Virtual Worlds Sample Application Gallery

Virtual Worlds Platform

Between 1997 and 2000 Microsoft Research's Social Computing Group built a platform for the deployment of online 3D virtual worlds called the Virtual Worlds Platform. Here we feature projects and prototypes that Microsoft Research and others around the world built with the Virtual Worlds Platform. If you are interested in building your own virtual world there are several technologies available, and many are found on a list at http://www.web3d.org/x3d/vrml/. For further information please contact timregan@microsoft.com.
Acknowledge Systems - The Electronic Mercantile Exchange
The Electronic Mercantile Exchange was a prototype environment built by Acknowledge Systems using the Virtual Worlds Platform. Acknowledge Systems developed online environments for the Financial Services Industry and worked with a major Futures Exchange in the creation of this prototype. Among the features of the environment were a collaborative research center and a simulated trading floor that allowed users to take part in a multi-user mock trading session, complete with 3D graphics and audio. Used for marketing and education, the environment allowed visitors to see, hear, and participate in simulations of these complex markets.
British Telecom - Ages Of Avatar
Created by BT's Advanced Communications Technology Centre, the Illuminations Group and the University of Nottingham together with BSkyB's [.tv], Ages of Avatar taked the user on a multiuser journey through four virtual worlds that celebrated birth, growth, power and spiritual enlightenment. It offered the exciting experience of a new media form known as Inhabited Television and was run on the Web 24 hours a day alongside [.tv] programs. Events in the worlds will be featured regularly on [.tv], and many of [.tv]'s programs will be extended by related discussions, concerts, games and dramas in the four worlds. The four worlds are split into the 'ages of the avatar': starting in the Kindergarten, moving to Behaviour Shift, a teenage world of confusion and uncertainty, then becoming a tycoon in the Trade & Power world, and finally reaching your Nirvana, a world representing the age of spiritual enlightenment. In the worlds you could fully interact with other inhabitants and the world around you. As well as an interactive world where you could communicate with other inhabitants in real-time, you could leave messages for other users in the specially commissioned forum. Also, you were be able to send virtual postcards from within the world to friends in the real world. A sort of 'I wish you were virtually here!'. And to make your virtual existence as pleasant as possible, [.tv] were also be offering a range of online tutorials and factsheets.
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center: Social Support for Cancer Patients
Medical research shows that social support contributes positively toward healing. Often, in the real world, it is difficult for immune-compromised patients, their families and caregivers, to meet with others easily. Working together with researchers from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center (the Hutch), Microsoft Research designed, developed, deployed, and evaluated the effects of an online social support virtual world for Hutch patients, their families and caregivers. Available Media: Download a 36Mb MPEG File and view offline View a Powerpoint presentation about HutchWorld
Georgia Tech MediaMOO 7th Birthday Online Symposia
On March 20th, 2000, Amy Bruckman and Carlos Jensen of the Georgia Institute of Technology hosted an online symposia celebrating MediaMOO's 7th Birthday. The topic of discussion amongst panelists focused on the use of 3D graphics in online environments. They linked a 3D room hosted on Virtual Worlds with the MediaMOO conference room so that participants in both environments could communicate and contrast their experiences. Panelists included Lili Cheng from Microsoft Research, Wendy Kellogg from IBM Research, Raph Koster (a.k.a. Ptah) of LegendMUD and Ultima Online fame, and Hannes Vilhjalmsson of the MIT Media Lab.
MIT Media Lab: Zora
Zora is an on-going research project at the Epistemology & Learning Group at the MIT Media Laboratory, lead by Marina Umaschi Bers. It is a narrative-based graphical multi-user environment purposefully designed for kids to explore personal identity and values through storytelling and programming. Zora engages young people in building virtual spaces as representations of their complex self and creating communities in which values and attitudes are put to the test. Following the constructionist educational spirit, in Zora young users can design their own spaces and can populate the virtual city by creating objects, symbols and characters with stories and cherished values. They can program them with storytelling behaviors to engage in conversations with the visitors. At the same time, users can communicate with each other in synchronous and asynchronous way and engage in a participatory democracy and social support networks. Zora is been used by two different groups of young people in need of exploring issues of identity and values with both educational and psychotherapeutic goals: 1) pre-teenagers in the context of a summer camp aimed at character development, moral and multi-cultural education, and 2) young patients in the dialysis unit of Boston's Children's Hospital. This work is been done in collaboration with professionals in the Department of Psychiatry and Nephrology.
Microsoft Research - Flatland
Flatland was a remote presentation support system that provides feedback channels to a remote presenter. Flatland was tightly integrated with NetShow, which generally provides the primary presenter-to-audience channel. Flatland was built on top of the V-Worlds core platform, which provides distributed, persistent objects. Available Media: Download a 33Mb MPEG File and view offline
Microsoft Research - MusicWorld
MusicWorld was a graphical collaborative musical performance environment where avatars joined together to explore a live, on-line 'album' of multiple songs. Within each soundscape, avatars could mix sounds and compose their own musical patterns that are shared in real-time. Even though all of the avatars could affect the music individually, all the changes they made are instantly updated across the network, guaranteeing that the music is truly collaborative and heard the same way for all participants. The space exemplifies the capabilities of V-Worlds to host a dynamically changing environment where avatars could be expressive and change their world in real-time. Available Media: Download an 88Mb MPEG File and view offline
NYU Interactive Telecommunications Program: Explorers of the Ancient World: Egypt
Created by NYU ITP students: Jennifer Kelley, Allison O'Mahony, and Sarah Jensen with assistance from The Dalton School, "Explorers of the Ancient World: Egypt" is a collaborative educational environment exploring ancient Egyptian civilization and the crafts of archaeology and museum curation. The project simulates the excavation of a New Kingdom royal tomb in Egypt's Valley of the Kings. The tomb features a wide range of objects and artifacts representative of the late 18th to early-19th dynasties in ancient Egypt. "Explorers" is intended as an educational simulation to be used by grade school students (age 9 - 12) in the classroom environment, and it is being developed in collaboration with teachers and museum educators. "Explorers of the Ancient World: Egypt" is implemented on the web using Microsoft's Virtual Worlds research platform. The project features multi-user interaction in a 3D virtual environment with rich textures.
MSR Social Computing Group - WindupWorld
WindupWorld illustrated some of the most interesting capabilities of Microsoft Virtual Worlds. The avatars were windup toys which move along cubes. Energy slowly drained as the toys get "wound down." Avatars could charge each other up or interact with free flowing bots. If a toy gets "overwound" it blows up and loses its body. The goal of our live demo is to reach the golden cube which will give you super energy.