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Biomedical Innovation with Colin Stewart ~ Biomedical news and comment from Orange County, Calif., and beyond

Working in the virtual world of Second Life

December 18th, 2007, 3:26 am · 1 Comment · posted by Colin Stewart

SkyTran ride in Second Life “INSIDE INNOVATION” COLUMN

Using Second Life as a testing ground for real-world applications

UC Irvine computer scientist Crista Lopes was happy to do all her work in the real world – until February, that is.

Now she also devotes time to programming in the computer-based world Second Life, where she is creating software to control a virtual rapid-transit system called SkyTran. Her software keeps SkyTran’s virtual cars from getting into virtual collisions at virtual interchanges of virtual tracks.

After the control software is ready in Second Life, her plan is to transfer it to a real-world version of SkyTran, proposed by the Irvine-based transportation company Unimodal Inc.

In the programming process, Lopes said, she discovered that the simplified physics of Second Life are close enough to the physics of the real world that Second Life can be used as an inexpensive simulation tool by small- to medium-sized companies. It’s a low-cost alternative to the sophisticated simulation programs in use by industrial designers at big-bucks enterprises such as NASA and the military, as well as Boeing and other aerospace contractors. …

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One Response to “Working in the virtual world of Second Life”

  1. The Grid Live Says:

    Second Life News for December 18, 2007

    From: Second Life Blog New WindLight Viewer + extended commentary! (75762) Quote from the site - Hey Residents. So, in addition to the usual links and bug fix listing, I’m going to use this blog posting to cover the first of three topics I want to ad…

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