Multiple Reality Mashup: Teleconferencing in Second Life
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Transcript of Multiple Reality Mashup: Teleconferencing in Second Life
Presented By: Chaz Maloney & Krysta Kelley
Multiple-Reality Mashing:
Teleconferencing in Second Life
Can an avatar in a virtual reality
environment co-participate in a traditional teleconference?
Yes!
HOW? … and WHY would you want to do that?
I’ll get to the how soon I’ll get to the how soon enough, as for the why, enough, as for the why, you probably can find you probably can find you own reasons why you own reasons why
you would or wouldn’t do you would or wouldn’t do this, but we’ll happily this, but we’ll happily
share ours…share ours…
Why avatars should get
involved in a traditional teleconference…
See the ‘Teleconference monitor’ behind me…
I can easily fit video from multiple sites on the screen. This leaves a huge space for
display of computer data (PPT, code samples, 3d objects,
whatever) within this virtual ‘glass building’.
Also, it is really easy to shift attention away from the video monitor to the ‘data’ display. Now, the
big monitor is behind me (almost out of view) and replaced with a small one. Participant
attention ‘naturally’ shifts to the wheel chair.
Or… I could easily shift attention to a PowerPoint slide...
Here is Chaz Maloney pictured with Krysta
Kelley (avatars). Also in the conference are
Krista Terry and Charley Cosmato (the real
people). Two people, multiple paths to
participation A very versatile meeting space!
Want to know how
we did this?
What you need
Participants need: Second Life accounts (avatars) and the
Second Life Client (world viewer). An H.323 client for their computer (and
camera/mic) or access to a videoconferencing facility that uses H.323
We used…
As participants: Our Second Life accounts (avatars)
Chaz Maloney Krysta Kelley
An H.323 client for our computers (xmeeting.sourceforge.net)
Built-in iSight cameras on our computers USB Headphones/microphone
We used…
As Hosts: A small plot of Second Life land outfitted with:
A two BFTV monitors (search in-world) Slide fader script (search in-world)
A Codian IP Recorder/Streamer This device connects to a videoconference bridge and
joins the video of multiple participants into a single QuickTime video/audio stream.
There is a freebie way to create the QuickTime stream. –We just happen to have a 60k Codian. The free way is on the next slide.
Meeting Conduct
Participants login to SecondLife and meet at a location that has a video display and slide display installed.
Participants launch an h.323 client on their computer and contact the conference bridge/QuickTime streamer. (then minimize the client)
The SecondLife video display is ‘tuned’ to the QuickTime stream.
Poof! --You are now joining a videoconference and SecondLife sim!
Talk/behave normally and use the SL environment to display media or virtual objects.
A Free VideoStream to
SecondLife?
Not everyone has a fancy h.323 mcu that also can stream from h.323 to Quicktime. A low-rent partial-solution:
Get a free account at veodia.com Forget about the xmeeting client (you don’t need it) Start a live session at veodia (pc+IE only… ughh!) Go to the URL for viewing the ‘live broadcast’ and look at the
page code. Copy the URL beginning with rtsp://… and use this as the in-world video source for your Second Life TV monitor.
The limit here is that only one person in the conference will have video and audio. However, your avatar guests can still chat and see the ‘leaders’ video and hear his/her voice. I suppose you could mute the veodia audio and everyone could use Skype for voice. Let us know if you figure it out
Cheers!
Doing similar experiments? Know of a way to improve this or do it cheaper? More efficiently? Have better usage ideas? Other? Chaz Maloney - [email protected] Krysta Kelley - [email protected]