Intel and Nokia have gone into partnership and will be collaborating with the University of Oulu in Finland to develop 3D and virtual reality technology for mobile devices.
This 3D and virtual reality software will be developed using the open source MeeGo operating system, jointly developed by Nokia and Intel for next generation mobile computing.
MeeGo is designed for several mobile platforms and is already being used in a forthcoming netbook: Novell said it will be releasing SUSE MeeGo as a fully supported operating system for netbooks and expects it to be pre-installed on a number of devices from OEMs within the next year.
This collaboration with the University of Oulu will see 24 engineers using MeeGo.
“3D and virtual worlds have the potential to revolutionize the [mobile] user experience,” said Mika Setala, Nokia’s director of strategic alliances and partnerships, as reported on ComputerWorld.com.
An example of the kind of functionality that MeeGo will have on these new mobile devices is to act as a control panel for regulating heating and lighting in an owner’s home.
An example of readXtend mobile technology
The initial focus, however, wil be on graphics: “making new, next-generation graphical experiences for mobile users. There’s already a strong 3D internet research community established at the Centre, and the partners hope to tap into that excellence to help inspire their own projects. The Centre produced realXtend, an open source platform for interconnected 3D worlds, for example,” said Nokia on its official blog.
