3d Internet For V Business

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

Abstract

Information Technology is changing day by day and companies are amending to the inevitable changes. The traditional Internet has started to evolve in to 3D internet thereby challenging companies in to becoming more active in virtual worlds in order to keep up with the latest technology.

In this review, the virtual world environment is high-lighted from a V-Business perspective to emphasize on potential opportunities and challengers that businesses face when entering virtual worlds. 3D internet architecture and other basic technological parts also discuss in very briefly to understand the operation of virtual word. Moreover, the future outlook for v-business in virtual worlds is discussed at the end of this review paper.

1. Introduction

This chapter will provide an introduction about the concept called 3D internet and v-business. This study is focus to the basic technical concepts of the 3D internet and future business opportunities which are born with 3D internet which is known as visual business.

3D internet is one of new technology which provides complete virtual environment that facilities communication, interaction and services. 3D internet or virtual world is an online community that takes the form of a computer-based simulated environment through which users can interact with one another and use and create objects. The term has become largely synonymous with interactive 3D virtual environments, where the users take the form of avatars visible to others.[5]

Today virtual environments are highly use for games, but it is a powerful new technique to reach consumers, business customers, co-workers, partners, and students. Because of the 2D Internet has started to evolve into a 3D Internet, thereby challenging businesses into becoming more active in virtual worlds in order to keep up with the latest technology. V-Business is a good path that companies can use to enter to the 3D internet.

V-Business is the sale products from a virtual world. Basically this research discuss what type of value has virtual business added to companies operating in visual environment. The main purpose of this independant study is to examine the future outlook for v-business in 3D internet, by investigating what opportunities and problems companies face in such a virtual setting, along with their predictions about its future development.

The paper is organized as follows. Section 2 describes the Overview of 3D Internet for virtual business. Section 3 is about the Major Researches carrying out related to 3D Internet and V-Business. Applicability of 3D internet for business finctions will be discussed under the Section 4. Future Directions of 3D internet for v-business will be presented in Section 5. The final section is about the discussion of the topic.

Overview

This section will provide the detailed information about the concept of 3D internet and V-business and why companies need to enter to the v-business. Last subsection will provide the information about second life which is a 3D internet platform.

Along with the evolution of the Internet, new business opportunities have emerged for diversification-seeking firms, and traditional concepts have evolved into more technological, sophisticated and widespread models. Virtual world is a relatively popular notion derived from the 3D Internet concept. A virtual world is a part of the 3D Internet, it is a society-based platform where users are represented by iconic symbols, also referred to as avatars.[5] The purpose of many virtual worlds, apart from socializing with other avatars, is to create personal and professional opportunities. Second Life is one of good example for a virtual world.

Because of the development of the 3D internet, the involvement of virtual worlds, and the rise of the concept of v-business has become evident in the way firms traditionally conduct business. Today’s endless technology opportunities have challenged many companies to alter their business to a more widespread customer audience. To win the global market, businesses might have to adapt to new technologies like 3D internet. Business in virtual worlds might be a business model of the future.

2.1 Problem in brief

The development of electronic commerce has been constrained by the inability of online consumers to feel, touch, and sample products through web interfaces, as they are able to do in conventional in store shopping. This problem limits most of the customers from online shopping or e-commerce. This limitation can be partly alleviated by providing customers with virtual product experience, to enable potential customers to experience products virtually. By using visual control, companies can view products from various angles and directions. Functional control enables customers to explore and experience different features and functions of product. Therefor, 3D graphics have the ability to increase the productivity of online businesses

3.1 3D internet

The operational principles the 3D Internet shares with its predecessor include open and flexible architecture, open protocols, simplicity at the network core, intelligence at the edges, and distributed implementation.[6] The basic components of the 3D internet architecture can be define as follows.

World servers:

provide user- or server-side created, static and dynamic content making up the specific web place (3D environment) including visuals, physics engine, avatar data, media, and more to client programs. A world server has the important task of coordinating the co-existence of connected users, initiating communication between them, and ensuring in-world consistency in real time. They may also facilitate various services such as e-mail, instant messaging, and more.

Avatar/ID servers:

Virtual identity management systems containing identity and avatar information as well as inventory of registered users and providing these to individual world servers and relevant client programs while ensuring privacy and security of stored information. Avatar/ID servers can be part of world servers.

Universe location servers:

Virtual location management systems similar to and including current DNS providing virtual geographical information as well as connection to the Internet via methods similar to SLurl. They can also act as a distributed directory of the world, avatar servers and users.

Clients:

Browser-like viewer programs running on users’ computers with extensive networking, caching, and 3D rendering capabilities.

Additional components of the 3D Internet include web-places 3D object creation/editing software, 3D modeling and design programs such as Sketch-Up and standardized mark-up languages and communication protocols.[6] Emergence of new software and tools in addition to the ones mentioned should naturally be expected.

The conventional web caching approaches will not be adequate for the needs of the 3D Internet environment consisting of 3D worlds, which may be hosted on different servers. One challenge stems from the fact that avatars contain significantly more information about the user who is visiting a 3D world than cookies do about a 2D web site visitor.

For instance, avatars contain information about appearance and behavior. As avatars move between worlds, caching will be needed in server-to-server interactions to enable fast and responsive transition between worlds. This will be intensified by avatars carrying objects or virtual companions with them, which will require the transfer of large volumes of information in a short time when changing world. Another challenge is related to the fact that some virtual objects or companions are essentially not static documents but running programs. They have code that defines how they react to certain inputs, and they have a partly autonomous behavior. Thus, when an avatar and its companions move to a world, the world server (or servers) needs to execute the corresponding code.

3.2 Concept of the v-business

The concept of a Virtual environment can be classified as a fairly wide concept from where many sub-concepts originate. Virtual environments incorporate virtual reality, virtual worlds, v-business and all internet activity involving information access and interaction between users, without any necessary physical contact or physical closeness. [5]

The most famous and researched topic descending from virtual environments is the concept of Virtual reality. Virtual reality can be define as as:

"Virtual reality is a high-end user-computer interface that involves real-time simulations and interactions through multiple sensory channels. "[7].

Virtual worlds we refer to a three dimensional society on the Internet where the user is represented by a digital alias, also called avatar. This implies an obvious distinction between virtual worlds and the above mentioned definition of virtual reality. In a virtual world user interact through a third person, the level of interaction is not as advanced compared to virtual reality technology.

A virtual world is an online community that takes the form of a computer-based simulated environment through which users can interact with one another and use and create objects [8].

One example of a virtual world that many people probably can relate to is an online gaming system, where the multi-user setting allows users to communicate and access each others’ information worldwide, independent of time and place.

Ultimately, this study aims to develop new knowledge about v-business. V-Business is a concept originating from the introduction of virtual worlds. As virtual worlds developed and people started to become attracted and involved in these worlds, many companies recognized the great opportunities of conducting real world business activities in these worlds, namely v-business.

3.3 Second Life

Second Life is a virtual world platform created by Linden Lab in San Francisco and has a rapidly growing population.[5] Second Life is the largest virtual world, with tens of millions of square meters of virtual lands, more than 13 million registered customers.[9] It is a 3D internet-based platform where users, also called avatars, can connect with each other through chatting and voicing. Not only individual avatars, but also businesses have emerged on Second Life’s marketplaces in order to promote their goods or services, receive feedback from customers, sell products, have meetings and organize events for product releases etc. There is no particular limit for the activities.[5]

A Second life store

4. Applicability of 3D internet for different business functions

Learning and Training

Virtual world is a good way to train employees because 3D internet offer the possibility to reproduce the real world or to create imaginary worlds, providing experiences that can help people in understanding concepts as well as learning to perform specific tasks in a safe environment. The possibility of delivering educational 3D VEs through the Web allows one to reach potentially large numbers of learners worldwide, at any time[12]. Employing 3D graphics allows for more realistic representations of subjects or phenomena, offering the possibility of analyzing the same subject from different points of view. Examples in medical education include 3D reconstructions of parts of the human body and 3D simulators. [13]

Product Visualization

3D product visualization makes it possible to view precise representations of products and processes.[10] Product visualization involves visualization software technology for the viewing and manipulation of 3D models, technical drawing and other related documentation of manufactured components and large assemblies of products. Product visualization software typically provides high levels of photo-realism so that a product can be viewed before it is actually manufactured. This supports functions ranging from design and styling to sales and marketing. [11] A 3D Web store can have some advantages:

it is closer to the real-world shopping experience, and thus more familiar to the customer,

it supports customer’s natural shopping actions.

it can satisfy emotional needs of customers, by providing a more attractive experience,

it can satisfy social needs of customers, by allowing them to meet and interact with people.

Virtual Communities

3D virtual communities on the internet allow a large number of users to build and interact among each other inside a visual world.[2] The main distinctive feature of this kind of 3D Web sites is that users are allowed to build and inhabit visual community spaces, collaboratively engaging in the construction of large scale spaces (including artwork, buildings and full towns) and other social activities, like the virtual ceremony.

Future extraction

With more than 1 billion users world-wide today the Internet is poised to become a fully pervasive infrastructure providing anywhere, anytime connectivity. With the further deployment of wireless technologies, the number of users of the Internet is expected to jump to some 4 billion in a matter of few years.[3]

In regards to future outlook for v-business, respondents’ replies were in general very similar. The most frequent future outlook for v-business according to the businesses, regards the emergence of new virtual worlds, and the possibility of moving in between different virtual worlds with the same avatar. That is to say, the possibility of inter-connectivity will enable users to have the same avatar through different virtual worlds, regardless of which virtual world they belong to.

In viewing the future from an avatar or user perspective, some of the respondents of the interviewed companies also believed that individuals would become more integrated in such a way that they would start putting up their own servers within virtual worlds such as Second Life and have such servers internal to their businesses, through the Second Life Grid and other third party servers.

Another new concept is 4D mobile internet. The 3D presentations with mobility combined with other multi sensory information from a user context will be needed to personalize such services[4]

Discussion

A virtual business employs electronic means to transact business as opposed to a traditional brick and mortar business that relies on face-to-face transactions with physical documents and physical currency or credit. [10] In recent years, technological developments have made it possible to build interactive 3D models of objects and 3D Virtual Environments that can be experienced through the Web, using common, low-cost personal computers.

Five main value adding opportunities were identified when interviewing companies that had engaged in v-business such as Communication & Interaction, Marketing, Learning more about virtual worlds, Extension of web presence and ultimately Being on the forefront. [5]

In addition to value-adding opportunities, five main complexities and restrictions were identified in the virtual world such as accessibility and technical restraints, Comprehension, Verifying user’s identities.