VeriFone is the well-known company that produces electronic transactions equipment, such as the familiar magnetic strip reader that sends bank card information over phone lines. Out of the Blue has created a VRML piece that takes the viewer on a looping flight through the company's product line, providing nothing less that a bird's eye view of the enterprise.

Here are couple of screen shots.

The most intriguing aspect of this piece is in the links to locations on the VeriFone Web site that are anchored to the passing 3D objects. If the user clicks on an object, the appropriate area of the site is loaded. Thus the loping VRML animation is nothing less than a site map and navigation interface. Simply brilliant! I think you'll agree with Linda that work like this brings a "television quality" experience to the Internet. By the way, Out of the Blue invented the interstitial concept and the VeriFone piece is the first interstitial to be purchased by an actual company and placed on the Web (connected to a banner).

CLICK HERE to see this piece if you have a VRML browser. This is a much smaller file, only about 70KB altogether (though there is no sound), so it loads pretty fast, certainly faster than most pages that are packed with still graphics.

Linda suggests that the growth of VRML is inhibited by its absence on the Macintosh platform, although this situation is being corrected. The problem is that the advertising and publishing businesses remain the last Apple strongholds, and thus many of the decision-makers are themselves out of the mainstream and unable to keep in touch with new developments. But this cannot be a long-term problem. If new graphics technology completely transforms the looks of web advertising, and of website interfaces generally, few real business people will be willing to be left behind.

For all her creativity in the advertising direction, Linda is working just as hard on projects to implement interactive computer graphics into early childhood education. For a generation like mine, that grew up playing with blocks, it's exciting to imagine young children developing 21st Century skills by assembling their virtual counterparts into virtual buildings. Take at look at this pioneering work at the Familiar Tales Web site. The Internet is a world receptive to big ideas and creative talents, and it will reward them handsomely.