In an article titled ‘Virtual cities get real bustle’, New Scientist magazine of 3 October 2009 states that: “While virtual globes such as Google Earth or Microsoft Visual Earth provide great bird’s-eye views of urban landscapes, they show ghost towns – empty streets free of traffic or people. Now, a system that can draw on real-time video from traffic and surveillance cameras, and weather sensors, is set to change that.” The article goes on to explain how the system will fill virtual towns with cars and people, and could even let online spectators zoom in on live sports events.
This marks the fact that virtual world are definitely becoming a reality and offering more than just escapism.
In another article in the magazine, Nic Fleming states that while eye-popping sums are at stake in the virtual economy, intellectual property disputes are now heading for the courts. Virtual is definitely crossing over into reality, with many crucial developments taking place… but whether this is a good thing or not is anyone’s guess. I’m all for escapism, but don’t we have enough problems to deal with in the real world?
Filed under: online | Tagged: Second Life, reality, intellectual property, Google Earth, escapism, Microsoft Visual Earth, Nic Fleming, virtual economy, virtual reality
