Second Life gets new voices

Second Life, the popular 3-D online virtual community created by Linden Labs, is adding voice to its social grid. In addition to the current IM and chat functions, now Second Life residents will be able to speak to one another if they wish. Amazingly, with the speech technology employed, your little avatar's voice and figure can become animated so you won't sound like a robot or worse, like the grown-ups do in Charlie Brown.

A private beta program on a test-grid for 1,000 users will be launched next week, and the formal launch is expected for the second quarter 2007. Core voice capabilities are provided by Vivox, under the terms of a service agreement with Linden Lab, incorporating 3D voice technology from DiamondWare.

Tags: 3D voice, 3dVoice, avatar, diamondware, linden lab, LindenLab, news, open source, OpenSource, second life, SecondLife, vivox