Leonard Daly has a new article, “Delivering X3D Content”, that explains how web servers view X3D content using MIME types.

“Event Utility Nodes” is a new tutorial on how to use Event Utility Nodes in X3D.

We have also put together a list of all “e3D News Articles”

Quente Cafe has an nice photo journal of
NextFest 2005. Of special interest were Kick Ass Kung-Fu, a video immersion system, The 3D Display Cube, and the Fog screen.

Blender the leading open source modeler, animator and renderering software, now includes the area42 X3D exporter in its new version 2.37.

The On-A-Slant Virtual Village, created by the Archaeology Technologies Lab at North Dakota StateUniversity, uses X3D to display a Mandan earthlodge to instruct students on the culture of the native American people.

Here is a question that has been discussed a lot lately: Do computer games increase IQ?

It is widely known that IQs have been increasing.

Now here is a VR helmet from Israel that the makers say measurably increases IQ. The helmet was tested on deaf children (deaf children historically have under-preformed on IQ tests) as well as on a non-deaf control group of kids. The IQ of both groups of children increased. The deaf children’s IQs increased significantly.

I think more testing needs to be done on the effect of game playing on IQs.

Popular Science has an article on future tech, “The Future Starts Here” .

The two items I found the most interesting were holographic television, which looks like a shadow box that you can look into to see 3D holographs, and the smart home, a house whose walls are a display screen inside and out.

I am not convinced that there is any point to holographs TV, even interactive TV. The human brain finds 3D environments realistic enough for immersion. But no one ever won betting against more 3D realism. I really liked the whole house display idea. You could redo your house with a couple of clicks. I wonder how it would work on a car.

ZDnet UK has an interview with Tony Parisi, Is a 3D web more than just empty promises?. They mention that it is the 10th anniversary of the release of VML. I thought the interviewer was a little hard nosed, but Tony held his own.

Anyone who remembers Hypercosm will be interested to hear that Abe Megahed has been working to resurrect that technology, working for NASA building simulators for astronaut training. He also has a new product Hypercosm Teleporter, a tool for exporting 3D models and animations from 3ds max into Hypercosm .

Another great Web3D technology has fallen by the wayside. Adobe has discontinued the sale and development of Adobe Atmosphere. I wonder what this means for companies like Bruce Damer’s DigitalSpace that are closely tied to Adobe Atmosphere?