Project Wonderland in the Age of Immersive Education Kevin Roebuck Community Manager, Immersive Technologies Global Education & Research blogs.sun.com/kevinr kevin.roebuck@sun.com http://sun-isig.org/ 1
Motivation Sun's workforce has reached a tipping point > On any given day, over 50% of employees are remote (even more on Fridays) > Everyone works remote, even in the office! > Up until now, remote work has been a choice Problems > Social Interaction > Remote Management > Brainstorming Current technologies lacking 2
Challenges How can we maintain a culture of innovation if people are having trouble with activities such as brainstorming? How can we maintain the cultural center of our organizations without relying on physical spaces to bring people together? Technology, while not sufficient for success, has potential to be part of the solution By Drew Brayshaw 3
Why a Virtual World? Truly spontaneous conversations Flexible, adaptive environment Forces lateral thinking Engaging mechanics Quickly iterate and easily reinforce base concepts Capturing back-channel Space provides context for content High emotional bandwidth 3-D natural for sharing and visualization Foundation for new modalities of learning 4
Second Life Experiment Compelling experience > Serendipitous encounters > Received help from strangers > Sense of presence was strong, but not complete Drawbacks > Lack of audio (at the time) > SL names plus fanciful avatars made it impossible to tell who was who > Social experiences possible, but no way to do real work > Scripting allowed for only limited extensibility > Security (Access, IP rights, Content, Privacy) > Explicit content and behaviors 5
What is Project Wonderland? Project Wonderland is a toolkit for creating collaborative 3-D virtual worlds. Within those worlds, users can communicate with high-fidelity, immersive audio, and can share live applications such as web browsers, open office documents, applications and games Project Wonderland is under active development by Sun Microsystems Laboratories and the opensource community https://lg3d-wonderland.dev.java.net/index.html 6
Live Demo Project Wonderland 7
Sun Virtual Worlds Software Stack World World customized to support Sun's distributed workforce Includes applications for sharing and collaboration Client Project Wonderland Open source Java 3D-based graphics engine Manages world, animation, and avatars Supports app sharing (Java, X apps, Windows) Extensible and customizable worlds Server MPK20: Sun's Virtual Workplace (Example World) SunSPOT (sensors) Project Darkstar Open source communication and app framework Targeted at games Highly scalable Handles persistence Allows extensible set of core services Sun Proprietary/Confidential: Internal Use Only Java Voice Bridge (audio)
How the World Works? > The world is divided into discreet volumes called cells > A cell can be almost anything..document, app, animation > Cells are nested into a tree structure very similar to a scene graph (but not quite) >Cell tree divides scene graph into network sized chunks > Managed by Wonderland File System 9
Project Darkstar Game Server http://www.projectdarkstar.com/ 10
Java Voice Bridge Uses Voice over IP, NIST SIP, & RTP 100% Java Technology Range from CD-quality to telephone audio Stereo & private mixes TM High fidelity audio in 3D environment 11
SunSPOT Sun Small Programmable Object Technology > Real-time Wireless Sensors > Accelerometer, Temperature, Altimeter, etc > Motion Capture > Swarm Intelligence Wonderland Integration Open Source JVM (Project Squawk) 12
Open Source 100 % Pure Java Source Code > CVS Repository > Parallel Development Multi-Platform Binaries > Windows, Mac OSX, Linux, Solaris GPL v2 license Requires Java 6 IDE Toolsets World Builder 13
Open Content Open Art Path, Use existing tools: > Commercial: Maya, Photoshop, 3D Studio, Poseur, etc. > Free: Blender, Gimp, Sketchup Open standard file formats > X3D > Collada Digital Repository Integration Discretionary Access control for content protection 14
A World of Possibilities Multiple ways to create new worlds > Artwork in the form of 3-D models, images and animations > Custom code for creating new, interactive, collaborative 3-D applications > Mixture of artwork and custom code 15
Wonderland Status Active open source community Currently at 0.4 Release Workgroup Release 15-25 Simultaneous Avatars > Features: > World Builder > Basic meeting recording > Enhanced telephony support > Video Player & webcam support > Windows application sharing > Webservices Integration: Flickr, igoogle, etc > 0.5 Platform Release - Dec/Jan > New Avatar system > New High-Performance Graphics/Rendering Engine (J/Monkey) > Collada Support 16
Use cases and scenario's Significant interest in business grade virtual worlds, social networking and simulation systems > Internal collaboration > Training > On-boarding > Shared Simulations > Virtual Labs > Distance education > Real-time Data Visualization > Language Studies Programs > Accessability (Autism, Blindness, etc) > Software Development 17
Technical Requirements Modern game hardware 3D accelerated graphics > 128MB video memory > ATI or nvidia ~2GB RAM Linux, Windows, Mac, Solaris Dual-core/Quad-core AMD servers for host pilots Requires Java 6 Scales up or down 18
What's Next? More focus on Mixed-Reality Create adaptable spaces by breaking the laws of physics and fixed geometry Graceful adaptation to less capable devices Add sensor-based gesture recognition Sun Spot 19
Sun Vision Real work accomplished in the virtual world 3-D Web= Federation of Virtual Worlds Free and Open Source Software 20
Wonderland Pilots Virtual Northstar, Saint Paul College MiRTLE, University of Essex, UK Ministry of Education, Brazil Ministry of Ed/Industry, Singapore University of Zurich, Switzerland New Media High School Modesto City Schools University of Oregon United Nations, Switzerland Harding High School University of Pittsburgh Claremont Community College 21
Immersive Education Building Wonderland Nodes on the Education Grid Sun as certified H/W platform for multi-world servers Open Standards Immersive Education Days Events http://www.immersiveeducation.org/ Sun Proprietary/Confidential: Internal Use Only
Open Virtual Worlds Project 2 year Partnership Focus on making it easier to learn, work, and exchange ideas in virtual space Develop Open-source educational spaces, content, and objects $250,000 Investment 23
Virtual Learning Labs New Student & Faculty Start-up Business Saint Paul College, Center-of-Excellence Annual software upgrades, maintenance, Support World-building services http://www.virtuallearninglabs.com/ Sun Proprietary/Confidential: Internal Use Only
CommonNeed 1st Wonderland Hosting and Provisioning Partner Hosted Worlds Service > Educational: $250/setup and $125/month maintenance (includes 20 registered users) > Commercial: $800/setup and $275/month maintenance (includes 20 registered users) > 20 Additional User Accounts: $100/month Enterprise Integration Services SunLabs technical consulting for system instrumentation, performance and scaling Sun Proprietary/Confidential: Internal Use Only
What s Happening! Barriers to social networks, games and computers approaching zero Multi-mode communication Kids are fiding their own voice through games and social networking sites and at ease with technology Drivers of new technology adoption are 5-14 years old Gamer Generation 26
Traditional e-learning Systems Falling behind Can t compete with the onslaught of rich media consumer services Poor entry-point to learning Not easily adaptable Limited to zero room for creativity Limited to 2-D Patent battles stifling innovation Commoditization 27
Just Ask the Students Games make it easier to understand difficult concepts 51% I would be more engaged in the subject 50% I would learn more about the subject 46% > (56% of students in K-12 chose this as their #1 reason) It would be more interesting to practice problems 44% Speak Up 2007 for Students, Teachers, Parents & School Leaders Selected National Findings - April 8, 2008 28
... Or the Teachers Increasingly teachers are becoming interested in use of games > to increase student engagement (65%) > address different learning styles (65%) > focus on student-centered learning (47%) > develop problem solving and critical thinking skills (40%). No differentiation based upon gender, teaching assignment, years of experience or education level Only 6% of teachers do not see any value in even exploring gaming within education Over 50% of teachers said they would be interested in learning more about integrating gaming technologies into teaching strategies 46% would be interested in professional development 11% said that they are currently incorporating some gaming into their instruction Speak Up 2007 for Students, Teachers, Parents & School Leaders Selected National Findings - April 8, 2008 29
Community Open Education in Wonderland Educational Applications Open Curriculum Best Practices Industry Partnerships Enterprise Integration Events & Discussions http://sun-isig.org/ 30
Change (y)our World Requires Purchase, GI 73223912 Sun Proprietary/Confidential: Internal Use Only