Plug-in that turns any website 3D for free

MELBOURNE software company ExitReality has launched a bid to bring 3D virtual reality to "the entire World Wide Web" and extend the commercialisation of an environment that attracts hundreds of millions of people under 35 years old.

"It's where they do their socialising today," founder and chief executive Danny Stefanic said.

Mr Stefanic said his "Eureka moment" came 13 years ago. "I was reading in the bath when the idea came to me," he said. Mr Stefanic was 23 and had already been involved with computing, software development and 3D virtualisation for more than a decade. He formed ExitReality in 2000 to work on the idea, which he launched at Federation Square yesterday.

The idea is a 3D search engine and a free internet plug-in that enables a user to, for instance, turn a two-dimensional Facebook page into a three-dimensional "apartment" in which their virtual alter egos live.

Mr Stefanic said that environment existed only on their computer, but if the Facebook user logged in to a furniture company's website and rendered it on their screens into a 3D website using his free technology, they could drag and drop images of chairs, tables and so on to furnish their Facebook-based apartment.

"If they then click on the piece of furniture, they would be linked to the furniture company's website, where they could make a real-life purchase," he said.

They could use YouTube to bring video shows into their virtual homes but probably would not turn purely informational websites such as online newspapers into 3D representations, he said.

But they could use chat rooms to bring friends into their virtual homes and, if they visited websites where many people might be visiting in 3D, they would be introduced to virtual rooms where up to 50 people could interact in real time.

Mr Stefanic said ExitReality's technology had the power to create 40 billion virtual worlds. The internet already had a few 3D websites but his idea was to allow almost any website to be rendered in 3D.

Deals had been struck with a few companies — among them is Carl's Jr., a hamburger chain in the US — and ExitReality "will be announcing some other major deals very soon", Mr Stefanic said.