Intel Labs prototypes virtual world for scientists

June 18, 2009 | Dean Takahashi | Comments | |

intel-rock-starsIntel is showing off a number of cool research projects today at its research day event in Santa Clara, Calif. But the coolest of all is a project called ScienceSim, which is an effort to create interconnected 3-D virtual worlds that scientists can use for experiments.

The worlds will be able to connect to each other as needed, says Intel chief technology officer Justin Rattner.

The company will debut the effort, in concert with university researchers, at the SuperComputing 09 conference later this year. The idea is to create a prototype of what Rattner says will become the “3D Internet.” The research platform will focus on immersive scientific collaboration and will be based on the OpenSim technology.

Today’s event at the Computer History Museum is smaller than Intel’s research days of past years, but Intel continues to spend billions of dollars on research every year. Rattner says the projects are a sampling of the work by 1,000 researchers in 10 different locations around the world.

We’ll write a wrap-up post at the end of the day with a focus on the event’s most interesting projects.

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About the Author, Dean Takahashi

Dean is lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat. He covers video games, security, chips and a variety of other subjects. Dean previously worked at the San Jose Mercury News, the Wall Street Journal, the Red Herring, the Los Angeles Times, the Orange County Register and the Dallas Times Herald. He is the author of two books, Opening the Xbox and the Xbox 360 Uncloaked. Follow him on Twitter at @deantak, and follow VentureBeat on Twitter at @venturebeat.

  • This is very cool. Makes me wish I were a scientist.
  • Dean --

    ScienceSim is up and can already be visited. In fact, the entire OpenSim hypergrid universe is up and running, and Intel isn't the only company up on it. I run an OpenSim server in my office and have a six regions -- each 16 square acres -- of virtual land that I own and control (and save regular backups of).

    My little grid is linked to other grids in the universe -- ScienceSim's among them -- through hypergrid teleport links, the same way that hyperlinks connect web pages. I am able to travel between grids with my avatar, without logging in separately on each new grid, and can bring my apperance -- and even belongings -- with me. For example, I regularly visit the freebie shops on OSGrid (the largest OpenSim grid, with over 2,000 regions and over 16,000 users), and bring back furniture and business tools for my office.

    I've been covering this extensively on my blog: http://www.hypergridbusiness.com -- and am starting to cover this for other magazines I write for, as well.

    Here is a small section of grids that are up and running which you can visit today: http://www.hypergridbusiness.com/2009/06/what-i...

    Companies that I profile have been using OpenSim for training, to film animated videos (a quick way to make corporate training videos, for example), for small group conferences and meetings, for elementary school classes, to demonstrate architecture products, to solicit donations to worthy causes, to sell Amazon products by showing them in 3d form, and, of course, to create virtual worlds for their own members (for gaming, for community-building, and for many other purposes).

    OpenSim is a free, open source server software, much like Apache. OpenSim grids can be run as intranets, with access only to company employees. They can also be run privately, allowing only registered users to log in. And they can be run publicly, where anyone can teleport in. And, in all three of these scenarios, individual areas can be set aside so that only a given list of people can access them.

    No need to wait for Intel's public announcement. They're working with ReactionGrid: you can register today for free, download the browser, get an avatar, and visit Intel's conference facility on that grid, and visit the ScienceSim grid with a quick teleport. To browse this universe, you can use the Hippo browser (my recommendation) or the Second Life browser, or one of several others.

    ReactionGrid registration page is here:

    Best,

    Maria
  • Forgot to actually paste the ReactionGrid URL: http://reactiongrid.com/Default/Register.aspx

    Login instructions here (including the Hippo download): http://reactiongrid.com/Support/LoggingIn.aspx

    - Maria
  • Steve Wagoner
    Way to self-promote your grid that really has nothing to do with ScienceSim, other than being able to teleport to it. That's like saying, "Hey! Come read my blog. In one of my posts, I happen to link to the ScienceSim website there."
  • The registration page for ScienceSim is at http://www.sciencesim.com/scisim/