Web Comes Alive

It seems Nortel is on the news again, but this time its for good reasons. Nortel has been working on a project called web.alive. Its our attempt to move into the 3d world. You can read more about it by going to www.projectchainsaw.com.

Basically, a company, lets say an electronic store wants to sale their products online. Typically you can search through their products by category, read reviews left by people or compare products specs. But that approach isn't very dynamic. Sometimes its nice to hear what others customers are asking. See the product in your hands. Bottom line, you loose a lot of the interactions you would normally get in person by shopping online.

web.alive combines the online experience with in-person experience.

First, you start by creating an avatar. This is a computer person you create. Its similar to Nintendo's WI or Xbox 360 avatars. If you don't know ask you kids. They know. You can then walk your avatar in to a virtual store all in 3D. Lets say you see on the shelf a sweet flat panel TV you like. Well, you can walk over to that TV, click on the product to watch a video demo or see specs, costs, etc.

Or take it up a notch. You can walk over to a live employee and ask direct questions using a USB headset. They can hear you and you can hear them all live. Or lets say you walk up to a customer in the store. You can speak to them too. Ask them questions that maybe are not found on the FAQ link. Or just say hi. The technology allows you to hear others who are online shopping with you. The sound technology is based on distance in this 3D world. So walk away and you cant hear the person talking anymore. Walk up to someone and ease drop on their conversation. Listen to the employee talk to another customer. Or just mute someone because you don't want to hear them at all.

Its truly endless what you could do with this product. E-Commerce, school environments or a training seminar, its taking the web and making it come alive!

It might not completely replace going to the store but it sure would make things convenient and cool!