A synthetic 3D multimedia environment

Abstract

In this chapter we present The MediaSquare, a synthetic 3D multimedia environment we are currently developing. The MediaSquare enables users, impersonated as avatars, to browse and experience multimedia content by literally walking through it. Users may engage in conversations with other users, exchange experiences as well as collectively explore and enjoy the featured content. The combination of algorithms from the area of artificial intelligence with state-of-the-art 3D virtual environments creates an intuitive interface that provides access to manually as well as automatically structured multimedia data while allowing to take advantage of spatial metaphors. © 2008 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.