV feature on a fashion show held in Second Life.  It's really worth watching (please note, it only works on PC's).

Seems like Second Life is teetering on the edge of mainstream media adoption - good news for all of us interested in developing a new class of experiences and applications using SL as a Platform.

Second Life, again.

The Metaverse called "Second Life" is full of surprises, and it just keeps getting more and more interesting.  Partly because of the chaotic creativity of everyone who gets the SL bug, and partly because of the huge range of possibilities.

In the past few days I have heard about the live webcast of a real total solar eclipse of the moon, filmed from Turkey and broadcast live to an ancient amphitheater in SL.  I have heard about prototyping a flashlight with a GPS system that can lead you to your destination in the dark.  The prototype hardware and software are being developed and tested in SL.  If successful with focus groups, the product may actually be commercialized! 

So this gets me thinking, what about building the Turrell  Roden Crater, or Skyspace  in SL.  Turrell builds art work with light. http://www.henryart.org/skyspace.htm.  I could learn more about this marvelous art work while playing in SL and sharing it with friends either in SL or at our group dinner gatherings.

This is the addictive part of SL, it gets you wanting to do things... when you think of all the possibilities...

In short, Henry Musil describes 2 types of people: those who see possibilities in everything, and those that are realist.  The Man Without Qualities is the first type and I am sure he would have loved SL.

Also check these Podcasts: Interview with Philip Rosedale, CEO/Founder of Linden Labs.  This includes a discussion with 2 women for a Women's point of view.

Tags: Second Life, Turrell, Musil, Linden Labs

Expanded 3D view of the Honda Fit car

This is a great example of  high quality 3D modelling with great execution to bring the interactivity to the user in a simple and compelling manner.  Viewpoint technology.

From my colleague Miguel:  "I discovered this fun 3D application from Honda. Try this link and click the "3D View" button. You will have to install an ActiveX plug-in from Viewpoint.You can rotate the car in 3D and even open the doors, hatch and trunk. Pretty cool and it does not seem to be using a sequence of 2D photos but using a 3D model of the car."

Tags: 3D, Viewpoint, Honda

3D avatars IMVU, CrazyTalk or MVM?

This has been a long standing debate at My Virtual Model.  Do we enter the 3D avatar space with human believable models or leave it to the more cartoon or sci-fi world?  This article, called "online dating - IMVU Lands $9M" talks about some of the challenges facing companies like IMVU in terms of making a sustainable business.  The comment that I find particularly interesting is that users are not willing to "download yet another instant messaging client".  If MVM could find a way to enable users to export their VM into existing IM clients, that would be cool.

Also check out CrazyTalk, by Reallision a 3D chat company.

Tags: CrazyTalk, MVM, IMVU, Virtual Model

Eve is a MMORPG

Thanks to my colleague Andrew, I have witnessed the impressive world of EVE.  It looks fabulously sci-fi.  Not being a gamer, I find it very interesting to see the impressive range of technologies at work in an MMORPG. Can the face morphing technologies and face design engines of EVE and games like it be used by My Virtual Model?  The Eve world looks promising.  Over 100,000 members as of February 7th, 2006 and capacity for 25,000 simultaneous users in a continuous world without shards and instances.  But do I want my Virtual Model to look like a space traveler?

Tags: MMORPG

YouOS is here for you

My Colleague Mathieu showed me this trend setting site where you can experience YouOS, a new operating system that runs everywhere you can load a web browser.  Its obvious benefits are a transportable desktop environment and application suite. Pop open a browser and your desktop is excatly the way you left it along with the playlist of your YouOS MP3 player.  The catch is that the OS is programmed exclusively in JavaScipt.   This trend shows an increasing interest in "fat" clients that seems to have exploded when AJAX became a household name, and not because the powder cleans well!

Tags: YouOS

StyleHive - a social bookmarking site for the shopping obsessed!

StyleHive is a social bookmarking site for the product and shopping obsessed! 

 

A bit similar to My Virtual Model's Closet idea, in which users create a simulation of their personal closet and then share their closet with friends or personal shoppers to help them shop.

 

From Reuben's blog:

"StyleHive has the potential to stand head and shoulders above the crowd in terms of value. If I have the choice to advertise on say, Digg  or the StyleHive, the Hive is much more interesting.  Why?  Because people will be tagging and sharing the web and forming communities around the stuff they aspire to own.  And, if the folks at the StyleHive exectute correctly, those people really will be the precious tastemakers that brand marketers am desperate to reach.  And because it has viral characteristics and a mainstream aesthetic, they may actually be able to achieve scale."

 

See here for Reuben's full posting on StyleHive.

Designer Fashions Flourish Online

This article  by ANNE D'INNOCENZIO, AP Business Writer, supports the idea that people will buy expensive designer clothing on the web without having to try it on first. What do you think?   

 

quote:

"According to Forrester Research, luxury online sales, including jewelry and designer fashions, rose 28 percent to $3.2 billion last year from the previous year."

Hilary Radley - a star outerwear designer from Montreal

Hilary Radley is a name all Montrealer's interested in fashion should know. 

 

Quote:

"Montreal - based Hilary Radley is today North America's premier outerwear designer. Her laser sharp attention to detail, innovative use of textiles and technology has made her the trend-setting innovator in this category.

...Considered by her peers as the "Designer of the Decade", a distinction bestowed on her recently by Elle magazine..."

 

Frank Piller's blog on Mass Customization

 

Excellent blog on Mass Customization by Frank Piller.  Check out the Wine configurator post that describes how a Canadian company has built a toolkit on the web to create your own blend of grapes, yeast, alcohol content, and oak tastes. All at a very attractive price!

 

Here is how Frank describes his blog:

"Notes and ideas on mass customization, personalization, customer integration, and open innovation -- strategies of value co-creation between suppliers and customers. This blog continues a long running newsletter, published and edited by Frank Piller, TUM / MIT, since 1997."

SHARE - a community jam session

The Montreal SHARE group gets together twice a month for a high tech audiovisual community Jam session.

 

The next one is February 25th and coincides with the Montreal's "Festivale en Lumière" "nuit blanche".  Collaboration with Elektra.

 

Quote from the site:

"SHARE Montréal est une communauté d'artistes performeurs et chercheurs en arts interactifs et médiatiques fondée en mai 2005 par les artistes Jean-Ambroise Vesac, Marie-Hélène Parant et Katherine Liberovskaya auxquels se sont joints Sabina Sariyska, Céline Seman, Danny Perreault, Sylvain Cormier, Eric Filion et i8u pour faire de ce projet une réalité vibrante.

SHARE Montréal réuni deux fois par mois des artistes vidéo, audio, nouveaux médias et même performeurs pour qu'ils expérimentent de nouvelles avenues artistiques ensemble. Chacun apporte son équipement, portables, instruments, senseurs, caméras, et se rencontre pour "jammer" et explorer ensemble. Tout artiste qui désire se joindre à nos soirées pour improviser est le bienvenu."

The Laws of the Virtual Worlds

Is it possible to say that virtual world users have real world property interests in virtual objects?

 

This paper entitled "The Laws of the Virtual Worlds" by F. GREGORY LASTOWKA and DAN HUNTER examines this question and whether avatars have enforceable legal and moral rights.

 

 

 

Tailrank is a Memetracker?

I came across a new buzz word in the web/blog space today:Memetracker.

 

I was curious to find out what this is all about. So here are my findings.

 

First, what is a meme?  A "meme" is any "idea, behavior, style, or usage that spreads from person to person within a culture".  The term "meme" was coined by Richard Dawkin's around 1976 to represent a cultural equivalent of a gene.

 

Therefore a meme tracker is an aggregator of ideas compiled by searching lots of blogs and prioritizing the most popular ones..

 

Tailrank is an example of a memetracker.   Tailrank, like memeorandum.com creates a so called "living" newspaper totally generated on the fly (every 5 minutes) with content from people's blogs.  Sounds a bit like what EPIC 2014 (a future history of the media by Robin Sloan and Matt Thompson) was talking about.

Create your avatar at MVM?

This is an interesting undocumented feature at My Virtual Model. Click a link below to go directly to a questionnaire to create your model.  You can use any MVM enabled site.  Below I am using H&Ms.

 

Try creating your Male Virtual Model or Female Virtual Model

 

Many people would like to create their avatars using MVM.  Any comment?

Plastic Surgery and your Virtual Model

Visit this site for a free consultation on your personal plastic surgery plan.  Now imagine combining this with your personal Virtual Model?  Ouch!  Do you think people will be more or less willing?  Thanks Alex for finding this.

Colliding worlds or technology convergence?

What typically appeared as opposed and radically different markets not even 5 years ago, now appear to be coming closer and closer together.

 

Take a look at the following companies.  You have companies building 3D communities like SecondLife with their fashion shows, industrial 3D data processing companies like AG3D, shopping experience companies like MVM (leader), apparel CAD companies like Optitex offering 3D runways, and gaming companies educating users on real apparel and footwear products like this basketball video game.  All companies operating in different markets.  All featuring Virtual Try-on of apparel on a virtual model.

 

Is this the start of a technology convergence towards 3D apparel?

Building Identity

Interesting article on building identity and trust into the next-generation Internet by Ken Jordan, Jan Hauser, and Steven Foster.

 

Compare this to My Virtual Model's Manifest of Virtual Idenity (access to members only).

Lands End My Virtual Model Tour - 5 years ago!

The 2001 Lands End My Virtual Model Tour was 5 years ago, but even today it still sounds like science fiction!

 

My Virtual Model did a tour with Lands End using a truck which contained a human body scanner. The truck visited majour cities across North America.  People entered the truck at one end and left the truck at the other end with a full body scan and a virtual model created and ready to be used on-line.

 

TC2, a non-profit organisation, worked with a start up company called "Image Twin" to create an on-line bank of people's body scans for use with visualisation and fit prediction engines such as My Virtual Model. 

 

Full article at:

http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3638/is_5_42/ai_70658450

 

See the pictures at:

http://intranet.mvm.com/home/2000_10_23_MVMTour/photos.htm

Innovative Communities

Threadless
A really amazing t-shirt creation site - design your own t-shirt. 

If your creation gets a lot of votes, it gets  printed!

Created by http://www.skinnycorp.com

 

Mathworks
A collaborative math problem solving site with several contests per year

 

Innocentive
Innocentive connects companies with R&D problems and scientists willing
to solve problems. This project shows the power of tapping into the
periphery and enabling communities to innovate. 

 

Second Life
Second Life is a virtual world - a 3D online persistent space  totally
created and evolved by its users.

 

Habbo Hotel
Habbo Hotel is a virtual hotel where you can hang out and make new friends. It's designed for 13 to 20 year olds in Canada, but  everyone (13 and older) is welcome. When you register you "become" a Habbo. Then  you can walk,
dance, eat, drink and chat in the many clubs, cafes, restaurants,  swimming pools and games rooms. You can even create, furnish, and decorate your own room!

 

Library Thing
Create your bookshelf by selecting books,  then create a snippet to display
them on your blog. Use other users bookshelves to speed up the creation of your own.

Facebook
Students only!
Facebook is a social networking website  specifically for college,
university, and now high school  communities.They have an incredibly high percentage of penetration reaching almost 100% with this years first year university students.

 

For more see the Wikipedia's list of Social Networking Sites.

 

Basketball Video Game with Nike shoes

This is a brilliant move by Nike.  Not only are they exposing potential buyers to their new range of products, players are able to "learn" the characteristics of a wide range of Nike shoes because the game truly simulates characteristics of the shoes.  You can also cusomtize your Nike iD shoes in the NBA 2K6 video game with the same options you have in real life! 

 

"In standard gameplay mode, over 200 Nike athletes will be wearing their actual Nike shoes."

 

Finally, Nike can launch new product into the game to educate their buyers.  There will be "unlock" codes that users can enter to "try out" the latest Nike products.

 

Next Nike will be doing market surveys in the video game before the products are manufacured.

 

Here is the link to the full article.

 

 

Collada - a new interactive 3D standard?

COLLADA - An open Digital Asset Exchange Schema for the interactive 3D industry.

 

Blogs on Garages

Click here to use the Blog Finder on the topic of garages. The Blog Finder is Technorati's directory of blogs, organized by subject. This page shows blogs about garages in order of authority (most site links).

MicroD EasyPlan 2D Planner

MicroD EasyPlan 2D Room Planner

Here is an example: lagaleriedumeuble.com. Click on the tab "Planificateur" on the left.

Planner for building your Closet!

Planning a new closet? Download the tool and use the wizard to automatically design a closet that fits your needs.  Thanks Miguel for finding this.

 

closetmade.com

Ditial TV on the Web is back!

I remeber watching news from around the world on by Television hooked up to an internet video stream in 2000.  It was amazing and of a quality well worth watching.  Then the dot.com crash led to the dissapearance of all the high quality free streaming sites that I could find.  In 2004 it seemed that all the majour news stations in the US had a low quality stream broadcast for which you must pay!

 

Well it looks like Web TV is back.  This free software works with Windows Media Player and has listed in a series of drop down menus a large selection of international TV streams of differeing qualities.  With Media Player 10 and DirectX 9 the quality of some seem to be returning to the pre dot.com crash era.  Happy viewing!

 

http://www.endicosoft.com/digitaltv.php