Comments on: Commentary: New Technology for Stepping Into Second Life Brings Battery Claims a Little Closer

By: Taran Rampersad

Taran Rampersad — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 05:45:58 +0000

First thing – when I saw ‘battery’, I thought you were referring to a power cell. It almost worked, too. Batteries are a very hot topic (I must have forgotten where I was).

Next – I saw the company that holds the patent on a infrared sensing technology that allows you to interact with the floor (without a mat) – this was at the IAPPA show. You can take a look at the pic here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/knowprose/2039042508/

Another example looks a bit like a touchscreen, but uses the same technology: http://www.flickr.com/photos/knowprose/2038247409/in/photostream/

Neither technology allows feedback, so… these are things which probably wouldn’t allow for ‘assault and battery’. However, in conjunction with other technologies, it is quite possible.

And I’m also dealing with some EEG related stuff – mainly with biomedical level support (it might pay the bills), and it is quite interesting how common EEG is. 20 years ago (wow) I knew someone who did that sort of stuff in Texas. Really interesting, but it was all very much ‘black box’ theory. So – when I consider that, and I consider that not everyone’s brain operates the same and that the market will dictate how EEG will be translated based on the majority – I also see the potential for other Law issues which would revolve around discrimination.

It gets pretty complicated pretty fast.

BTW, I came here to order that book and a few others…

By: Dapper Anarchist

Dapper Anarchist — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 21:47:28 +0000

I can see it going both ways, depending on all the usual things that alter verdicts from case to case – mostly illegitimate ones like race, wealth etc…

By: Benjamin Duranske

Benjamin Duranske — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 23:18:45 +0000

I could see that going either way — on the one hand, you could argue that it’s a form of consent, on the other, the rule hasn’t, so far, contemplated how the situation came about — if somebody broke their leg jumping drunk into an empty pool, but then that break was aggravated the next day by a reckless driver, the driver doesn’t get to point to the previous stupidity to get out of the extra liability. This is, believe it or not, exactly what keeps courts busy.

By: cyn vandeverre

cyn vandeverre — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 20:05:45 +0000

I suppose deciding between “reasonable care” and “eggshell skull” is some of what keeps the courts busy, eh? Does this apply when the injured party has control of the circumstances, at least in part?

“I just gave his avatar a hug, judge — I didn’t know he had his force-feedback jacket set to 11!”

By: Benjamin Duranske

Benjamin Duranske — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 19:58:46 +0000

This is all a little facetious, of course, but there’s actually a doctrine (called the “eggshell skull” rule) in tort law that says that if you do something that hurts someone else and they suffer an unusually high amount of damage due to some odd personal circumstance (usually a preexisting medical condition) you can be held liable for that damage even if you didn’t know about the strange circumstances. It’s not exactly a guaranteed winner of an argument, but I can see somebody using it to bring suit in the situation you described.

By: cyn vandeverre

cyn vandeverre — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 16:54:30 +0000

Although it is an interesting idea, it seems likely that owners of force feedback devices will be able to set their preferred impact or energy level, much as we do with screen brightness, stereo sound, and so on.

In that event, someone feeling they had actually been battered would be someone who had set their feedback sliders too high, and could have been harmed by a pat on the back.

The whole suite of sensor items sounds intriguing; we’d all like to be able to move through our virtual worlds in a more intuitive manner.

By: Benjamin Duranske

Benjamin Duranske — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 06:02:55 +0000

Please join me in welcoming VB’s newest writer, Kenan Farrell. Kenan plans to write for the site periodically going forward, and I could not be happier about it. Look for a longer article from Kenan next week.