Thursday, February 28, 2008

Limitations of Second Life

As part of our (group 6's) project about crime scene investigation education in SL, I am researching some fundamental limitations of SL which could inhibit progress in VW education.
Specifically I am interested in technical details such as how small an object can be and how detailed can objects be? For example, often in crime scene investigation, the CSI looks for hairs, fingerprints, and other types of trace evidence. It does not seem feasible to incorporate these directly into an SL crime scene.

While searching the web for relevant information I came across a video discussing some other issues with SL education. Have a look
She makes a bold statement at the end which I don't necessarily agree with:
"Even if the technical problems are resolved, there is nothing to be gained by replacing lectures or discussions in a classroom on a campus when all students live within driving distance with those types of sessions in Second Life."

So in addition to limitations, what new abilities does SL bring to the table?

5 comments:

Brandon said...

I don't necessarily agree with that statement either. I wouldn't say that there is nothing at all to be gained by having classes on SL. It depends a lot on what type of class it is. It would be good for lecture material or class discussion, but hands-on type lessons I think are still quite far away. To me, something like a chemistry lab would be very unfulfilling in a virtual world. The technology just isn't there, and I don't think it will be for some time.

Another point she made that I don't agree with is her statement that SL has a steep learning curve. As popular as video games are becoming among the younger audiences, I think for them it would be a fairly easy transition into SL. Things like building objects and scripting are more advanced, but lectures and discussions require nothing more than simply creating an avatar. So I guess my point to this is that SL can help bridge the gap for the younger generations. Take something they love spending time on (computers/Internet) and find a way to use that as a useful tool for learning.

Brandon said...

Also, your labels/tags are a bit off. It's taking "education limitations crime scene investigation second life" as one tag. I think they should be separated by commas.

arturo said...

Since I have worked in computer graphics before there were personal computers, I can tell you that anything that you want to do is possible.

The thing that you have to consider is that the tools and the system are indeed limited in many ways and they will always be because the demands grow accordingly, so the challenge is to overcome those limitations with "smoke and mirrors", the staple of good magic shows.
For example, Mike's concern about the size of objects can be addressed as a "special effect". It does not matter whether the tools or the system allows the creation of microscopic prims. Of course it does not at the moment.

So what can we do. Let's think about it for a moment. Hairs, fingerprints and other crime traces are never seen with the naked eye but through an instrument anyway.

So what you can do is create an instrument, say a microscope, that when you "look" through it (which is itself an illusion) presents you with an image of the said traces giving you the illusion (for that is ALL VR is anyway) of seeing a microscopic object because you are familiar what that looks like and thus you don't even question it, specially if it is well made. Nobody should think that it is an "effect", then you have succeeded.

I you want to see something similar, go to Snow Crash, to the Skidz area and you will find telescopes that when you "look" through them show you whatever it is that you want to show, for example a view of your sim even though your sim is not really in that area. And you can move the "telescope" around, which is basically a camera view.

So my point is that you can simulate or trick your eye and brain into believing anything that you want. Think about that.

And simulations can be very exciting and useful indeed, even a chemistry lab sim. In robotics you simulate your vehicle, walker or whatever in a 3D program so that you can test your concepts without breaking the bank, and then when you are satisfied that your thing works you can go into RL and implement it.

SL has quite a bit more under the hood that we are aware of, like a lot of physics simulation using the same formulas that any physics lab, or VR world currently uses, and if you know how you can definitely take advantage of that.

The main drawback at the moment (and this is temporary if you consider the exponential growth of computer power) is speed.

Those of us that remember the early personal computers, like Commodore 64 (which referred to the fact that you had 64k to program whatever you wanted!) have lived that growth and you are living it as well but perhaps taking it for granted since computers are just a fact of your life and not a huge event before your eyes.

Finally, at least for me, limitations are the most important sources of inventiveness and creativity.

West said...

I think the statement dealing with lectures in SL is pretty true. Recreating a lecture in SL that doesn't utilize the tools of the medium doesn't really provide anything better than the lecture. It actually loses what the real interaction that takes place in the classroom. I don't think she is saying classes in Second Life are not worthwhile, just that simple lectures should be done in the classroom.

chihyu said...

I have been to the Science Museum in Boston where they had a special exhibition of CSI crime scenes which allowed visitors to experience the process of solving some crime cases. Also, there are some crime scenes of CSI in SL that I've attended to. Actually, I love these experiences even though they both have some limitations.

For the CSI exhibition, we didn't really collect any evidence or do any analysis by ourselves. We found out things strange and attended labs for reporting by videos pre-recorded. The most fun part has nothing to do with how detailed the evidence is, but experiencing the process of solving the case and making a guess on who the criminal may be.

And for the in-world CSI crime scenes... well, I never noticed the lackness of evidence like hairs or fingerprints. In fact, I don't know if they have these kinds of features or not. It doesn't really matter to me. What I care about is the scenarios of crime cases. Is it reasonable? Is it challenging enough to make people engaged in it?

It is always a plus if making the whole virtual world looks like real. However, while taking education as the main purpose, it should be sufficient to come up with some attractive crime scenarios with simple representations. I can't wait to see how it will look like.