Blue Mars+Xbox Kinect on Display at APEC!

We're posting from the Hawaii Convention Center, where we are showing a demo of Blue Mars to thousands of international delegates attending the APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) 2011 conference!

We're part of an exhibition presented by SEE-IT, a non-profit organization (founded by our CEO Henk Rogers) whose mission is to showcase and promote innovative technologies developed here in Hawaii, and encourage more science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education in Hawaii's schools.

In addition to our Blue Mars, Blue Mars Lite and Blue Mars Mobile applications, we're featuring a custom-made interactive display just for APEC, using Xbox Kinect motion sensors and a giant LED screen to enable visitors to interact with our avatars using movement.

We also released a new city in Blue Mars that will let you get a virtual taste of our exhibit, so be sure to check it out!

Transformers Wearable Items on Sale in Blue Mars

Autobots, roll out!  In collaboration with , a virtual goods licensing, marketing and distribution company, we have released wearable head and arm parts of Bumblebee, one of the main characters in the Transformers movie series.

Now your avatar can become "more than meets the eye..."

Meemo, who obtained the rights from toymaker Hasbro to produce and sell virtual goods based on the Transformers movie franchise, has teamed up with Avatar Reality to release wearable body parts of the character Bumblebee. There are 3 parts: Head, Right Arm, and Left Arm, each being sold for 500 BLU.


Here is how you can purchase these items:

•  On Blue Mars Mobile for the iPhone and iPad:
• From the display avatars:
• Click on this avatar Blink for the male version, or this one for the female version.
• When Blue Mars Mobile launches and the Bumblebee avatar shows up, tap on the Item List tab on the right-hand side.
• Tap on any of the 3 Bumblebee parts to check out and purchase.
• From the Search function:
• Tap Search on the bottom menu tray, and tap Search by Item Name.
• In the search window, enter the keyword "bumblebee."

• On Blue Mars Lite for the PC or Mac:
• From the display avatars:
• Click on this avatar Blink for the male version, or this one for the female version.
• When Blue Mars Lite  launches and the Bumblebee avatar shows up, look on the Item List on the right-hand side.
• Double-click on any of the 3 Bumblebee parts to check out and purchase.
• From the Search function:
• Click on the Item Search icon on the top menu bar, or select Window > Item Search.
• When the search window opens, enter "bumblebee" in the Keyword field.

Blue World Notes: Why Your Blue Mars Avatar Seems to Look You in the Eye

When a virtual world veteran visits Blue Mars for the very first time, she usually notices a surprising and sometimes eerie thing: Her avatar seems to look right at her. This happens not just when the user's camera is positioned right in front of the avatar, but even when the avatar is facing away. It will sometimes just turn around and seem to look right at you -- as if to say, "Don't you wish you were here instead of me?" (At least that's what I imagine my Hamlet Au avatar thinking, when he turns back to stare at me.) As it happens, this is an intentional design decision by Avatar Reality developer Koji Nagashima, who's created 3D characters for both videogames and movies.

"I think direction of eyes is very important point to make the avatar 'alive'," Koji tells me. Before joining Avatar Reality, he was Cinematic Character/Simulation Technical Director for the hit videogame franchise God of War 1/2 (among other titles), and before that, senior programmer for 2001's groundbreaking CGI movie Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, which brought the first photorealistic 3D characters to the big screen. However, the problems are somewhat different, when you're conveying believability in a virtual world.

"On a cinematic project," Koji explains, "all animators carefully make animation for eyes. But in our world, the program needs to take care of that." Eye animation in a virtual world or MMO is challenging because the avatar's position or the user's camera changes so often. "That's very interesting for me," Koji says.

His solution was to make the avatar respond relative to the position of the camera: "When the camera is just in front of the avatar, he keeps looking at the camera." When the camera is to the side of the avatar, he looks less at the user. And to convey a sense of autonomy, when the player rotates the camera, the avatar's gaze starts following it.

All this is in service of breathing life into Blue Mars avatars, but Koji Nagashima isn't finished. He's tweaking some issues with the avatar's gaze, and in the future, he wants the eye contact to reflect the avatar's personality: For example, active avatars will look at the camera much more often, while shy avatars will largely avoid the camera's gaze. "Something like that," Koji says. "That's a future aim."

What about Blue Mars should I write about next? Email and let me know: hamlet at bluemarsonline dot com.

Update, 12/1: Fixed Koji's credit from Medal of Honor: South Pacific to God of War 1/2 -- which is, in any case, the bigger game!

IDIA Lab launches IDIA in Blue Mars!

--Jasmine Spearing, Marketing Associate

Too often history is lost and forgotten, and with it the potential for future generations to learn from the past. The Institute for Digital Intermedia Arts, or IDIA Lab, wants to not only recover the lost artifacts of history, but also to recreate exact digital replicas of them in their original environments, allowing us to experience and appreciate them in a way which has not been possible until now.

Blue Mars will be the home of IDIA Lab’s new City called IDIA, which features artifacts and art works that were recreated meticulously using 3D laser scanning (check out Hamlet's blog on laser scanning here). What’s even more impressive is that all of the items can be experienced in their original environments, which were built with the guidance of art historians to ensure authenticity.

So, now you can experience the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition in all its original glory and visit an exact replica of a Japanese temple complete with Buddha statues in their original historical contexts.

IDIA Lab is a collaborative research and design laboratory exploring the intersections between art, science and technology, and IDIA in Blue Mars was created by a collaborative team of IDIA faculty, staff, students and external partners. IDIA Lab Director John Fillwalk explains, “IDIA Lab is an academic research and hybrid design lab – we offer curriculum through other academic units such as Architecture, Art and Music. We work closely with graduate and undergraduate students in those areas in providing them experiential learning and research opportunities connected to our projects – some of which are student driven.”

IDIA Lab plans to do more work in Blue Mars in the future. “We have several other initiatives in Blue Mars in development that will launch in the coming months that explore other potential in virtual worlds for understanding and collaboration,” said Fillwalk.

Other future projects will include the launch of an open virtual campus for use by educators interested in engaging Blue Mars as a platform for learning, virtual interactive and immersive art installations – including hybrid reality approaches which unite the physical and virtual, and in designing robust connectivity and integration with other information and media sets.

Check out IDIA now in Blue Mars! For more information on IDIA Lab, visit http://idialab.org/.

Blue World Notes: What Do You Want Your Blue Mars Profile to Say About You?

The latest build of Blue Mars comes with a new profile section for you and your avatar, and every option in it is meant to be a conversation starter, when you mean another Martian: Likes and Dislikes, says, Favorite City in Blue Mars, and my favorite, a place to list what other virtual worlds you belong to -- I listed mine "Second Life (Hamlet Au)", so people will immediately know my SL avatar name. In my experience writing in Second Life, avatar profiles are the easiest way to find a connection point of common interest, when you meet another player. It's also a chance to express a lot about your real personality, from the safety of your avatar. If you're a longtime Blue Mars member, I hope you still take the time to fill it out, because I think we'll discover some interesting things about ourselves, and the growing Blue Mars userbase.

(I'm in Hawaii this week at the Avatar Reality office this week, by the way, so I'll be spending a little extra time highlighting new features that Avatar team has been making, in hopes they'll serve the community.)