Over the past week there’s been quite a bit of buzz around an initial demonstration of some work being done by Kapor Enterprises (Mitch Kapor is Chairman of Linden Lab’s board). The work is best described by watching the demonstration below but essentially it utilises a 3D camera that reads your body movements and translates those movements to your avatar. Leaning forward starts your avatar walking, leaning right turns your avatar right and so on.

The demonstration:

It’s an impressive evolution for Second Life although far from unique. Whichever application makes true hands-free operation possible without taxing hardware requirements is going to garner a lot of interest. Add to that progress being made by Emotiv in translating thoughts and feelings to avatars and you can see the future roadmap for this technology a little clearer.

Check the Handsfree 3D website for more details.