The 3-D internet

01/10/2008

A fully immersive 3-D web has been dreamt about since Neil Stephenson’s 1992 visionary novel, Snow Crash. This month may see that fiction become a reality. An Australian company has launched a revolutionary free tool that offers web browsers a world-first opportunity to view the internet in three dimensions. Melbourne based ExitReality said its application allows users to turn any regular web site into a 3-D virtual environment, where an avatar representing them can walk around and meet other browsers viewing the same web site. The software seemingly goes beyond any other 3-D destination software, such as Second Life, as it offers customisable 3-D modelling to existing and new websites. The 4MB internet plug-in is freely downloadable at www.exitreality.com, (which currently remains untested by i-level). Browsers can use the tool to turn their social networking pages on sites such as Facebook and MySpace, into a virtual apartment where photographs are displayed on the wall and links to friends are doors leading to other apartments.