Publisher:
Manning
Author: Peter Small
ISBN: 1884777589
Publication Date: November 98
Retail Price: $38.95
Buy this book now!
At times, Web developers can tend to be caught up in a certain mindset when it comes to Web technologies. We like to hear about tools and techniques that we can use to make our sites more effective. We love to hear about potential applications of Internet technology, but our imagination can tend to be limited by those applications which we have already seen and used. We also tend to brush off some technologies as being too forward thinking for the average Internet users.
The use of avatars, which are basically "the embodiment of a concept or idea," is one of those technologies. This book, Magical A-Life Avatars, presents this technology in a fashion that could give us an indication of how to use this flashy media now, and how it may be used in the future. Hopefully it will at least present the reader with some ideas to seed their own minds and Web sites.
There are many potential applications for the use of avatars on the Internet. As author Peter Small points out, "The book puts the case for seeing all of life and communication technology in terms of information theory. This puts them both into a common framework where one can merge with the other. From there, you can see client side software emerging which is not just applications, but, personal enhancement tools (PETs): prothestheses for interacting with the Internet."
Small's book takes the reader on a journey into the concepts of artificial life and A-Life avatars as a form of artificial life in a silicon world. He shows how to:
- use avatars to create complex systems
- use avatars that make decisions, learn and adapt
- merge biological and silicon worlds
- visualize futuristic uses of the Internet
The author uses Macromedia's Director to create sample applications which showcase new approaches to e-commerce and distance learning, smart agents and brain-like processing modules for adaptation and learning. Although sample code is presented thoughout the book, the reader is not required to work through the code in order to understand the ideas and concepts being presented.
For instance, in chapter 9 the reader is presented with the making of a generic "Joe" object with stadard characteristics relating to "Joe's" feelings on money, predisposition towards exercise, and loneliness. The book then goes on to detail how to make a more generic "Joe" with different properties. Eventually the book describes the situations which influence "Joe's" emotions, etc.
Magical A-Life Avatars does go into details of how to use avatars as business tools, for marketing, bots and on an intranet. Although the majority of the book is about the avatars themselves, it presents the concept of avatars as a new paradigm for the Internet.
If you find yourself getting stuck in the same old rut when it comes to your thinking about the Net, you owe it to yourself and your customers to venture out into the unknown. Magical A-Life Avatars is mental food for developing minds...I hope more Web developers read it. It will be an interesting future for us all!
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