I think that the much-feared ubiquitous camera surveillance – particularly webcams – will have a role to play in the future of multitouch and augmented reality. It will allow for devices to “peek” into other, far-removed areas in real time via streaming video.

Also, I think that this sort of “peeking” can be currently implemented in such virtual world applications as Second Life and Kaneva. Avatars can open up “holes” that can stream a “virtual camera”‘s view of another sim to the avatar’s view.

This could be useful to determine if the user may want to know about the current setting and appeal of another sim before teleporting to it. In fact, it could also serve as a tool of teleportation between sims.

Of course, such “streaming,” if taken to extremes, could further wear down on the Grid that runs the sims.