The €2.5 million project has only just begun, writes Karlin Lillington
Consider it The Sims: Liffey Edition, or a Dublin version of online "game" Second Life.
Trinity College Dublin researchers call it a "virtual Dublin simulator" in which they have duplicated, in full 3D, two square miles of the city centre down to exact buildings at street level.
And they have populated it with 50,000 virtual Dubliners who even now, in the bowels of some computer, are milling about the streets, looking for a decent virtual pint perhaps, or considering where best to invest their virtual SSIA.
"The dream here is to reproduce The Matrix," says Dr Steven Collins of TCD's computer science department. And he's only half joking.
The €2.5 million endeavour, which has only just begun, is called Project Metropolis and is a collaboration between four TCD researchers from computer science, engineering and neurosciences. It will bring together academics and companies working in the areas of human communication, computer graphics, animation, motion and artificial intelligence.
The goal is to create a simulated Dublin that is so lifelike that human visitors to it will be able to move around, experience a total immersion computer-generated Dublin. One practical application could be that visitors would report back on new road schemes or other urban planning projects tested first in a virtual implementation.
Another proposal is to create virtual buses, taxis and a Luas that will allow children at Dublin's Central Remedial Clinic to explore the city.
Collins says virtual Dublin will have millions of people, each with artificial intelligence and unique graphical representation. The city will come complete with street scenes, noise, crowds and traffic - in other words, all the stress of real city life.
Researchers, who have received €2.5 million from Science Foundation Ireland to develop the project over four years, say they will recreate the visual and auditory experience of central Dublin through a comprehensive capturing of buildings (geometry and texture) and audio sound-fields.
Collins says existing virtual reality worlds show that many people are already moving towards forms of virtual 3D communication.