Posts Tagged ‘virtual worlds’

Sparkle IM Version 1.3.3 Released

Monday, July 20th, 2009

Hey everyone!

We’ve just released Sparkle IM version 1.3.3 in the AppStore today.

New features include:

  • In-app email of chat and IM logs (for iPhone OS 3.0 users only)
  • X,Y,Z support in the custom start location screen
  • Support for alternate chat channels using the “/#” command
  • Fixed some potential crashes for some users
  • “Japan” location added to the start locations

The “Japan” location in Second Life is for Sparkle users who want a common space to hang out in.  You can chat with other Sparkle users, or sometime catch some Genkii-ites on there as well.

Many of our added features come from user requests.  The best place to request new features is on our GetSatisfaction page.  We are happy to hear your input and feedback, so please keep it coming!

One Coin Comics

Wednesday, February 4th, 2009

As many have noted, we sort of dropped off the face of the blogging earth. Genkii’s been busy with all manner of projects, many of which you’ll see coming out in the next month or two.

We’re excited to launch One Coin Comics, a comic imprint available for iPhone. One Coin Comics will publish interactive iPhone comics, in multiple languages using our proprietary Hybrid Engine.

Our first title is “Foxfire,” an interactive manga in Japanese and English (with more languages planned) and you can read more about it here. Issue #1 will be available soon. Other titles to follow soon after.

Sometime in spring, we will open the One Coin Comics platform to allow writers/artists to submit their own finished artwork, which we’ll assemble and release in the iPhone App Store, sharing revenue with the creators.

Read a brief post about One Coin Comics in Techcrunch.

We’re still doing virtual worlds and social media work, with more to announce on those fronts shortly.

Beyond that, we promise more blogging and the occasional rant. You can follow our tweets from Genkii, from me, Adam, Yuki, and Jeff.

Bug us if we don’t keep in touch!

-Ken

ご無沙汰しております。ご存知の方もいると思いますが、最近色々なプロジェクトの開発にかまけて、暫くブログの更新を怠っていました。でも努力の甲斐あって一、二ヶ月の間には新サービスが日の目を見ることができそうです。

まずひとつ目は、One Coin ComicsというiPhoneで読むコミック専用アプリ。独自のハイブリッドエンジンを搭載したこのアプリで、One Coin Comicsが提供するインタラクティブiPhoneコミックを読むことができます。さらに、配布されるコミックはすべて多言語で公開される予定。

記念すべき初のコミックは「狐火」。日本語、英語のバイリンガルで配布されます(将来的にさらに多くの言語オプションを予定)。詳しくはこちら。この作品の第一話と、他のタイトルを近日公開予定です。

今春中にはOne Coin Comicsで執筆していただける作家さん、アーティストさんを募集できるようにしたいと思っています。ここで採用され、iPhone App Storeで公開された際にはクリエイターさんとの売り上げをシェアする予定です。

TechcrunchOne Coin Comicsが取り上げられているので興味がある方はご覧ください。

バーチャルワールド、SNSの方面でも何やら企画が持ち上がっているので、そちらの方も近いうちに発表できればと思います。

今後もスタッフがここのブログにたまに愚痴を言いに来たりしますので時間があれば遊びにきてやってください。TwitterでもGenkiiAdamYukiJeffのTweetが読めますよ。

消息不明になったら一言声をかけてくださいね!

ケン

Of Tokugawa Japan and Virtual Worlds

Wednesday, July 16th, 2008

There’s an interesting paper by Dr. Eiko Ikegami and Dr. Piet Hut, both of Princeton, in The Journal of Virtual Worlds Research . Dr. Hut is also with MICA , one of Genkii’s partners.

The article examines artistic circles in Second Life via comparison to those existing in Tokugawa Japan . I very much support the argument that virtual worlds create something of a neutral, shared space that allows people to experiment in ways they might not normally do in their everyday lives, across society and geographical boundaries. What a fantastic opportunity for society as a whole.

From the article: "Such alternative spheres of sociability have been often coupled with people’s search for the possibility of creating a new social order built on the horizontal association of free individuals rather than on structures of vertical integration."

A very interesting and accessible read on a topic that I believe will get much more attention in the future.

Here’s the abstract for "Avatars Are For Real: Virtual Communities and Public Spheres," with a link to the full PDF download.

-Ken

China, Astrophysics, Informatics, and Virtual Worlds

Friday, July 4th, 2008

We’ve been crazy busy here in the Genkiiverse, so sorry for the silence. Adam and I took a trip to Shanghai and Beijing, meeting up with our partners at Fix8 , the crew at HiPiHi , and one of our new partners, iLemon .

iLemon provides solutions for custom 2D and 2.5D virtual worlds. Based in Shanghai, they’ll help us extend our options for creating virtual world presences for clients. Check out their site.

We’ve also partnered with two exciting academic institutions working in virtual worlds.

The National Institute of Informatics (NII) is located in Tokyo, and is doing a wide range of research in virtual worlds. Led by Dr. Helmut Prendinger , their projects include the development of a Multimodal Presentation Markup Language 3D (MPML3D) , allowing improved scripting for interactions between virtual world bots and users. Genkii will help NII distribute their ideas to a wider group of users.

The Meta Institute for Computational Astrophysics (MICA) is using virtual worlds for large-scale simulations and visualization of astronomical data. Astronomers and researchers from a number of universities and institutions including Dr. Piet Hut from Princeton and Dr. Jun Makino from the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan . Genkii will help MICA with explorations and development in OpenSim, and assist in facilitating support for this research from interested companies.

So, yeah. Lots and varied news. But there’s more to come!

Artificial Intelligence and Accelerating Change

Sunday, June 1st, 2008

Working with technology and writing science fiction can sometimes be frustrating, as it’s much easier to envision grand, sweeping changes in our society than it is to bring those changes about. Technology is advancing rapidly, and I’m firmly in the camp of those who believe the Technological Singularity is near. The rate of change in our everyday lives is notable; the rate of change in technology is staggering.

We’ve recently partnered with Novamente , and will help them bring their advances in artificial general intelligence to Japan. Dr. Ben Goertzel , Novamente’s CEO, is the author of multiple books and articles on the subject, and is actively working in virtual worlds to advance AI technology.

Check out this video of some of Novamente’s previous work in Second Life training virtual pets.

As a futurist and SF writer, I’m excited to work with Dr. Goertzel and Novamente. Researching artificial intelligence using virtual worlds seems like a natural progression. Both technologies are vital to moving society to the next level.

Is the Singularity near? You bet it is. And it’s going to be an exciting ride.

Ken

最新のテクノロジーに関わる事業や、SF小説を書く仕事というのは時として苛立たしい。世界中があっと言うような画期的な改革を思い付く事は簡単だが、それを現実社会にもたらすのは難しいからだ。めまぐるしい進化を続けている技術を見て、私は、ついに技術的特異点 の時代が来たのだなと感じた。昨今は、日常生活における変化のスピードというのは目覚ましいが、テクノロジー面での変化のスピードは滞っていると言っていいだろう。

つい最近、Novamente という会社と提携したが、その目的はNovamente社の持つAI(人工知能)テクノロジーの日本への導入である。Novamente社のCEO、Dr. Ben Goertzel はこの業界では名が知れており、AIに関する書籍や記事を多数執筆している。将来バーチャルワールドでもこの技術を活かしたいとし、日々努力しているという。

Novamente社が以前Second Life で行ったバーチャルペットの育成プロジェクトが動画で紹介されているので、気になる方はチェックしてみるといいだろう。

SF作家として、またフューチャリストとしてDr. GoertzelとNovamente社の協力は大変嬉しく思う。AIの可能性をバーチャルワールド内で研究するという事は、その性質から言っても自然な成り行きであろう。どちらの技術も、社会の進化にとって重要な要素だと私は思っている。

Ken

Virtual Worlds Conference and Expo in Tokyo

Thursday, May 29th, 2008

We had a good time chatting with old friends and meeting new ones today at the Virtual Worlds Conference and Expo at Tokyo Bigsight. It was fun to see Philip Rosedale mingling with Japanese Second Life users and fans.

After the Second Life user party, we trekked over to a great Showa era izakaya in Shinjuku for dinner and drinks with Ben Goertzel where we chatted about artificial intelligence and virtual worlds.

Later, we joined some people at BarTube, where Ben, Philip, Jun Doi, and dozens of virtual world geeks like us jammed, drank, and chatted about the future.

Next time you should join us!

Ken

Welcome

Tuesday, May 27th, 2008

Hey there. Welcome. So it took us a while to get some information up on the site. There will be much more to come, though none of us are really web development geeks. All other kinds of geeks, sure.

Take a look around, peruse our presentations, and send us some feedback, if you’d be so kind.

And check out the new Ugotrade article. Good stuff about Genkii , plus words from our friends at Metabirds and Melting Dots .

We’ll be at the Tokyo Virtual Worlds Conference and Expo 2008 this Wednesday and Thursday. Hope to meet some new people there

Ken