vrijdag, mei 04, 2007
Avatars again: Let's meet at the restaurant's web site - Weblin and Itzle
I have been discussing full fledged 3D web virtual worlds such as Second Life. I have also been discussing cheap ways to add talking avatars to your web site. And now for something in between: avatars that move around in the current 2D web world.
Some say the web will evolve into Second Life-like experiences with 3D interfaces because that gives a richer and much more natural interaction. Today, there are free services out there that allow you to virtually 'walk' existing web pages, and interact with other visitors via their avatars. So you will actually be able to say 'let's meet at the restaurant's web site'. What a brave new world :-).
The first example is Itzle.com. It only works on Firefox and you get a command bar at the bottom of your screen where you can enter chat, or move to other sites. The avatars are very, very basic graphically, but they will gesture, talk via text balloons and walk to any point on the screen you click on. So you can actually go to some part of the page and comment on it or explain it.
The second example is weblin.com. The weblin program installs plugins for both Firefox and Internet Explorer. Make sure to select a 3D avatar because they are the ones that can gesture (like wave, sit down, etc.) You can either chat with the other weblin visitors to that page via a chat box or balloon text boxes. The avatars look much better, but they can only walk around at the bottom of a maximised browser window.
So what's the use of all this? Well, it's a more natural way of chatting than via a text box anyway. And I also see some use for education.
For example, you could meet with people on a web form and explain them how to fill it in. You can go with your students to a wikipedia page, literally 'walk around' on it and explore together and have a discussion on the topic.
For example, you can record screen caps or screen video from your avatar explaining a web-based application and integrate it in an e-learning course. Instead of an overlay with 'Fill your name in here and press next to continu', the avatar/coach can point to the text box and say 'You need to type your name here before you can go on.' It even gets more interesting when these avatar/agents can be scripted.
(Thanks go to Ralph for pointing me to the two sites.)
Some say the web will evolve into Second Life-like experiences with 3D interfaces because that gives a richer and much more natural interaction. Today, there are free services out there that allow you to virtually 'walk' existing web pages, and interact with other visitors via their avatars. So you will actually be able to say 'let's meet at the restaurant's web site'. What a brave new world :-).
The first example is Itzle.com. It only works on Firefox and you get a command bar at the bottom of your screen where you can enter chat, or move to other sites. The avatars are very, very basic graphically, but they will gesture, talk via text balloons and walk to any point on the screen you click on. So you can actually go to some part of the page and comment on it or explain it.The second example is weblin.com. The weblin program installs plugins for both Firefox and Internet Explorer. Make sure to select a 3D avatar because they are the ones that can gesture (like wave, sit down, etc.) You can either chat with the other weblin visitors to that page via a chat box or balloon text boxes. The avatars look much better, but they can only walk around at the bottom of a maximised browser window.
So what's the use of all this? Well, it's a more natural way of chatting than via a text box anyway. And I also see some use for education.For example, you could meet with people on a web form and explain them how to fill it in. You can go with your students to a wikipedia page, literally 'walk around' on it and explore together and have a discussion on the topic.
For example, you can record screen caps or screen video from your avatar explaining a web-based application and integrate it in an e-learning course. Instead of an overlay with 'Fill your name in here and press next to continu', the avatar/coach can point to the text box and say 'You need to type your name here before you can go on.' It even gets more interesting when these avatar/agents can be scripted.
(Thanks go to Ralph for pointing me to the two sites.)
Labels: avatars, Itzle, Weblin
