Dunno if anyone saw this:
http://games.slashdot.org/games/06/02/15/1427222.shtml
I've never seen "Second Life", evidently it's some type of virtual reality world. So this "event" deal has an online replica of a little coffee shop, so the online visitors see the same environment as the RL visitors. On top of that, some kind of projector-camera deal will allow the RL visitors and online visitors to interact / talk to each other.
It's not necessarily new, but still interesting. I recently got an IP phone software so I can have phone calls through a bluetooth headset. My broadband isn't the best in the world, but already the voice quality is better than my cell phone. As the tech gets better and faster, at some point video conferencing to the desktop will become effective. So when does a VR like this "Second Life" become a useful alternative to phone conference calls / conference room based video conferences?
More importantly, when will I be able to log into a VR like "Second Life" and stroll around BH, cast spells, and kill me some pthieves?
Charles