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OmniDate Takes Computer Dating to the Next Level
By: Tris Hussey
Published: 12 January 2008
I’ve done my share of Internet dating, I’ve tried
Lavalife, Plentyoffish, and Match.com. All with some success
(I found dates, had relationships, etc). All of those sites
are generally similar. Put up a profile and pictures, message
people you’re interested in, and take it from there.
Toronto-based Omnidate is really going the next step: avatars
that people can interact with:
OmniDate, based in Toronto, has been hard at work building
a virtual date technology and it’s likely we’ll
see their avatars coming to big name dating sites soon. We’ve
all heard about sex in Second Life, the truth however is a
lot less steamy; most people have a hard time getting Second
Life installed and running on their machine.
Unlike Second Life, OmniDate intends for its avatar dating
system to be used by real people who want to set up real life
dates. Going on a virtual date is less time consuming, less
expensive, and more secure than meeting at a local Starbucks.
Once you’ve found someone you enjoy chatting with online,
it is more likely you’ll enjoy meeting that person in
the real world. My guess is that people will also use OmniDate
to flirt, etc. Source: OmniDate.com - Virtual Dating is the
new Starbucks | StartupNorth
Jevon beat me to this one…but I have to chime in on
this. Anyone notice that a lot of the innovations in online
dating come from Canada (Toronto and Vancouver)? I don’t
know why, but makes one wonder.
Regardless, I haven’t signed up for Omnidate and I don’t
think I would if I needed to. I just think it’s more
than a tad creepy. Okay, technologically, really, really cool,
but still creepy. I think the idea of having a virtual date
is just, strange. IM, e-mail, that’s for getting to know
someone. Sure I guess this isn’t too different, but it
seems to me that there is a lot of room for deception in this
model. That said, as these technologies improve, I see real
potential for them as ways for virtual teams to communicate
better. Especially if the avatars can be synced in with webcams.
Logitech has face matching software for its cams, I bet something
like that could be added in without too much problem.
Is Omnidate the next wave for online dating or just another
way people can avoid meeting others in person? Is this the
next technical advance or, well, a waste of processor time?
I think it’s for us to decide.
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