[#SVC-5069] Report direction, not position, of AV look-at (for privacy)

2. Second Life Service - SVC

Report direction, not position, of AV look-at (for privacy)

Created: 22/Nov/09 02:42 PM Updated: 23/Nov/09 11:53 AM

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(Note I'm not sure whether or not I favor this myself, but I thought I'd throw it out for possible discussion.)

Currently the Second Life servers transmit to the viewer information about where other avatars are currently "looking" Various people have expressed the opinion that the viewer abilities that this enables, through the standard viewer Advanced menu's "Show Look At" function, and for instance the Emerald viewer's version that shows AV names, is a privacy violation.

Although I haven't looked at the viewer code, I will guess that the reason this information is transmitted in the first place is to allow the viewer to render each AVs head and eyes correctly, so that (other animations permitting) the AV actually looks at whatever the AV's user's viewer is currently focused on.

It might be possible to get the AV-aiming effect without the possible privacy-violating effect by making a simple and mostly transparent server-side change that would normalize the looking-at position before sending it to the client, so that it was still in the same direction as the actual gaze-point, but some standard distance from the AV's head, so no client could derive or display the actual gaze-point.

For instance, in pseudo-LSL, the look-at point could be replaced, just before being transmitted, with:

substitute_look_at_point = av_head_location + standard_distance * llVecNorm( actual_look_at_point - av_head_location );

This would make all viewers that show look-at points show them as being on the surface of a sphere with radius standard_distance centered about the looking AVs head, but still in the same direction from the av head location as the actual look-at point.

Advantages:

Would remove the privacy concerns associated with viewer "show look at" functions.
Probably would not break any existing code, or change anything else but what is shown in "show look at" in viewers.

Disadvantages:

Some people like being able to see who is looking at them; see for instance VWR-1807 for an example where it is mentioned as privacy-enhancing and helpful in combat sims.

Caveat:

I'm just speculating on exactly how and why the information in question is sent out by the server. If I'm wrong in significant ways, this may all be entirely beside the point...

Description

(Note I'm not sure whether or not I favor this myself, but I thought I'd throw it out for possible discussion.) Currently the Second Life servers transmit to the viewer information about where other avatars are currently "looking" Various people have expressed the opinion that the viewer abilities that this enables, through the standard viewer Advanced menu's "Show Look At" function, and for instance the Emerald viewer's version that shows AV names, is a privacy violation. Although I haven't looked at the viewer code, I will guess that the reason this information is transmitted in the first place is to allow the viewer to render each AVs head and eyes correctly, so that (other animations permitting) the AV actually looks at whatever the AV's user's viewer is currently focused on. It might be possible to get the AV-aiming effect without the possible privacy-violating effect by making a simple and mostly transparent server-side change that would normalize the looking-at position before sending it to the client, so that it was still in the same direction as the actual gaze-point, but some standard distance from the AV's head, so no client could derive or display the actual gaze-point. For instance, in pseudo-LSL, the look-at point could be replaced, just before being transmitted, with: substitute_look_at_point = av_head_location + standard_distance * llVecNorm( actual_look_at_point - av_head_location ); This would make all viewers that show look-at points show them as being on the surface of a sphere with radius standard_distance centered about the looking AVs head, but still in the same direction from the av head location as the actual look-at point. Advantages: Would remove the privacy concerns associated with viewer "show look at" functions. Probably would not break any existing code, or change anything else but what is shown in "show look at" in viewers. Disadvantages: Some people like being able to see who is looking at them; see for instance VWR-1807 for an example where it is mentioned as privacy-enhancing and helpful in combat sims. Caveat: I'm just speculating on exactly how and why the information in question is sent out by the server. If I'm wrong in significant ways, this may all be entirely beside the point...

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EddyFragment Robonaught added a comment - 23/Nov/09 11:53 AM

Should the viewer contain an opt in/out ability, allowing me to either have the position of my look known OR the direction only?

If I were a RPer and specifically wanted one of my companions to see where I was looking (see at what...) I might find that no longer having that ability was displeasing.

Also as a simple tool having the present functionality is great ("look at that", says Jonny).

However, I have thought a few times in the past (when people have commented that they already know where I am looking) that they perhaps know too much. Thus I think that if the ability were switchable (allow place of look OR only allow direction of look to be known) everybody but the incredibly nosey would be happy.