Toluu

Julian Lombardi's Blog

Socio-computational systems, virtual environments, learning contexts, and the Cobalt Project

Collaborative CAD in Cobalt!December 11 2008

Thanks again to the work of Aik-Siong Koh and his team, Cobalt now makes it possible for users to work in a deeply collaborative CAD environment. This video shows how two Cobalt users on separate computers can work with relatively sophisticated CAD capabilities over a LAN. This newly-implemented collaborative CAD capability in Cobalt opens up a wide range of possibilities for engineers and others at a distance to develop sophisticated simulations and architectures in Cobalt worlds. The ability to develop animated content within a full-featured virtual world CAD environment sets Cobalt apart from other virtual world technologies in a very significant way.

Robotic Arm in CobaltDecember 10 2008

Aik-Siong Koh and company have successfully implemented a robotic arm in Cobalt.

Lively is DeadNovember 28 2008

A quick death for Google's short-lived lively. After much flurry around its July launch of Lively as a "20% completed" PC-only 3D social arena technology, Google has now announced that it will end the service in December. Part of the problem may have been that porn had quickly made its way in to environments that were designed to provide a younger demographic with a circa 1996 Alpha World-like social chat experience. Looks like those in need of virtual sex will need to be satisfied with Second Life's offerings (see here for an opinion). Google says "It has been a tough decision, but we want to ensure that we prioritize our resources and focus more on our core search, ads and apps business." Okay, so I guess that porn is not a business they want to be in? What I find striking here is that a company with as much intellectual and financial capital as Google could not muster anything more than poorly implemented platform-constrained retread of technologies that have been around for the past twelve years.

Croquet Summer of CodeNovember 26 2008

Here is a nice write-up about Phua Khai Fong's experience on the Google’s Summer of Code (SoC) project that involved integrating freeCAD, a 3D CAD application with motion simulation in Croquet. Phua (on the left) is now working to integrate FreeCAD functionality into the basic Cobalt UI.

A Beautiful MessNovember 25 2008

Anad Agarawala demos his physics-enabled desktop metaphor.