When the going gets tough, the tough go... shopping?

I've written previously about the A2Z camera HUD and I also occasionally use CamSync, both gadgets for taking control of the avatar camera, the former for remote location monitoring, the latter for sharing the teacher's view with students.

The gadget I am using here is the Shopping Camera Server system by Bitman Voom. This is a versatile system that lies somewhere between the other two. Its primary role is not educational but commerce-oriented, helping shoppers to scan products in a store without entering it (useful in case of lag). Basically they sit in a chair and the camera moves between the locations instead of the avatar. While it is possible to script this kind of camera effect, this gadget makes the process much easier and more scalable. Although in some ways akin to the the A2Z HUD, the end-result is available to students, not just the teacher.

Setting-up is straightforward. Camera positions are stored in a server prim that needs to be rezzed first. You can then rez multiple cameras pointing at features of interest, assigning each a unique channel number, and they will then connect automatically with the server. Avatars then sit in the special chairs (or poseballs if you want to make your own) and, if necessary after pressing Esc, they are shown the preset camera views with a pseudo-HUD inside the camera allowing them to move to and from through the views, teleport to the current view or unlock the camera, i.e. restore it to the default, over-the-shoulder view.

This worked pretty well, albeit occasionally navigation prims failed to rez quickly enough in the new camera location. It's also a pity that the pseudo-HUD can't be minimized or made semi-transparent as it obscures part of the view. By default cameras are black but I suspect they could be retextured.

The system is constrained to about 100 m around the server although that did not cause problems (there is a sim-wide extension pack but it does not bypass intrinsic limits due to draw distances). Three camera sizes are provided to ensure that more distant cameras are not left unrezzed due to their size. Likewise it's possible to change the sit script in the chairs so that it shows a less shopping-inspired hovertext.

Two alternatives to the standard chair are provided. Firstly, there is a touring chair that allows authors to guide avatar cameras through a predetermined sequence, complete with timings and explanation. Secondly, there is a HUD that allows the owner to dial up a particular view and move the camera a little and save the position to the server. The ability to add camera positions is defined by a notecard in the server. Unlike the pseudo-HUD, this proper HUD can be minimised and has a range of other functionality. Sadly, as far as I could tell, its use is limited to the owner unless you purchase the Builders version. This comes with a HUD that allows you to capture camera positions without the prim camera as well as a distributable HUD (you will have to modify the permissions to make it no-trans). There's yet another version for conference settings.

Overall, this is a nice tool at a nice price (L$299). If you want to take students through an light-touch induction without the risk of their getting lost, this is one possibility. Likewise, it may be of use if your objective is to reduce lag or to facilitate groupwork. At a pinch students could also create tours.

As some of my classes are group-based, I've placed the chairs at a central location (also the location of the camera server) specific to each group. Depending on the class, the six surrounding 'pods' might variously be problem-specific, stages on a pathway or student-specific. The demo video shows the shopping cam version in action and the way it can handily be used with shared media prims viewed from above.

Embedit.in

I'm looking at various ways of getting PowerPoint files onto prims. Shared media has the attraction that there is no resizing of individual images and no upload fee. There's no shortage of tools for the job, but embedit.in seems to work well if you are happy with asynchronous display and want an alternative to Slideshare. Moreover, it has some automation facilities (haven't looked at those yet).

I had to fiddle a bit with the texture repeats and positioning but otherwise the end-result isn't bad. No fast-forward or auto-play though. Files can be private or open/downloadable.

Possible tip: the conversion was both much faster and more accurate if I saved the PowerPoint as a pdf and uploaded and converted that rather than the .pptx file.

Time capsule

Having generated some evolutionary pathways, I thought I'd better have a time capsule to travel along them. Based on a script I got from the old ICT Library, this tourbot will ultimately allow students to script the commentary that goes with each stage of the journey. As with most tourbots, the path is marked out first and the waypoints captured on a notecard.

If it has a fault, it is that it is more quaint than white-knuckle: the Model T of time travel. I'm not entirely sure that's a bad thing.

Molecule Park

Mea culpa, I haven't been blogging much. A visit by an ISTE tour group spurred me into some modestly dynamic action, turning the variegated display of molecules at one end of the island into something marginally more coherent. It still doesn't attempt to teach chemistry or structural biology, nor even how to create molecules inworld. However, it does provide a single focus for molecule rendering with a wide range of structures displayed and links to places where further info is available. Hope it's useful.