Virtually There

I have blogged about the evolution of virtual reality before. It is only recently that I have started to realize just how much further along we are than I ever imagined.

The biggest advance has been the virtualization of people themselves. What is a person other than their personality, likes and dislikes, thoughts. What about the things they have done and want to do, or maybe where they have been or want to go. Don't forget what they have listened to, read or watched. Oh, and you also get their opinions on all of that, and all their photos too. Maybe you want to see everyone that has just had the same thought as you. If you want to go the whole way you can create a full online 3D version of yourself and use real money to buy virtual accessories. Of course, there is no reason that the online version of yourself is actually you. It can be the you that you would like to be. There is also online gaming and virtual worlds where you can earn virtual stuff or head over to ebay and buy it from someone that has. Even online muggings. You can have virtual pets, play virtual poker for real money.

And the thing is, even though you don't know it, your kids have done all of this already and take it for granted. You probably have friends who share some of your interests. Maybe that is how you met them. Imagine having friends that you talk to even more often, share 99.9% of your interests, you may never actually meet in person, and number in the hundreds rather than the handful you have today. They give you their opinions on your photos, your life, your shared interests. Your kids are probably already doing this too. They don't need to leave their rooms. They are also less mobile physically, at least until they can drive and you let them go out to more places. As a result they have embraced digital mobility in a way we cannot yet comprehend. Their life is online and they can get to it from anywhere they are.

Its not just people either. Everything now has a virtual presence on line. Many places have their own websites. Every product has a website. Many products even make that link by printing the web address somewhere on the box. Cereal, soda and candy manufacturers have gone a step further by giving your kids codes to use on line, bridging the gap between the physical product and its virtual counterpart.

Out of the BT research labs comes a simple but innovative user interface called the Digital Media Album. Place an object on the pad and it will weigh and scan it. You can then either link that to something on your PC, for example link your wedding ring to your wedding photos, or if it has been prescanned then it could take you to the website. Place an action figure on the pad and you get the Star Wars website.

Add to that RFID and the humble barcode and basically everything you care about has been digitized, metadata created, and placed online.

So what is next? Everything is online but is not really interacting except in a few cases. Services will be what tie these disparate pieces of data together. There are already many examples of webservices mashups and we are only just starting to see the possibilities. XML and RSS will be the vehicles of choice and Google just helped cement that with Google Base.

A good example of bridging the gap between virtuality and reality is GPS gaming or location based gaming. With your mobile in hand you wander the streets looking for virtual goblins to kill, treasures to collect and points to earn. Maybe you get led into shops where you can redeem those points for a discount or a free coffee. KnowledgeWhere and Your World Games have already done this pretty succesfully.