VR SHopping?

Take a look at the photo here.  This is a real Chinese super-market set to open set to open soon.  Nope, it is not some variation on a theme or some weird austerity program.  The shelves are in fact fully stocked with groceries!  Virtual Groceries. 

Yihaodian, the marketing group behind the scheme, has 1000, 13,000 square foot store fronts that will be stocked with virtual products.  The customer will be able to "see" the products using their smart phones and making purchasing decisions with the self same device.  The items would be totaled, charged, and delivery would be later the same day.

My comment here is....when is the last time you bought fresh veggies or cheese, preserved meat like a Genoa Salami without touching it, smelling it, getting the whole sensory input thing. How can you test if bread is fresh without tapping the end?

The reason I am taking it a bit personally is the article goes on to state:

• A couple of months ago Walmart did a little virtual shopping of its own, and purchased a majority share in Yihaodian.

Niche fur miche (yep, can't spell in two languages ....)


Here is the article link from Dvice had listed for the original in TechAsia

Review: Dennō Coil A Circle of Children

Dennō Coil A Circle of Children

Director Mitsuo Iso
26 episodes

I have spoken about this series so much that I feel like I have reviewed it....Guess not, because I can not find it in the blog - so here goes...

Initially Denno Coil depicts a near future where augmented reality or virtual reality technology has just begun to enter the mainstream. The series follows a group of children as they use AR glasses to unravel the mysteries of the half real, half Internet city of Daikoku, using a variety of illegal software tools, techniques, and virtual pets to manipulate the digital landscape.

The series revolves around Yūko who has recently moved with her family to Daikoku. Yūko joins her grandmother's "investigation agency" made up of children equipped with virtual tools. As their research turns up mounting evidence of children who have been disappearing into the mysterious "other side" of reality. It soon becomes clear that they are entangled in a conspiracy to cover up the dangerous true nature and history of the new VR technology.

There are a lot of players and the plot often meanders off the track to center on some of the secondary characters, but often the divergences explain or uncover some hidden fact or information about the true nature of “obsolete space”, The plot often twists and turns and never quite explains clearly what is really going on. In truth nothing is quite what it seems. What is clear though is there was a lot of thought placed on extrapolating current trends and fads. Virtual pets for instants take on a whole independent existence. Miniaturization and virtualizing of computers and hardware are developed to the point that you find yourself thinking...cool, I would like my rig work like that!!!. (a completely different feel than what you get from the equipment from a series like Lain)

The ending is a complete twist and makes sense...and for once, the hints to the mystery are all over the early episode. If you are like me you will find yourself saying...OH I should have seen that!!!

Denno Coil at first glance looks like it should be a kids show, but in truth it houses some very adult questions about life and reality. Kids might like it, but for completely different reasons. Adults will find the twists and the plot line interesting. A good science fiction romp.

Check out the series web page here

Should virtual crime mean real jail time?

I was reading this article in Scientific American that was titled: "Avatar Acts: Why Online Realities Need Regulation" Now before we start choosing up battle lines and boiling the oil, some facts. It's estimated that worldwide, some 100 million people have an online avatar that they use to populate virtual worlds like Second Life of World of Warcraft. These virtual worlds allow a user a real-time experience to say - wander around castles, deserted islands, battlefields either historical or totally fantastic. Through the use of "avatars", a user can meet, talk or in some instances, if you are so inclined, have simulated sex.

Such immersive activities can lead to real world problems - and not just the escape from reality. Take for instance a wife who filed papers for divorce on the grounds that she caught her husband being overly affectionate with someone else. Now before you say that is perfectly acceptable to sue for divorce consider: The woman found her husband's avatar having a relationship with another woman's avatar. The husband counters that he was driven to it by his wife's addiction to World of Warcraft. Mind you neither have had physical relations with anyone in reality.

Not real enough...try this then. One man lent a friend a sword that he had spent a great deal of money on and in fact was worth a great deal more. His friend promptly sold the sword. Now I should tell you that said sword was a item that can be purchased in the virtual world of warcraft and his friend sold the virtual weapon to another avatar, so you can say that nothing was really stolen and sold. However this is where it gets weird. The original owner decided to sue but found that there were no laws pertaining to purloining a virtual item so he was out of luck. In retaliation the owner of the sword went and killed the friend who sold it. So a man is dead and another will spend the rest of his life in prison. Over a virtual item.

Even stranger still:

• A Brussels public prosecutor who had called for an investigation of a rape charge involving a Belgian user of Second Life.

The investigation died because all laws on the books pertaining to violent acts, deal with real people. Not that nothing is being done. South Korean courts now have several laws on the book pertaining to virtual property, but the U.S. has chosen not to act. Something is going to have to happen, as far as legislation is concerned. Virtual commerce is worth about $1 billion, and that is not virtual cash either.

Read complete article here


**update**
According to AOL News:

• A Tennessee man is facing charges of aggravated sexual exploitation of a minor for what authorities say are three pictures -- none of them featuring an actual child's body. Instead, the photos feature the faces of three young girls placed on the nude bodies of adult females........

Pornography it might be - but sexual exploitation? Questionable material most certainly but how can it be exploitation of a minor? What am I missing?

A Brave New World for TV? Virtually

From the New York Times

Vincent Tibbett is precisely the sort of well-connected cultural liaison any emerging filmmaker should want to know. But if Mr. Tibbett seems a bit harder to pin down, that’s because he doesn’t exist on our plane of reality. He is an electronic avatar found only in Second Life, the popular online virtual community. Just six months old, Mr. Tibbett is one experiment in the Sundance Channel’s larger exploration of Internet-based virtual reality, And he is not alone. In the last year broadcast networks, cable channels and television content providers have all set up camp in virtual communities, where they hope that viewers who have forsaken television for computer screens might rediscover their programming online.

Thanks to Barry Pretzel for the post