Second Life voice to launch by June

Written by By Adam Reuters
Friday, 02 March 2007

Linden Lab said on Tuesday it will launch integrated voice
capabilities within the next several months, including effects to
prevent a cacophony of overlapping voices.

A private beta-test will begin next week ahead of a larger public
trial, with a formal launch by the end of June. Second Life users can
already use voice through third-party solutions such as Skype, but
Linden Lab said an integrated offering would offer "a richer, more
immersive virtual environment."

The new capabilities, provided by virtual world communications firm
Vivox, are intended to make it as easy as possible for users to
determine who is talking, and where. Using 3D audio technology from
DiamondWare, sound will come from the right or left stereo channel
depending on where the speaker is located, and voices beyond a
certain distance will not be audible. Indicators and animations will
also reflect when someone is talking, and how loudly.

"We wanted an integration that would allow you to discriminate
individual voices out of a large number of them," said Joe Miller,
Linden Lab vice president for platform and technology development, in
a phone interview. He said the calculations to provide voice services
take place on a separate server which should not contribute to lag or
additional system load.

Voice will be available on islands and parcels of land where the
owners choose to make it available, along with group conference calls
and one-to-one personal communication similar to Skype. Unlike the
rival virtual world There.com, which has long had an integrated voice
feature, Second Life will not offer lip synching.

"We decided not to do lip synching until the implementation could be
believable," Miller said.

Introducing voice could expose the broadening language gap in Second
Life, where more than half of users now speak a first language other
than English. Also, some in Second Life have argued that integrating
voice could break the "magic circle" that makes the world so
convincing, by pairing real voices with virtual avatars.

Miller said the company would eventually offer voice masking, so that
users can choose what they sound like. Vivox, which has already
launched several virtual phone booths within Second Life that can
call real-world numbers, has promoted the concept of "voice fonts"
that let users choose from a variety of vocal tones.

"There will be individuals who choose not to share their voice, we
understand that," Miller said. "The ability to design a voice for
your avatar that's intelligible, we will offer that. Today the
technology isn't there. You can sound like Darth Vader with a head
cold, but it's really just a toy."

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