IBM builds online version of China's famed Forbidden City

by Erik Larson | October 13, 2008 at 10:02 am

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Future to the back; "3D" interactive virtual version of the Forbidden City now open, download it and "walk" around in it.

IBM on Friday opened online doors to a virtual version of the famed Forbidden City in China that served for centuries as an exclusive realm for the nation's emperors.

The US technology colossus spent more than three years working with Chinese officials and the Palace Museum to construct an interactive, animated replica of the 178-acre (720,000 square-meter) walled fortress in the Dongcheng District of Beijing.

"Forbidden City: Beyond Space & Time," online at http://www.beyondspaceandtime.org, is billed as a first-of-a-kind, fully immersive, three-dimensional virtual recreation of "this Chinese cultural treasure."

"The rich cultural heritage of China's imperial past, embodied in the Forbidden City for over five centuries, is now brought to life and accessible to all through a virtual world," said Henry Chow, chairman of IBM's Greater China Group.

"This initiative takes the online experience to a new level of innovation with rich content, educational storytelling, community and social networking features that represent the next generation of 3D Internet applications."

Haven't tried it yet myself, i'm sure it looks good, but in the future this technology will be mind-blowing. The thing i find most interesting is this is happening; this is a "first", but it's also just a stage in a creative process that can be seen to extend back to the Big Bang. Eventually, full immersion virtual reality will be cheap and as widely used as TV and the internet- virtual offices, schools, vacations, adventures, games, shopping malls, family reunions- any setting, place and time you can imagine. Virtual reality can't replace the carbon world and face to face human interaction and relationships, but more and more artificial constructs are complementing the physical world and eliminating the need for wasting time and energy traveling. Many beautiful places and experiences are currently beyond the reach of most people because of the cost; this technology can bring even dead history to life for everyone. Already technology exists that lets people interact with holographic images in order to manipulate them and the data they represent; for many applications this will eliminate the need for screens, mice and keyboards. Eventually we will be able to talk to our computers, interacting with them like people; they won't need to be "conscious" or even truly intelligent to do this, already voice commands and text to speech are progressing at a phenomenal rate. By 2012 it's estimated 25% of the world's population will be online and able to understand most any language.