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VB2: An Architecture for Interaction in Synthetic Worlds

Enrico Gobbetti and Jean-Francis Balaguer

1993

Abstract

This paper describes the VB2 architecture for the construction of three-dimensional interactive applications. The system's state and behavior are uniformly represented as a network of interrelated objects. Dynamic components are modeled by active variables, while multi-way relations are modeled by hierarchical constraints. Daemons are used to sequence between system states in reaction to changes in variable values. The constraint network is efficiently maintained by an incremental constraint solver based on an enhancement of SkyBlue. Multiple devices are used to interact with the synthetic world through the use of various interaction paradigms, including immersive environments with visual and audio feedback. Interaction techniques range from direct manipulation, to gestural input and three-dimensional virtual tools. Adaptive pattern recognition is used to increase input device expressiveness by enhancing sensor data with classification information. Virtual tools, which are encapsulations of visual appearance and behavior, present a selective view of manipulated models' information and offer an interaction metaphor to control it. Since virtual tools are first class objects, they can be assembled into more complex tools, much in the same way that simple tools are built on top of a modeling hierarchy. The architecture is currently being used to build a virtual reality animation system.

Reference and download information

Enrico Gobbetti and Jean-Francis Balaguer. VB2: An Architecture for Interaction in Synthetic Worlds. In Proceedings of the ACM SIGGRAPH Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology. Pages 167-178. ACM Press, 1993.

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Bibtex citation record

@InProceedings{Gobbetti:1993:VAI,
    author = {Enrico Gobbetti and Jean-Francis Balaguer},
    title = {{VB2}: An Architecture for Interaction in Synthetic Worlds},
    booktitle = {Proceedings of the ACM SIGGRAPH Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology},
    series = {Virtual Reality},
    pages = {167--178},
    publisher = {ACM Press},
    address = {Conference held in Atlanta, GA, USA},
    year = {1993},
    copyright = {(c) Copyright 1993 Association for Computing Machinery},
    keywords = {User interface design, {3D} interaction, {3D} virtual tools, Gestural input, Virtual reality, Object-oriented graphics, Hierarchical constraints},
    abstract = {This paper describes the {VB2} architecture for the construction of three-dimensional interactive applications. The system's state and behavior are uniformly represented as a network of interrelated objects. Dynamic components are modeled by active variables, while multi-way relations are modeled by hierarchical constraints. Daemons are used to sequence between system states in reaction to changes in variable values. The constraint network is efficiently maintained by an incremental constraint solver based on an enhancement of SkyBlue. Multiple devices are used to interact with the synthetic world through the use of various interaction paradigms, including immersive environments with visual and audio feedback. Interaction techniques range from direct manipulation, to gestural input and three-dimensional virtual tools. Adaptive pattern recognition is used to increase input device expressiveness by enhancing sensor data with classification information. Virtual tools, which are encapsulations of visual appearance and behavior, present a selective view of manipulated models' information and offer an interaction metaphor to control it. Since virtual tools are first class objects, they can be assembled into more complex tools, much in the same way that simple tools are built on top of a modeling hierarchy. The architecture is currently being used to build a virtual reality animation system.},
    url = {http://vic.crs4.it/vic/cgi-bin/bib-page.cgi?id='Gobbetti:1993:VAI'},
}