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Worlds Chat
Worlds.com, or Worlds Chat, is an online virtual world-based chat program introduced in April 1995 by the company Worlds Inc. Worlds.com was the first program Worlds Inc. made available to the general public, and it was free of charge to download from their website. The popularity of the program, in addition to prior successful developments associated with Worlds Inc. such as Tamiko Thiel's work with Steven Spielberg to create Starbright World (a virtual world for ill children), allowed the company to procure a minority investment of $5.6 million from Pearson PLC in June 1995. User interface A ''Worlds.com'' user is allowed to choose from a gallery of existing three-dimensional avatars to be their representation in the virtual world. The gallery is presented in a first-person perspective. Once an avatar is chosen, the user is placed in the central hub of a virtual space station. The user sees representations of other online users in the station. Users can exit a platform throug ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tamiko Thiel
Tamiko Thiel (born June 15, 1957) is an American artist, known for her digital art. Her work often explores "the interplay of place, space, the body and cultural identity," and uses augmented reality (AR) as her platform. Thiel is based in Munich, Germany. Early life and education Tamiko Thiel was born June 15, 1957 in Oakland, California, and raised in Seattle, Washington. She is the daughter of Midori Kono Thiel, a Japanese-American calligrapher, and Philip Thiel, a German-American. Thiel attended Stanford University and graduated with a B.S. degree in Product Design in 1979. She went on to receive her M.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering in 1983 from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). There, she studied human-machine design at the school's Biomechanics Lab and computer graphics at the precursors to the Media Lab. In 1991, Thiel received her Diploma in Applied Graphics, specializing in video installation art, from the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich, Germany. Care ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Steven Spielberg
Steven Allan Spielberg (; born December 18, 1946) is an American director, writer, and producer. A major figure of the New Hollywood era and pioneer of the modern blockbuster, he is the most commercially successful director of all time. Spielberg is the recipient of various accolades, including three Academy Awards, a Kennedy Center honor, a Cecil B. DeMille Award, and an AFI Life Achievement Award. Seven of his films been inducted into the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress. Spielberg was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, and grew up in Phoenix, Arizona. He moved to California and studied film in college. After directing several episodes for television including '' Night Gallery'' and '' Columbo'', he directed the television film '' Duel'' (1971) which gained acclaim from critics and audiences. He made his directorial film debut with '' The Sugarland Express'' (1974), and became a household name with the 1975 summer blockbuster ''Jaws''. He then directed box of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Starbright World
Starbright World was an online community for children with chronic illnesses established in 1995. Initially conceived as a 3D virtual world for use in hospitals, it was developed by Worlds Inc. for the Starbright Foundation. The 3D world―credited as one of the first applications of virtual reality in medicine―operated until 1997, when it was shut down due to technical issues. In 1998, it was replaced with a private social network, which is now defunct. Worlds Inc. would later launch lawsuits against several massively multiplayer online game companies, claiming that they held the rights to the concept of multiplayer virtual worlds based on patents obtained in relation to Starbright World. Virtual world The planning for Starbright World began in 1993. The project was organized by the Starbright Foundation, a charity headed by Steven Spielberg which was a sister organization of the Starlight Children's Foundation. Initially, Starbright World was conceived as a 3D virtual world ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Doom (1993 Video Game)
''Doom'' (stylized as ''DOOM'') is a 1993 first-person shooter (FPS) game developed by id Software for MS-DOS. Players assume the role of a space marine, popularly known as Doomguy, fighting their way through hordes of invading demons from hell. Id began developing ''Doom'' after the release of their previous FPS, ''Wolfenstein 3D'' (1992)''.'' It emerged from a 3D game engine developed by John Carmack, who wanted to create a science fiction game inspired by ''Dungeons & Dragons'' and the films ''Evil Dead II'' and ''Aliens (film), Aliens.'' The first episode, comprising nine levels, was distributed freely as shareware; the full game, with two further episodes, was sold via mail order. An updated version with an additional episode and more difficult levels, ''The Ultimate Doom'', was released in 1995 and sold at retail. ''Doom'' is one of the most significant games in History of video games, video game history, frequently cited as one of the List of video games considered the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
VRML
VRML (Virtual Reality Modeling Language, pronounced ''vermal'' or by its initials, originally—before 1995—known as the Virtual Reality Markup Language) is a standard file format for representing 3-dimensional (3D) interactive vector graphics, designed particularly with the World Wide Web in mind. It has been superseded by X3D. WRL file format VRML is a text file format where, e.g., vertices and edges for a 3D polygon can be specified along with the surface color, UV-mapped textures, shininess, transparency, and so on. URLs can be associated with graphical components so that a web browser might fetch a webpage or a new VRML file from the Internet when the user clicks on the specific graphical component. Animations, sounds, lighting, and other aspects of the virtual world can interact with the user or may be triggered by external events such as timers. A special Script Node allows the addition of program code (e.g., written in Java or ECMAScript) to a VRML file. VR ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Virtual World
A virtual world (also called a virtual space) is a computer-simulated environment which may be populated by many users who can create a personal avatar, and simultaneously and independently explore the virtual world, participate in its activities and communicate with others. These avatars can be textual, graphical representations, or live video avatars with auditory and touch sensations. Virtual worlds are closely related to mirror worlds. In a virtual world, the user accesses a computer-simulated world which presents perceptual stimuli to the user, who in turn can manipulate elements of the modeled world and thus experience a degree of presence. Such modeled worlds and their rules may draw from reality or fantasy worlds. Example rules are gravity, topography, locomotion, real-time actions, and communication. Communication between users can range from text, graphical icons, visual gesture, sound, and rarely, forms using touch, voice command, and balance senses. Massively mult ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Metaverse
In science fiction, the "metaverse" is a hypothetical iteration of the Internet as a single, universal, and immersive virtual world that is facilitated by the use of virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) headsets. In colloquial usage, a "metaverse" is a network of 3D virtual worlds focused on social connection. The term "metaverse" originated in the 1992 science fiction novel '' Snow Crash'' as a portmanteau of " meta" and "universe". Metaverse development is often linked to advancing virtual reality technology due to the increasing demands for immersion. Recent interest in metaverse development is influenced by Web3, a concept for a decentralized iteration of the internet. ''Web3'' and ''metaverse'' have been used as buzzwords to exaggerate the development progress of various related technologies and projects for public relations purposes. Information privacy, user addiction, and user safety are concerns within the metaverse, stemming from challenges facing th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cyberspace
Cyberspace is a concept describing a widespread interconnected digital technology. "The expression dates back from the first decade of the diffusion of the internet. It refers to the online world as a world 'apart', as distinct from everyday reality. In cyberspace people can hide behind fake identities, as in the famous The New Yorker cartoon." (Delfanti, Arvidsson, 150) The term entered popular culture from science fiction and the arts but is now used by technology strategists, security professionals, government, military and industry leaders and entrepreneurs to describe the domain of the global technology environment, commonly defined as standing for the global network of interdependent information technology infrastructures, telecommunications networks and computer processing systems. Others consider cyberspace to be just a notional environment in which communication over computer networks occurs. The word became popular in the 1990s when the use of the Internet, networking, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Active Worlds
Active Worlds is an online virtual world, developed by ActiveWorlds Inc., a company based in Newburyport, Massachusetts, and launched on June 28, 1995. Users assign themselves a name, log into the Active Worlds universe, and explore 3D virtual worlds and environments that others have built. ActiveWorlds allows users to own worlds and universes, and develop custom 3D content. The browser has web browsing capabilities, voice chat, and basic instant messaging. History In the summer of 1994, Ron Britvich created ''WebWorld'', the first 2.5D world where tens of thousands could chat, build and travel. WebWorld operated on the Peregrine Systems Inc. servers as an after-hours project until Britvich left the company to join Knowledge Adventure Worlds (KAW) in the fall of that year. In February 1995, KAW spun off their 3D Web division to form the company Worlds Inc. Britvich was eventually joined by several other developers, and the renamed AlphaWorld continued to develop as a skunkwo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Internet Properties Established In 1995
The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, public, academic, business, and government networks of local to global scope, linked by a broad array of electronic, wireless, and optical networking technologies. The Internet carries a vast range of information resources and services, such as the inter-linked hypertext documents and applications of the World Wide Web (WWW), electronic mail, telephony, and file sharing. The origins of the Internet date back to the development of packet switching and research commissioned by the United States Department of Defense in the 1960s to enable time-sharing of computers. The primary precursor network, the ARPANET, initially served as a backbone for interconnection of regional academic and military networks in the 1970s to enable resource sharing. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
