Which of these communication features do you want?

I would like to be able to reply back into SL from my email as I think some have indicated.. There could be times when we are not at our comp or on one that has SL loaded and we have need to reply, or even advise those in SL we can not or will not be on. Sure a few we have each others phone numbers, but many don't and at times we do not want to call each other etc.

Yes, that is it exactly. I'd like to be able to place a camera that feeds out to a web browser so viewers could see the room and any slides/pictures I put up on a screen behind me. Like video conferencing but with the other end in SL. Others logging in via we browser wouldn't be able to camera around the room, they only get the camera view I give them.

Ooh cherry pie! I'll share mine if you'll share yours

... oh, and email, yes, email for second place, and to hell with the rest!

How about the ability to transmit smell?

I'd like email-to-avatar if I could toggle it so only friends could bug me.

And pie.

None of those are of interest. I don't communicate from SL to RL at all. Can I have Key Lime Pie, please?

M did say he wants SL to be integrated with MyFaceSpaceBook.

21,521 of your postings are just wasted then

I can't see LL implementing this, ever, because of the overhead of rendering. There's a reason they don't render stuff server-side. They only approximate geometry on the server, even for regular prims, and don't even generate avatar or sculpt geometry at all. You could implement it using a bot, though, doing the equivalent of sharing your SL viewer session.

Isn't irony wonderful?

Evil pie! The Pie of Sauron.

LOL Nice one.

Integrated Teledildonics protocols.

Dagmar.

i see what you did not do there.

I guess the one I need most which does not appear to be on the list, is Skype Video.

I am working on presentations and educational facilities in Blue Mars that will tap into the video capabilities of Skype, and Skypecasts.

I'm sure the sex industry in SL can also find a use for Skype Video too

Rock

I guess you have not looked at many webcam escort ads, most of them already offer Skype as one of the video options to see them. Cam escorts mostly use SL to get paid, not to watch them. Video on a prim is distorted by the 3D view, and slowed down by SL running. You are better off watching the video stream directly, logged out of SL.

That's been done. Set up a webcam aimed at a computer screen where a bot is logged in (good use for bots, for those taking notes!), and broadcast it over a stream you can view on a website. Not the best solution especially if you use a cheap webcam, but it works.

Combine that with the IRC chat relay I mentioned above and you can do it. Don't expect any kind of automated method requiring the feed from LL's servers though, that would be too costly in money and other resources to be practical.

Edit to add: On second thought a bot would not be the solution here. Better to use an alt with a real client, main difference being that it's not a client designed for the low-impact interface on your system that bots use.

The things most commonly called bots, based on libsl, don't do video at all, do they?

A truly standalone cambot would pretty much need to be a modified viewer, not a libsl bot, correct?

There is a libsl viewer that did some graphics, but it was never fully developed.

That's my take on it, which is why I edited the post after I re-read it.

No, you'd base the bot on the open source client, or even just run a copy of the client with one of those screen sharing programs.

Downside of email to avatar -- we have a limited number of messages. I could see my messages getting maxed with offers for Cialis, Acacia, and fake Rolexes.

P.I.E. Offcourse. this will be the most popular communication method of the future.

'Say it with P.I.E.'

Which is why I elaborated in #1:

I disagree. I think most of the technology already exists, in fact. See:
http://www.g-cluster.com/eng/eng_outline/eng_outline.html

Technically it's possible, of course. There's dozens of technical solutions. The issue isn't whether it's possible, but what it costs. Implementing this at LL would require dedicating more resources than a sim currently requires for the duration of the session. Setting up the pool of processors (no matter what implementation they use) is a significant investment, what do you think they could charge for it, and would people be more interested in metaphorically "going skype" instead by running it for "free" on their own PC?