Best Real World Use of Virtual World Technology

Hamlet Au highlighted in his recent post "2009's Top Four Real World Applications of Second Life/OpenSim". I missed his original report which is clipped below. I do think this is the best Real World uses of Virtual World technology I have seen, one of those things you look at and say of course, simple. Terminals like this in malls, hospitals & campuses could be as big a product offering as all of Second Life is now in just a few years.

Below clipped from: http://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/2009/07/3d-communication-navi-system.html

Real World Navigation System For Japanese Hospital Created With OpenSim Metaverse Technology

Anyone who's gotten lost on a sprawling college campus or another kind of large complex knows the frustrations with trying to read those 2D directory maps with a "You are here" red dot, because it's difficult to discern where "here" is in relation to everything else. In Japan's Kanazawa Medical University Hospital, however, you can find your way with a 3D mapping display that uses an OpenSimulator virtual world server to depict the hospital layout, connected to a touchscreen monitor. (Here's a Japanese language article on the technology.)

It's called the 3D Communication Navi System, a product created by partner metaverse developers Ableseed and Metabirds, which has an extended write-up of the system on its site. The hospital paid the developers 1,500,000 Yen (about USD$ 16,000) to implement it. "Kanazawa Medical University Hospital is using a standalone version so far," Metabirds' Naoyoshi Shimaya tells me by email. "One PC, with OpenSim standalone server, and viewer." He believes the hospital is considering an extended, networked version.

But why create this technology with virtual world technology, as opposed to real world video?

Shimaya argues a virtual version is easier than assembling video footage for every possible Point A-to-Point B request. "Using 3D digital world," as he puts it, "we can create navigation to any place when we want." (From my vantage, a 3D simulation is easier to "read" than real world video of the same location, since the virtual version can be visually streamlined to show only the most essential aspects.)