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Taking Living Worlds Into Peoples Living Rooms Dr. Tim Regan’ BT Labs Abstract Living worlds are Shared Virtual Worlds based in VRML. At BT Labs we ran two experiments with Sony and a production company called Illuminations examining the use of such worlds as television, so called Inhabited TV. This paper introduces the two experiments. Firstly The Mirror looked at running communities in Shared VRML Worlds alongside the BBC’s series The Net. Secondly Heaven & Hell - Live put the Shared VRML world centre stage by having one hour of national TV broadcast live from within the world by Channel 4. CR Categories and Subject Descriptors: C.2.4 distributed Systems]: Distributed Applications; 1.3.7 mee-Dimensional Graphics and Realism]: Virtual Reality. Additional Keywords: VRML, Living Worlds, TV, collaborative virtual environments. 1 INHABITEDTV The phone is an archetypal example of a technology used to support community. Though its inventors considered the broadcast of opera as its killer application, in fact it is used by people to come together. Shared VRML Worlds - the Living Worlds of my title - are also a technology to support community. 1:M l 4 1:l M:M Figure 1: Communication Model ’ PP OP 6b Admin 2, BT Labs, IPSWICH, UK +44 1473 645811 tim.regan@bt-sys.bt.co.uk Permission fo make digitahrd copies of all or part of this material for personal or chsroom use is granted without fee provided that the copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage, the dopy- right notice, the titIe ofthe publication and its date appear, and notice is. given that copyright is by permission ofthe ACM, Inc. To copy other&e, to republkh, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires specific permission and/or fee. VRML 98 Monterey CAUSA Copyright 1998 I-58113-022.8/98/2..f5.00 The route from the phone to Shared VRML Worlds may be pictured in Figure 1 . 1:l one to one communication is the phone, which we understand well. . 1:M one to many communication covers current television broadcast, advertising, and many companies web presence. It allows one corporation to talk to many people or customers. . M:l many to one communication is the free phone number or the feedback form. It allows one corporation to listen to many people or customers. . M:M generally missing is many to many communication where people form communities. 1.1 What Is InhabitedTV Communities may be focused around many thmgs:.atask e.g. business meetings, products, education, or entertainment to name a few. Inhabited TV follows the broadcaster’s route through Figure 1. The social nature of the phone has already collided with the information provision of the Internet to give us Internet chat spaces. The TV is moving towards the Internet in the shape of Web enabled TV or TV viewers on the PC. The final coming together is between the TV and Internet chat spaces into Inhabited TV- a term coined by Dr. Steve Benford of Nottingham University. Imagine combining the proven pulling power of professional broadcastelevision with the enduring appeal of audience chat and participation, and you have a vision of Inhabited TV. The producer defines a sophisticated audio-visual framework, but it is the audience interaction and participation that brings it to life. Professional content mixes with social conversation in a rich graphical environment. A community develops around celebrity characters, staged events, and chance encounters. Inhabited TV uses telepresence technologies to enrich television with interpersonal communications. The audience in Inhabited TV are no longer passive couch potatoes, but can chose an appropriate level of involvement in the life of the community and are able to play an active role. Moreover, the potential for worlds with completely different physical and social rules opens up limitless possibilities for creative Inhabited TV programmes. 1.2 Business Motivation From a broadcaster’s perspective there are two concrete reasons to enter the world of Inhabited TV. 1. In the UK, lie the US before us, we are seeing the advent of digital TV, satellite TV, and cable TV leading to a proliferation of TV channels. This is an opportunity to provide cheap yet compelling TV shows. One model for this comes from American Talk Radio where listeners phone in and debate.an issue between themselves, with little need for celebrity guests. 2. Broadcasters are loosing viewers to more collaborative media. Studies indicate that children from homes connected to the Internet spend more time online than