DIRECT DIMENSIONS MODELS IMPORTED INTO AVAYA WEB.ALIVE

Direct Dimensions is a dynamic company out of Baltimore producing white light and laser scanned models for reverse engineering, virtual heritage and world heritage. In their latest newsletter they posted a model download of a trilobite fossil (Phaetonellus from the Ordovician) with over four million polygons . These animals from the genus ARTHROPODA emerged from the Cambrian exploson of fauna and thrived for almost 300 million years before being wiped out in the great Permian extinction 250 million years ago.

ORDOVICIAN TRILOBITE IMPORTED INTO WEB.ALIVE

CLOSE-UP OF TRILOBITE FOSSIL

In addition we received a detailed statue of  VENUS which we textured with an antimonial bronze effect and imported into the same DIRECT DIMENSIONS web.alive testing environment at http://wa692.avayalive.com.

      We are intending to continue to import higher polygon models with ever higher resolution textures into this envelope pushing environment.

HAWSER HOSTS BODIAM CASTLE ON MAC FRIENDLY SERVER

              Hawser has embraced AVAYALIVE ENGAGE and have been relentlessly dogging AYAYA in pursuit of running their own servers in Europe. They are planning on having a virtual hub from which a virtual participant can choose to enter a series of environments offered with specific office customized requirements. In our case the MellaniuM offer will rotate around a series of themes illustrating the vast range of possible choices using any and all 3D models of any file format..
          Just in the last week they have acquired several of the new version 3.0 servers which are now MAC friendly and are running flawlessly on the SAFARI browser. They contacted us and asked us to provide a prototype showcase to run on their servers and we supplied them our BODIAM CASTLE which is now running on the MAC enabled server at http://castle.hawser.nl/5/html/index.html

SCREENSHOT OF THE BODIAM CASTLE IN AVAYALIVE ENGAGE

 HOSTED BY HAWSER

                                  MAC participants have had no issues to the present time and the jetpacks have operated perfectly.Merwijn Ligtenberg and Nils Brenkman of Hawser have worked hand in glove with us and the environment upload and server operation so far has been flawless. 

CHECKING OUT THE GATE TOWERS FROM THE BARBICAN BRIDGE

		Talking Pyramids
		@Bennu
@joerigby1339 Thanks Joe. Checked it out,  - works, looks good:          castle.hawser.nl/5/html/index.h… twitpic.com/9xoc88

BODIAM CASTLE: IS THERE A BUSINESS MODEL IN ARCHAEOLOGICAL SIMULATIONS?

I was hoping to write my next blog post after the launch of AVAYALIVE ENGAGE (previously known as web.alive) version 3.0  but rumour has it that snags have emerged in the MAC capability function and further delays are unavoidable. I am hoping that this is an unfounded rumour since generally speaking academics do have a preference for the MAC platform. At MellaniuM we have often discussed the possibility of developing a business model for archaeological simulations. The present state of  virtual visualisation capabilities appears to be able to produce realistic interpretations both by CAD software or  "water tight meshes" from laser scanning and photogrammetry. We have been making herculean efforts to partner with modelers and laser scanning groups to collaborate on an extensive proof of concept. Recently we were sent a feasting hall of the famous Bodiam Castle replete with tables of food and medieval tapestries adorning the walls. Alice Watterson ,who sent us the 3D studio max model is presently working for her Ph.D.on reconstructing stone age habitations in the far North of Scotland using laser scanning techniques.

FEASTING HALL IN BODIAM CASTLE RENDERED IN 3D STUDIO MAX

               

  We decided that having the feasting hall embedded in the context of the actual castle model would provide a much more complete indication of the potential of using virtual environments. We had already worked with Donald Sanders of Learning Sites (previous blog post) to generate a multi-participant environment using a model of a 300BC farmhouse in Atica, Greece. We have since mutually agreed that the feat of rendering archaeological sites in AVAYALIVE ENGAGE is technically practical. However the one and only truly difficult task now at hand is to develop a business model  by which we can generate revenue to create ever more complex and immersive experiences to attract paying participants. So we turned our attention to Bodiam Castle which is a national treasure owned by the National Trust in the United Kingdom..

      Bodiam Castle is a 14th century moated castle in East Sussex in England. It was built in 1385 by Sir Edward Dalyngrigge with permission of Richard ll to defend the area against a potential French invasion during the Hundred Years' War.

As you can see using the view from GOOGLE EARTH the Sketchup model indicates the status of the Bodiam Castle with ruined living quarters and the present day single access through the main portcullis and gateway.

The floor plan of the original fortification shows the feasting hall (or Great Hall) is in close proximity to the rear exit and adjacent to the kitchen and food storage areas.

A screenshot the Watterson feasting hall as imported into the AVAYALIVE ENGAGE platform. We have to admit some of the the textures such as the floor and the terracotta jugs have not been totally accurately rendered but we are constantly working on improving the environment.

Another screenshot  from the North West tower with active smoke simulation exiting the chimney on the roof of the Great hall.

In less than two days the Bodiam Castle model  rendered in 3D STUDIO MAX and the Great Hall detailed area was embedded in the completed environment. The original access route was reconstructed over a bridge running parallel to the castle wall onto a fortified barbican with two drawbridges. This environment is available to visit at http://castle.hawser.nl/5/html/index.html The surrounding countryside texture was incorporated from the existing GOOGLE EARTH view.
         As I have mentioned previously that this is one of the latest environments we have created with an archaeological theme. One of the first undertaken was in collaboration with the University of Southampton in the Portus Project during the CAA 2012 conference. where we entered an exhibit in the poster section also comprising the Acropolis kindly supplied by Donald Sanders of Learning Sites Inc. We were asked by Stylianos Mystakidis to provide a field trip to the Acropolis for students and faculty for the University of Patras, Athens, Greece.

STUDENTS AND FACULTY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PATRAS ON THE STEPS OF THE PARTHENON

       So in summary over the past year or so we have posited the thesis that AVAYALIVE ENGAGE could be a viable method of simulating virtually reconstructed interpretations of ruined or presently non-existing archaeological sites. Indeed renowned virtual archaeologists such as the distinguished Prof. Bernard Frischer the director of the Virtual World Heritage Laboratory  (of Rome Reborn 2.0 fame) has written at length about the fact that the time is now ripe for computer science and art to be melded together for the benefit of world heritage. Furthermore he cited Second Life and Open Sim as potential media platforms to compile modeled heritage sites as a method of virtual collaboration in archaeology. In his keynote lecture in 2009 at ARQUEOLOGICA 2.0 Frischer was proposing a journal called "SAVE" which stood for "Serving and Archiving Virtual Environments" and stated that "SAVE" could be thought of as "Second Life for scholars and that it intends to harness human creativity by historical methodology to recreate with greatest possible fidelity, the historical cultures that once existed across the globe"

        There is presently little confidence left  in these platforms to utilize heavy polygon content mesh models but perhaps UNITY or, could I suggest, there is little doubt that AVAYALIVE ENGAGE can certainly be harnessed to provide the technology for Frischer's vision.
         If we now turn our attention  to the use of laser scanned 3D models for existing monuments it has left us all at MellaniuM totally non-plussed, baffled and bewildered. We have been working with Michael Raphael of Direct Dimensions and we have successfully imported scanned items and faces into AVAYALIVE ENGAGE in a proof of concept project. Michael commented on a LinkedIn group discussion from Elizabeth Lee of Cyark.

"MAKE HIGH QUALITY WATERTIGHT MESHES WITH TEXTURES AND PUT THEM IN A FASCINATING VIRTUAL WORLD. ADD EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMMING AND YOU WILL HAVE A DESTINATION WORTH VISITING"

             "Joe/Liz, I know you both, you need to talk, meet and collaborate. Together you could present meaningful and interesting content (CYARK sites) within a well-developed interactive 3D world (AVAYALIVE). Henry's comment above is accurate "bubble-view" panoramics don't cut it!"
              "In todays world of fully interactive 3D video games and virtual worlds, this is the minimum experience level required to excite visitors. Anything less in underwhelming and defeats the purpose for having 3D data in the first place. Make high quality watertight meshes with textures, and put them in a fascinating virtual world. Add educational programming and you will have a destination worth visiting"

We  tried contacting CYARK  several times by phone and as usual all the fantastic modes of social media and the latest Internet communication methods were ineffective. Ironically enough though Tom Greaves the Executive Director of Cyark visited the Acropolis and spoke to us about having further discussions. After a period of a month or so we realized once more that our efforts were in vain.

"I AM 100% BEHIND YOU THAT YOU ARE ON THE RIGHT TRACK-THAT REALITY WILL COME TO IMMERSIVE VIRTUAL WORLDS"

I e-mailed Michael Raphael and it seems that as he put it;
 "And I especially agree with your realization of the turmoil in our space around the 3D reality capture methods and technologies.
            We have very deep issues regarding data rights, re-purposing of data, public/private issues, and even challenges in the for-profit vs. non-profit approaches.  Both CyArk and The Smithsonian, specifically, among many others, are in experiences challenging issues on this topic right now - I know this for a fact because I am working with both of them on this.............
 I am 100% behind you that you are on the right track - that reality will come to immersive digital worlds."

"FIE ON THEE! FOR SHAME"

So basically the future of developing a potential business model rests with the content producers. If they slave away on their CAD software or laser scanners are they simply willing to have all these models of Stonehenge, Mount Rushmore or the Egyptian cities and temples safely stored in limbo in a vast store of untouchable copyrighted  items.
         I say "Fie on thee!, for shame" What on earth are you planning to do with these models? Have them available to view one at a time on some viewer which just allows you to see and rotate them with no realistic textures or contextual environment for experiencing with multiple participants? Can you not see the possibilities? What can be blinding you to the potentialities? Oh! Of course you have very deep issues with someone else repurposing your data, yeah right.

MELLANIUM AND LEARNING SITES SIGN EVALUATION LICENCE AGREEMENT

400 B.C. Greek Farmhouse from Learning Sites rendered from CAD software

Joint PR statement
We are pleased to announce that a license agreement has been reached between Learning Sites (http://www.learningsites.com/) and MellaniuM (http://www.mellanium.co.uk/) with the purpose of importing one of Learning Sites virtual worlds into the web.alive/Unreal platform for eventual immersive global collaborations. The first Learning Sites virtual world to make the transition will be the Vari House (a 4th c. BCE Hellenistic beekeeper's house in Attica,Greece).

The Vari House was excavated in the 1960s, and the 3D computer models developed by Learning Sites became a pioneering virtual world for inter

active education in the late-1990s. It seemed appropriate that this well-known package become the first test case of the new partnership. Learning Sites has been an international leader in innovative digitally reconstructed ancient worlds for interactive education, research, museum display, broadcast, tourism, and publication.

With a feature set designed originally for the enterprise, web.alive is a web browser plug-in that integrates with an existing network, security, and business applications to enhance communications, collaboration, and employee or consumer engagement. In this way, web.alive minimizes operational overhead, dramatically increases accessibility to users, and delivers face-to-face interaction at the low cost of Web collaboration. Avaya web.alive represents the future of communications and offers the best of publicly and privately accessible immersive Web

conferencing.
MellaniuM has leveraged this platform to produce unique and innovative environments scaled to up to 10 km. square containing very high-polygon models. These environments can be developed either from existing 3D mesh models compiled from 3D modeling packages or from geo-referenced terrain maps using the latest UAV scanning techniques. For example, it is entirely possible to create accurately scaled simulations of long-gone masterpieces of the Industrial Revolution or entire archaeological sites, as we hope this partnership will demonstrate.

Vari Farmhouse courtyard imported in web.alive

Keep watching our two Websites for updates about and invitations for joining in the Vari web.alive experience.

EXPERIENCE VIRTUAL SUSHI AT KOI, HAMILTON

In the upscale restaurant area of Hess Village in Hamilton, Ontario one can experience fine dining at the KOI/SIZZLE bar. The cobblestoned street and the well maintained elegant Victorian environs are a breath of fresh air in this otherwise rather jaded city of South-Western Ontario. It's a magnet for the young crowd at night and during the day the local debonaire set of lawyers and professionals can be often seen sporting their various european automobile extravangances. Hollywood movies are shot in the pristinely manicured local pedestrian alleyways and byways, the local Scottish Rite Church is a gothic, awe-inspiring site indeed.

But, I digress, the most important development in the ongoing growth of Mellanium comprises the virtual reproduction of this bar and restaurant in the very finest of details into a 24/7 available web.alive environment. MellaniuM is continuing to expand its technique and this showcase illustrates this ever-improving capability. The bar contains the exact duplicates of the furnishings and overall liquor bar accoutrements present in the real bar.

The menus and wine lists are reproduced with exactness that is breathtaking. The cutlery, soya pots and condiments are likewise rendered to perfection.

I invite you to experience the first virtual SUSHI bar, come and meet the bar manager, hob nob with the owners and get yourself a discount on the real thing. Come on in and enjoy a free drink at the real bar, click here to enter.

SOFTLY, SOFTLY, CATCHEE MONKEY

It has to be admitted that AVAYA's web.alive has not been launched with a fanfare of brass or a modern rendition of Elgar's "Pomp and Circumstance". In fact quite the opposite in some cases. I am sure there have been several instances where seriously enthusiastic individuals have been disillusioned by the inability to work an arrangement with AVAYA .

Following another completely different train of thought I had a SKYPE conversation with John Jainschigg (Director of Ziff Davis Enterprise's Internet and Community Laboratory) a few weeks ago where he made some simple logical arguments that the AVAYA business model and the web.alive platform may be somewhat incompatible.

"So these guys(AVAYA) are actually experts in negotiating semi-sustainable positions within locked markets while bucking huge technology trends at some level.

It clearly doesn't fit into the core pattern of "purpose-dedicated high cost hardware"on which Avaya has built their sustaining position. i.e., Avaya's PBXs are software, too. But they've built a long-term mystique around PBXs that says ...

1) This is 'mission critical' - don't chance using off-brand junk.

2) This is 'reputational' - your company's phone image is critical to success.

3) Your users are too stupid to use Skype

4) Phone technology is the worst-case fusion of "tricky" and "boring" -- there are no triumphs here for 20-year-old hackers. This is about dialtone, dialtone, dialtone (and value-added features). Let the kids fool with the web.

Whereas web.alive is clearly edgy, clearly software, and doesn't shout 'incredible collaboration value!' except to a small minority of thinkers.

The original concept for 'PC based phone systems' was very much driven by the notion of 'apps, apps, apps.' That is, there was general recognition that a PC-based PBX from someone like Avaya constituted a platform, and that developers might create new stuff for that platform.

This has never happened. The 'apps' idea was right-on, but went to mobile, where it's exploding"

His basic thesis does make one ponder. However software collaborative solutions will develop and evolve and hardware options are being supplanted whether AVAYA likes it or not.Two weeks after John said this SKYPE did a face plant and has left lots of business owners seriously disappointed. So AVAYA's web.alive has to be robust, bug-free and ready for serious endeavour from a business perspective. There is no room for performance hyperbole if the US government is considering this platform for a virtual communications and collaboration platform.

The latest announcement from Nic Sauriol on the web.alive development team entails the roll-out of version 3.0 (by mid 2011) which will be compatible with MAC OS and have simple push button features to allow for a complete record of any meetings in-world.

So I think we must assume that if web.alive is to be taken seriously the future versions of this platform have to be commercially fit-for-purpose. Launching prematurely or with extravagant claims is obviously not on the cards and so it does seem that AVAYA are approaching this market with quiet confidence and the motto "SOFTLY, SOFTLY, CATCHEE MONKEY" does seem to apply .

Give the present demo area a try ( every time I visit it is a hive of activity with AVAYA employees debating the administrative rights demands and piling into a private room with the SIP phone flashing for another closed door session) at http://demo.avayalive.com. This AVAYA demo environment allows anyone entry to booths and office settings which can be configured to receive inworld phone calls. Recently word of mouth is generating an increasingly larger volume of visits and official presentations. Numerous banks, universities and collaboration consultancies from around the world have been showing intense interest. Indeed also, Robert Metcalfe (inventor of Ethernet) and who now leads innovation initiatives at the University of Texas at Austin Cockrell School of Engineering was shown around and was suitably impressed.

In the mean time MellaniuM is expanding the range of possibilities by utilizing the development site at www.wagenesis.org to produce environments with Roman monuments which can be explored with jet packs with realistic physics (take a trip it's quite a challenge) When you go in world you will see rotating jet packs, run up to them and depress the space bar to launch off the ground (use W-S-A-D to control direction).

Our capability to introduce these animated scripts and shader effects illustrate the potential of web.alive to generate much more immersive experiences in the near future.

PTAKE A RIDE ON A PTERANODON

YAMAHA DIRT BIKE (HD 3D RENDERING)

MellaniuM is now offering tours of several environments illustrating the range of possibilities using high definition models in the new web.alive 2.5. Dimensionally accurate scale reproductions can be imported into the web.alive for astonishing engineering prototyping. Dinosaur exhibits and natural history museums are ready for your perusal on request.

Riding high above a dinosaur exhibit

3D Natural History

Web.alive, I am sure you all know by now, is one click of a URL and you are inworld engaging with the assets and VOIP just works. We can now bring you a kaleidoscope of instances with the engineered furnace for refining copper (an old one but one of the best), apartments and aviaries

Anode Refining Furnace

Contact us over SKYPE at joe133952 for a tour of any of these environments