| "As
Hiro approaches the Street, he sees two young
couples, probably using their parents' computers
for a double date in the Metaverse, climbing down
out of Port Zero, which is the local port of
entry and monorail stop. He is not
seeing real people, of course. This is all a part
of the moving illustration drawn by his computer
according to the specifications coming down the
fiber-optic cable. The people are pieces of
software called avatars."
Neal Stephenson, Snow Crash,
page 35.
Avatars are an individuals visual embodiment
in Cyberspace. They provide an all important
visual and social presence in the Virtual City.
They are the citizens, the occupants, the
commuters in the digital realm.
Depending on the browser
software used Avatars can have a range of social
gestures, increasing the level of reality and
enhancing social interaction within virtual
space. The ability to turn around and look at a
fellow avatar, or avizen as they are commonly
known in virtual communities, in the eye while
holding a conversation greatly enhances the level
of social interaction. A  prime example
is the use of gestures of avatars within
Alphaworld. Alphaworld avatars are capable of
basic gestures such as ‘wave’ and
'jump' and gestures to indicate basic emotions
such as ‘happy’ or ‘angry’.
Pictured right is an example scene of an social
interaction between avatars in Alphaworld, the
avatars are able to engage in real-time
‘face to face’ conversation as words
typed appear above the avatars body in a manner
reminiscent to a speech bubble. Current
technological and bandwidth restrictions limit
social interaction to speech bubbles and basic
gestures but as bandwidth restriction decreases,
as technological advances are made, it will be
possible to allow more complex, and ideally more
realistic levels of interaction. Using video
conferencing techniques such as ‘Ceeyou
CeeMe’ projecting the real-time view of a
users face onto an avatars face will be possible,
enabling the introduction of complex facial
gestures and real-time speech based conversation
into virtual domains.
Avatars and the corresponding
social interaction are of prime importance in the
population of virtual cities. However limiting
the current level of social interaction is in the
virtual city, it is the first step towards the
population of the digital realm and ultimately
the creation of a true virtual city.
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