Second Life Sans Controller and Keyboard

Some amazing video was posted to the Internet today showing a new control method for avatars that uses the human body and a 3D camera:

That’s Mitch Kapor there in the video. He and a partner have developed a new control scheme for second life. Here’s a quote from their website:

“Mitch Kapor and Philippe Bossut designed a prototypical interface that demonstrates the possibilities for operating Second Life “hands free” without a mouse or keyboard. To make this work, they modified the open source Second Life client to support the camera as an input device.”

This is pretty amazing stuff. This is exactly the type of development that is required to move these platforms beyond the niche audiences they enjoy now, and into the mainstream. As I’ve stated on many occasions, many people (both teachers and students) are challenged with learning how to control their avatar. This control scheme is very logical and natural, and would also drive more use of voice in these virtual worlds (rather than text chat).

You should bookmark their blog now and keep an eye on this promising new technology that holds the potential to revolutionize the human to avatar interface.