KurzweilAI.net,
Sept. 23, 2003
Remotely addressing the World Economic Forum in London yesterday, Ray Kurzweil said that in five to seven years, it will be "routine and ubiquitous to meet in full-immersion, totally realistic visual-auditory virtual-reality environments for get-togethers ranging from business meetings such as this to more intimate encounters."
As an early example of this, Kurzweil gave a keynote speech in the "Look into the Future" session before the London audience of chief strategy and business development heads from leading IT and telecommunications technology companies via a Teleportec system in his office near Boston.
Teleportec allows a speaker to appear live and life-sized within an apparent 3-D environment in a remote location and achieve eye-to-eye contact with participants. This was the first time a keynote speaker has addressed a World Economic Forum meeting remotely.
Kurzweil also explored the future of business-to-consumer commerce, stating that "with the highly convincing virtual reality technologies of 2010, we will be able to interact with products in the same way that we would if we went to a bricks-and-mortar store. Visual, auditory, and haptic interfaces will allow us to manipulate and feel products in a realistic way.
"We will also be able to 'dress' our own virtual body mannequin and have clothes custom-manufactured for our specific body shape and style and color choices. Just as digital cameras are today taking over photography, virtual reality will take over B-to-C commerce by the end of the decade."
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