Journal 4

Currently, I am overseeing the creation of the virtual collaboration environment (VCE), which is one of our main goals this semester. Objects created on one client must be reflected on another client. And furthermore, any object moved, scaled, rotated, or otherwise manipulated on any client must undergo a parallel manipulation on all clients in order for the virtual world to be kept in sync. We currently have two kinds of objects: common objects and avatars. Common objects are like the ones I have previously mentioned. They can be manipulated by anyone; they are the building blocks of the virtual world. The avatars, on the other hand, are representations of the players who are currently in the world. These are subject to the movements and rotations that a given client's camera undergoes during the user's navigation in the virtual world. Avatars exist so that people can better interact while they virtually collaborate in the VCE.

Article:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7254078.stm

What I'm doing on the project

Nothing has changed since the last time I wrote about this--except that I will probably begin to write some spikes for our physics system, which will prevent the player from walking through walls and other objects.

Book to Review

(AI): Kurzweil, Ray. The Age of Spiritual Machines : When Computers Exceed Human Intelligence. Viking Books, 2000