We have been working for more then a year on a host of interactive media products, many of which I have blogged about here. Today I want to tell you about our latest endeavor, the vHUD, which is currently in pre-beta development. As you may know, we use our SilverStream Network to connect our applications to data and media outside of Second Life. We have developed methods to display images, video, and formatted text in mixed media environments. We can show multiple streams to the same avatar simultaneously, or show different feeds to different avatars on the same parcel.

We have taken the best from all of our previous applications to create the vHUD. Worn on your screen, we can beam media directly to you in any sim enabled with the SilverStream Network. As a proof of concept, we have setup dynamically created lists of available content that are separated into categories.

Tutorials - A list of machinima tutorials of or various products.
Products - Machinima commercials created and hosted by AWM Mars.
Public - Video feeds from in world broadcasters such as SLCN and Metaverse.TV, as well as RSS feeds of Metaversed and Reuters.
Flickr - A Flickr application that allows you to search for photos based on tags or user name.
Region - A short list of regions currently supporting the beta network, with teleport links for convenience.

Now the vHUD is not without its’ challenges. Using the video stream can be interesting with parcel boundaries automatically reseting the feed. Although our other media products on the SilverStream Network are designed to operate together in harmony, not all media equipment is made by us. And then there is the occasional parcel with all scripts turned off anyway … You get the idea.

We have put together a series of low rez videos covering some current operations of the vHUD.

I can imagine amazing potential for this product. You could deliver content … RSS news feeds, product videos, BlogHUD reviews … relevant to the locations that you were visiting in Second Life. Or tutorials not limited to textures, that helped you get oriented or learn a new building technique. Or simply stream individual music or entertainment videos while you work. My business partner and I watched SL Hockey for the first time today, while we finished up a build on our new island i3D. I have never watched SL sports before, but it was on SLCN, and the HUD followed me where ever I looked.

Our goal is not now, or ever has been, to convince people to log into Second Life to watch a video or surf the web. Our products are about enhancing the 3D environment by connecting users to mixed media content. Text did not die when video came to the web, and old media has its place in the new world as well.

At this stage we are looking to partner with content and service providers in Second Life. We have developed an API that will allow other companies and individuals to access the resources of the SilverStream Network for their own applications, we are interested in content providers who want their media to be available on our vHUD, and we are interested in hearing if we can develop specialized HUDs for use on private sims. Imagine the possibilities …

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 23rd, 2007 at 7:15 pm and is filed under Announcement, Business, Developing, New Technology, Scripting. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.