Second Life Piping Phone Calls to Residents

Online virtual world Second Life is looking to roll out technology to let in-world residents receive phone calls from the "real world."

Second Life developer Linden Lab is working on rolling out technology which will let in-world avatars receive telephone calls from the real world. Beginning in the first quarter of 2008, Second Life users will be able to have real-world phone numbers associated with their in-world avatars; from that point, users will be able to receive real-world phone calls within Second Life using the virtual world’s already-deployed voice technology.

Speaking in avatar form at a public question-and-answer session hosted by InformationWeek and Dr. Dobb’s Journal, Linden Lab’s vice president Joe Miller said the call-in feature will also support voicemail, which the user can listen to in-world or be sent to the recipient via standard email.

Second Life’s current voice features is developed by Vivox; the feature was deployed to Second Life’s main grid in August of 2007 to mixed responses: some users loved being able to "speak" through their avatars, but others felt voice features removed some of the anonymity and playful aspects of Second Life. (After all, if your avatar is a 10-foot tall polar bear, your voice isn’t exactly going to match.)

Second Life is currently rolling out a beta of an age verification system, designed to let landowners and merchants confirm whether a potential customer is over 18 years of age; Second Life landowners will also be able to block access to mature content on their land via age verification. So far, the system is having a high failure rate verifying ages, particularly for international users.