TechLuver.com

Nov 27, ‘07 — Naomi Kim of Reuters bring us the Brookstone story, which adds 3rd dimension to the online shopping.

“Consumers looking to avoid crowded malls and the tedium of online shopping can now shop in a virtual 3-dimensional store.

Specialty retailer Brookstone Inc. opened the virtual doors to its 3-dimensional store, which combines a Second Life-like visual experience with real merchandise customers can buy.

The virtual store replicates the look and layout of a real store. Customers can move through the aisles and browse and zoom on products using a mouse and keyboard. Detailed information is available by stopping in front of an item.

“We think it really appeals to a younger audience for us, a demographic probably 25 to 40… because of the almost gaming nature of it,” said Sweeney. Brookstone.com will still offer its wares in the conventional way, but offers the 3-D store as an alternative”. More at Reuters.

Brookstone 3D Online Store (Warning: On the next screen, you have to install -never heard before- Kinset shopping browser in order to browse the 3D store).

Related Story: EveryScape Will Show You the Real World, Online!

Worlds are not born, they are created. This is just the beginning of ours. And yours. Welcome to EveryScape beta — where together the real world is being created, online. Says EveryScape.com

Nov 26, ‘07 — Anne Eisenberg of International Herald Tribune writes an in-depth article on EveryScape,  a website that provides 3-D-like tours.

Three-dimensional mapping programs like Google Earth let people fly over the rooftops of virtual cities, and other online services lead them down individual streets.

She further writes, “Now, one company is planning 3-D-like tours of Cambridge, Massachusetts, and other cities that not only venture down streets, but also inside some businesses. Tourists to this virtual Cambridge will be able to click their way along a Brattle Street rendered in realistic detail and move through the computer-generated interiors of dozens of nearby shops and institutions.

EveryScape in Waltham, Massachusetts, will start virtual tours of streets and businesses in Cambridge and Lexington, Massachusetts, in December, said Mok Oh, founder and chief technology officer of EveryScape.

So far, a limited number of street tours in Boston, New York, Miami Beach and Aspen, Colorado, can be seen on a beta version of EveryScape’s Web site.

EveryScape’s service may be attractive to companies that want to expand their online presence beyond a standard Web listing, said Denise Jillson, executive director of the Harvard Square Business Association.

Online visitors will be able to take the tour when they go to the Harvard Square Business Association site, www.harvardsquare.com. A preliminary version of the tour, already posted, lets visitors navigate local streets, but not the interiors of businesses.

The Harvard Square site is popular, Jillson said. It gets about 2 million hits a month, about 37,000 of them first-time visitors, up from about 1.3 million and 30,000 new visitors a year ago.” More at IHT.

Los Angeles — Nov 25, ‘07 — In a computer lab at UCLA, the worlds of cyberspace and Medieval Europe merge.

Paloma Esquivel of LA Times writes a detailed article on Computer re-creation of Santiago de Compostela Cathedral portrays the building as it looked in the 13th century — which took only seven years to construct.

“A large group of computer engineers, scholars, students and other experts at UCLA have built a virtual cathedral — a computer re-creation of the Santiago de Compostela Cathedral as the building probably appeared when it was dedicated in northwest Spain in 1211.

Projected onto a screen curving nearly a half-circle, the image looks as if it belongs in the virtual world of a video game. Animated granite bricks rise up to form massive towers and Romanesque arches, and cartoon clouds fill a flawless royal blue sky.

“If we could just proceed toward the altar at ground level and then we’ll fly up later on,” John Dagenais, chairman of the Spanish and Portuguese Department at UCLA said, giving instructions to undergraduate student Meghana Reddy, who was operating the simulation. “Let’s slide on down that column.” He turned to his visitors. “Prepare yourself for a big drop. Boom,” Dagenais said, as the images flew quickly by, creating a roller-coaster sensation.

For centuries, the real cathedral, which is still standing and is said to house the bones of St. James, rivaled Rome and Jerusalem as a destination for Christian pilgrims. In recent years, modern pilgrims have rediscovered Santiago; this year, government representatives said they expect that 200,000 pilgrims will pay homage at the cathedral.

In its virtual realization, the cathedral and parts of the surrounding town are projected onto the curved screen in a specially designed theater; visitors can wear 3-D goggles that create an experience reminiscent of a ride at Disneyland.

“I’m not a Catholic,” he said. “I’m interested in what Medieval people thought, what they believed, how they behaved. For me it’s this amazing human phenomenon that impresses me, that makes me think this is worth understanding.”" More at LATimes. Photo Credits: UCLA