The exotic and fun avatars at NPIRL's Halloween parties

NPIRL's All Hallows Eve parties: Two of 'em; nine hours all told.
The guests: Not Possible IRL and Impossible IRL group members, and friends.
Location: Undisclosed until the last minute... the gleaming but abandoned Plasma Co. Mining Colony. Four sims provided by Rezzable and built out by a crack team of ten of the best builders and scripters on the grid. Read more about it here.
Our rock stars: Alexi Ayers, Anakin Gallacher, Cube Republic, Komuso Tokugawa, thomtrance O'toole, Tuna Oddfellow. Thank you!

Because so many of the avatars spotted at NPIRL's Halloween parties are not typically worn by our friends, we may have identified someone incorrectly. If you spot an error, please let us know and we'll fix it, asap.

The evening party began with a cocktail hour and Anakin Gallacher's live deep bliss sax tunes. Folks had time to rez each other and their new surroundings and take a ride on each of the two different roller coaster rides.


Browsing through my pics, I was unable to determine who the typist behind this avatar was, but we do know that he was wearing Pandora Wrigglesworth's Clockwork Automaton brain and skin


Hotspur O'Toole mimed his greeting


Jurin Juran and Eshi Otawara arrived at the same time


Photon Pink was responsible for making many of the cool sculpties at Plasma City

Meanwhile, on one of the dance floor areas...


Anakin Gallacher belted out a full set and a half, and his live music was streamed on all four sims


LittleToe Bartlett's avatar was so 'tweet!


Renown avatar creator Yoa Ogee wore a new and different avatar about every five minutes! And no, those aren't ants beneath him


Sasun Steinbeck was blinding in a modified version of Starax's Fallen Angel sculpture


Eln Alter arrived potted. Did you pick up her limited-time-only freebie witch avatar? To the left, Skycat Ranger as a jester was talking awesome pics which we'll be posting soon


Tom Bukowski got flowery

Coming up: Fabulous avatar pics sent in by talented photographers Cyberloom, Rowan Masala, Skycat Ranger, Tezcatlipoca Bisiani and Trinity Outlander...

See also:
* The setting for NPIRL's Halloween parties: Plasma Co. Mining Colony
* The incredible avatars at the NPIRL Halloween parties: "Take Two" by Skycat Ranger
* Just press play: The rocking-est avatars at NPIRL's Halloween parties, as seen by Tezcatlipca Bisiani
* Scene stealin' avatars at NPIRL's Halloween parties, as captured by Cyberloom
* Trinity Outlander's double-takes at the NPIRL Halloween parties

New vid of that Real Life - Second Life interface

A few days ago I spoke of a novel Real Life interface with Second Life, using a 3-axis accelerometer. Via Komuso Tokugawa, I've learned that Tori Teatime has created a better video to explain what transpires.



You can visit that robot in Second Life (teleport directly from here), but somebody in Real Life needs to be tilting the accelerometer to make it all happen.

New Real Life - Second Life physical interface

Last night, musician and technologist Komuso Tokugawa attended a Second Life-related event at the bar BarTube in Tokyo. While there, he met with several people who are collaborating on a Havok 4 sim owned by Softbank (the company that acquired failing Vodafone and turned it around), to work with prototypes and try out new ideas.

According to Komuso, Tori Teatime and a couple of other people from the Softbank-sponsored sim have developed a mechanism that allows for an interesting new physical interface between Real Life and Second Life.

One person would stand there in the bar tilting a 3-axis accelerometer that was hooked up to a modified client to send control data via chat.



Now here's where it gets interesting... the accelerometer had a built in tilt sensor, and as he tilted it, so did a box full of avatars - some of them quite large - that was being held by a robot in-world.



You can visit that robot in Second Life (teleport directly from here), but somebody in Real Life needs to be tilting that accelerometer to make it all happen. Now that the Second Life client is opensource, we can expect more of these exciting developments. More pics and info on Komuso's blog.

Komuso, by the way, is the musician and particle master who - together with MoShang Zhao - gave us the real time-Internet/SL music jam SynaesthAsia, undoubtedly one of the best events I've ever attended in Second Life. Here's a great video of it by multi-talented Osprey Therian.

SynaesthAsia: a realtime jam that spans the globe, with visuals to knock your socks off

As backgrounds go, Tokyo-based Komuso Tokugawa's is rather unusual. For openers, this fellow received the Australian Sports Medal in 2000 in recognition of his contributions to the sport of parachuting. :o

He has a Masters in Music, a Masters in Technology Management, and a BSc in Mathematics/Computer Science. Komuso also practices Tai Chi, in addtion to skiing and rollerblading.

Somewhere in between all of this - and a boatload of other novel and significant activities we'll look into sometime soon - he finds the time to come in-world and, together with MoShang Zhao, put on the chillest events I'd never imagined possible.



Performing in real time for thirty lucky test subjects (thanks for the invite Jurin Juran!) from points all over the Eastern and Western spheres, with Komuso in Tokyo and MoShang in Taiwan, and utilizing the music collaboration software NINJAM, these two put on a landmark show.



Lumiere Noir made it in just in time to hear the first few chords... and that's when you know that your entire week is going to melt away and the journey has begun.


Jessica Qin, moi and Fau Ferdinand dissolve into the moment...

Beyond the dreamtrance sounds, Komuso's particles take center stage. It's all "delivered in a custom setting I designed along with my prototype Generative Visuals System I developed up from my bio/neuro feedback," Komuso explained. I'll be telling you more about that soon :D



Komuso invites you to get in the particles, and Hotspur O'Toole, who blogged about this event and even made his own Machinima there, dove straight in.


Guess who slipped in for the last couple of tunes?

This just in: Osprey Therian's machinima of that event...

Komuso Tokugawa rocks the first day of the year

Just past midnite this morn and again near midnite tonite... rockin' to Cab Calloway's Minnie the Moocher, Komuso Tokugawa-style. Closure for the first day of the year. Jurin Juran, thanks for those TPs.