Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Lillie Yifu and Dizzy Banjo's "A Message in a Bottle"

As part of the SL5B celebrations, Dizzy Banjo and Lillie Yifu are creating “A Message to Second Life”.

We have created a giant bottle, which we want to fill with all your messages to Second Life. What would you like to say to the entire SL community on its 5th birthday ?
  • What does Second Life mean to you ?
  • How has your Second Life affected you ?
  • What hopes do you have for the future of Second Life ?
You can submit your message in two forms :
  • An uploaded audio recording of you speaking your message (PREFERRED OPTION! ! )
  • A text based message in a notecard
Once we have recieved your messages they will all go into the bottle and spill out intermittently as part of a fun interactive sound and music installation celebrating the Second Life spirit!

At the end of the 2 weeks of birthday events the bottle will be sealed and cast off into the SL ocean, perhaps it will be found again at SL10B …

Vint Falken put the instructions for this initiative in multiple languages.

Monday, June 02, 2008

Paralysed Japanese man takes a walk in Second Life.


This is realy a great story:
A paralysed man using only his brain waves has been able to manipulate a virtual Internet character, Japanese researchers said Monday, calling it a world first.
The 41-year-old patient used his imagination to make his character take a walk and chat to another virtual person on the popular Second Life website.

The patient, who has suffered paralysis for more than 30 years, can barely bend his fingers due to a progressive muscle disease so cannot use a mouse or keyboard in the traditional way.

In the experiment, he wore headgear with three electrodes monitoring brain waves related to his hands and legs. Even though he cannot move his legs, he imagined that his character was walking.

He was then able to have a conversation with the other character using an attached microphone, said the researchers at Japan's Keio University.


This is very amazing news, and something many people have hoped that virtual worlds could be used for. I wonder if the man feels like he has gained some freedom back.