![]() It's not clear, however, whether Second Life is ready to serve as a consumer-friendly platform for online commerce. ![]() Though Virtual Reality Modeling Language - a format for 3-D graphics on the Web introduced in the mid-'90s - never really caught fire, perhaps IBM is on to something. It aims to be a major contractor in these virtual worlds. ![]() IBM is betting that a Second Life-style 3-D interface will become a popular alternative form of navigating both the Internet and corporate networks. While the IBM-Sears partnership manifests itself in Second Life, Rowe anticipates other worlds or "metaverses" will arise. The store prototype lets consumers visualize 3-D home theater installations, create customized storage units for garages, and model different cabinet colors.īecause Second Life is accessible from any PC with Second Life's client software, your significant other will have the opportunity to log on from afar and veto the vivid lime color scheme that the Sears sales associate was too polite to condemn. Rowe says that he hopes the virtual store will let customers do things they can't do in real life, such as create a 3-D model of a kitchen and plan equipment and finishes either from home or from a Sears store. The Second Life Sears may evoke a sense of dj' vu - it borrows the 3-D design tools found at, such as the Sears Virtual Decorator, which presents a 3-D room with changeable design. Only Circuit City and Sears have been announced. Rowe and his colleagues are working with some two dozen clients. ![]() "What we're trying to do is help businesses bridge the virtual and the real worlds to benefit their customers," says Michael Rowe, senior project manager for virtual worlds and 3-D Internet, a group IBM formed last December. The first product of that collaboration is a Sears virtual showroom, located on IBM's island in Second Life, next to the virtual electronics store IBM is building for Circuit City. On Monday at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, the two companies intend to announce a partnership to explore applications designed to move real merchandise in virtual worlds. ![]()
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