The SEE3D group at the University of Wales Aberystwyth is busy innovating! We recently reported that they were working on ways to use virtual worlds to help juries see crime scenes; now, they've developed virtual world technology that will allow town and city residents and council to see how their community will look with a wind farm nearby. SEE3D builds virtual replicas (to scale) of towns considering the alternative energy solution, and then lets residents and local government tour the area so that they can better consider the ways proposed wind farms might impact their neighborhood.

SEE3D's virtual worlds allow visuals within a 30 mile radius of the proposed farm, and even allow local officials to fly over the site in an airplane, or drive past it in a car, to see the wind farm from different vantage points.

Seems like the aim is to help convince people to adopt alternative energy solutions, perhaps with the hope that a virtual replica of life beside a wind farm might be more appealing than the imagination?

[Via NewsWales]