Metis: an object-oriented toolkit for constructing virtual reality applications

Virtual reality systems provide realistic look and feel by seamlessly integrating three-dimensional input and output devices. One software architecture approach to constructing such systems is to distributethe application between a computation-intensive simulator back-end and a graphics-intensive viewer front-end which implements user interaction. Inthis paper we discuss Metis, a toolkit we have been developing based on such a software architecture, which can be used for building interactiveimmersive virtual reality systems with computationally intense components. The Metis toolkit defines an application programming interface on thesimulator side, which communicates via a network with a standalone viewer program that handles all immersive display and interactivity. Networkbandwidth and interaction latency are minimized, by use of constraint network on the viewer side that declaratively defines much of dynamic andinteractive behavior of the application.121-13

A meta-authoring tool for specifying behaviour in virtual reality environments

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 94-99).In this dissertation, we explore methods for empowering non-programmers with the ability to develop their own virtual environment applications. We explored some of the existing systems to determine what methodologies have already been successfully (or unsuccessfully) applied in the fields of virtual environment systems, authoring tools, and graphical user interfaces. From these methodologies we describe an ideal virtual environment authoring system with which comparisons may be drawn to evaluate existing systems. This ideal system represents a tool ideal in its ability to allow users of differing levels of skill to rapidly create virtual environment applications of any sophistication. Creating such a single, generic authoring tool for every different kind of application is, practically, an impossible task - more so if the authors are non-programmers. A more realistic solution to the problem would be to think of every environment as having a particular context such as a virtual museum or gallery. Creating authoring tools specific to these types of environment contexts greatly reduces the problem. We have therefore produced a progressive meta-authoring system that allows both novice and advanced users to create useful virtual reality applications, allowing the smooth migration of novice users to becoming more experienced. We believe that our system overcomes problems in architecture and support for novice users that can be found in many other authoring systems for virtual environments

Meetings and Meeting Modeling in Smart Environments

In this paper we survey our research on smart meeting rooms and its relevance for augmented reality meeting support and virtual reality generation of meetings in real time or off-line. The research reported here forms part of the European 5th and 6th framework programme projects multi-modal meeting manager (M4) and augmented multi-party interaction (AMI). Both projects aim at building a smart meeting environment that is able to collect multimodal captures of the activities and discussions in a meeting room, with the aim to use this information as input to tools that allow real-time support, browsing, retrieval and summarization of meetings. Our aim is to research (semantic) representations of what takes place during meetings in order to allow generation, e.g. in virtual reality, of meeting activities (discussions, presentations, voting, etc.). Being able to do so also allows us to look at tools that provide support during a meeting and at tools that allow those not able to be physically present during a meeting to take part in a virtual way. This may lead to situations where the differences between real meeting participants, human-controlled virtual participants and (semi-) autonomous virtual participants disappear

Parallel implementation of a virtual reality system on a transputer architecture

A Virtual Reality is a computer model of an environment, actual or imagined, presented to a user in as realistic a fashion as possible. Stereo goggles may be used to provide the user with a view of the modelled environment from within the environment, while a data-glove is used to interact with the environment. To simulate reality on a computer, the machine has to produce realistic images rapidly. Such a requirement usually necessitates expensive equipment. This thesis presents an implementation of a virtual reality system on a transputer architecture. The system is general, and is intended to provide support for the development of various virtual environments. The three main components of the system are the output device drivers, the input device drivers, and the virtual world kernel. This last component is responsible for the simulation of the virtual world. The rendering system is described in detail. Various methods for implementing the components of the graphics pipeline are discussed. These are then generalised to make use of the facilities provided by the transputer processor for parallel processing. A number of different decomposition techniques are implemented and compared. The emphasis in this section is on the speed at which the world can be rendered, and the interaction latency involved. In the best case, where almost linear speedup is obtained, a world containing over 250 polygons is rendered at 32 frames/second. The bandwidth of the transputer links is the major factor limiting speedup. A description is given of an input device driver which makes use of a powerglove. Techniques for overcoming the limitations of this device, and for interacting with the virtual world, are discussed. The virtual world kernel is designed to make extensive use of the parallel processing facilities provided by transputers. It is capable of providing support for mUltiple worlds concurrently, and for multiple users interacting with these worlds. Two applications are described that were successfully implemented using this system. The design of the system is compared with other recently developed virtual reality systems. Features that are common or advantageous in each of the systems are discussed. The system described in this thesis compares favourably, particularly in its use of parallel processors.KMBT_22

Hardware and software in smart decision rooms

Since the last decade research in Group Decision Making area have been focus in the building of meeting rooms that could support the decision making task and improve the quality of those decisions. However the emergence of Ambient Intelligence concept contributes with a new perspective, a different way of viewing traditional decision rooms. In this paper we will present an overview of Smart Decision Rooms providing Intelligence to the meeting environment, and we will also present LAID, an Ambient Intelligence Environment oriented to support Group Decision Making and some of the software tools that we already have installed in this environment

Construction and management of large-scale and complex virtual manufacturing environments.

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