SAN FRANCISCO -- Linden Lab®, creator of virtual world Second Life®, has announced that it will be adding voice capabilities to the Second Life Grid, as part of its ongoing drive toward creating a richer, more immersive virtual environment.

The voice capabilities will enable Second Life Residents to speak to each other if they wish, in addition to the current Instant Messaging and chat functions. Linden Lab anticipates that voice will be particularly valuable to Resident groups such as educators, non-profits and businesses, who might use Second Life as a collaborative tool for learning and training.

Linden Lab is the leading company in its field to offer integrated communication capabilities with 3D “proximity-based” voice communication. It uses spatial awareness, taking distance and direction into account, for a more realistic “in-world” voice experience. When speaking, Residents’ avatars will become animated according to the intensity of speech volume.

“The addition of voice marks a natural progression in the ongoing evolution of Second Life,” said Joe Miller, Vice President, Platform & Technology Development at Linden Lab. “We believe Voice is a transformative technology that will change the way Residents communicate, and will lend more immediacy and dynamism to their interaction with others. For example, academic institutions could use the voice feature of Second Life to carry out lectures, corporations could use it for customer training and friends can simply catch up with each other.”

“Voice has always been part of the long-term plan for the Second Life Grid, as we feel it will help Residents become more immersed in their virtual lives,” said Philip Rosedale, CEO at Linden Lab. “Our approach is to give Residents the tools to create their own unique experience, and we’re hoping that many of them will develop new ways to use voice which will ultimately enrich the collective evolution of Second Life.”

“Many of the projects my students and I are working on in Second Life will benefit from voice, as we often work with our hands, designing, building and creating,” said Terry Beaubois, AIA, Professor of Architecture and Director of the College of Arts & Architecture’s Creative Research Lab at Montana State University. “Voice will enable us to communicate and collaborate freely, and I’m looking forward to exploring its use.”

Linden Lab