Mark Baard in Boston.com wrote a short piece about how certain artifacts aim at fusing digital environments and physical activities. It basically gives an account of the "Virtual Worlds: Where Business, Society, Technology & Policy Converge" conference.

"Second Lifers wearing the gadgets will be able to attend "in-world" parties and gallery openings, whether they are sucking down beers at Cornwall's or stuck in Fenway traffic. Motion detectors and other sensors in the devices will also show your virtual mates what you are up to in the real world. (...) Linden Lab vice president Joe Miller described one of the early products that will bridge the two worlds as a wearable box that creates a "3D sound field" that allows the wearer to hear voices from his virtual world without completely shutting out the real people around him. (...) It will take some retooling before virtual worlds can accommodate all of the data streaming from ubiquitous sensors."

Also curious is the fact that companies such as Linden Lab or Blizzard Entertainment are hiring developers with experience in mobile systems (Symbian and Adobe Flash Lite). Why do I blog this? The examples are quite classic but it seems that the meme started to spread.