Gail Reynard

Understanding and constructing shared spaces with mixed-reality boundaries

We propose an approach to creating shared mixed realities based on the construction of transparent boundaries between real and virtual spaces. First, we introduce a taxonomy that classifies current approaches to shared spaces according to the three dimensions of transportation, artificiality, and spatiality. Second, we discuss our experience of staging a poetry performance simultaneously within real and virtual theaters. This demonstrates the complexities involved in establishing social interaction between real and virtual spaces and motivates the development of a systematic approach to mixing realities. Third, we introduce and demonstrate the technique of mixed-reality boundaries as a way of joining real and virtual spaces together in order to address some of these problems.

Shared spaces: transportation, artificiality, and spatiality

We begin by reviewing current spatial approaches to CSCW (mediaspaces, spatial video conferencing, collaborative virtual environments and telepresence applications) and classifying them along the proposed dimensions of transportation, artificiality and spatiality. This classification leads us to identify new shared space applications; so called mixed realities. We present an example of a mixed reality called the Internet Foyer, an application which provides a unified entry point into an organisations physical and electronic environments and which supports awareness and chance encounters between the occupants of physical and synthetic space.

Applied virtual environments to support learning of social interaction skills in users with Asperger's Syndrome

Aspergers Syndrome (AS) is an autistic spectrum disorder characterised by normal to high IQ but with marked impairment in social skills. Successful social skills training appears to be best achieved either in situ or in role-play situations where users can explore different outcomes resulting from their social behaviour. Single user virtual environments (SVEs) provide an opportunity for users with AS to learn social interaction skills in a safe environment which they can visit as many times as they like.The use of game-like tasks can provide an incentive and can also be used to guide the user through progressive learning stages. Collaborative virtual environments (CVEs) allow several users to interact simultaneously within the virtual environment, each taking different perspectives or role-play characters. Within the AS interactive project a series of SVEs and CVEs have been developed in collaboration with users and professional groups with an overall aim of supporting social skills learning. Initial evaluation studies have been carried out which have been used to both inform and refine the design of these virtual environments (VEs) as well as giving an insight into the understanding and interpretation of these technologies by users with AS.

A QoS architecture for collaborative virtual environments

We present a QoS architecture for collaborative virtual environments (CVEs), focusing on the management of streamed video within shared virtual worlds. Users express QoS requirements by negotiating levels of mutual awareness using our previously defined spatial model of interaction. The architecture uses these awareness values as part of dynamic QoS management. A key aspect of the architecture is that it maintains a balance between the needs of a group of users as a whole (e.g., which streams are admitted onto a shared network) versus those of individual users within the group (e.g., which streams are subscribed to by a local host). We walk through a demonstration scenario, a virtual shopping mall, to show the architecture at work.

Awareness driven video quality of service in collaborative virtual environments

We extend previous work on texture mapping video streams into virtual environments by introducing awareness driven video QoS. This uses movements within a shared virtual world to activate different video services. In turn, these services have different settings for underlying QoS parameters such as frame-rate, resolution and compression. We demonstrate this technique through a combined conferencing! mediaspace application which uses awareness driven video for facial expressions and for views into remote physical environments. We reflect on the issues of spatial consistency, privacy, seamless shifts in mutual involvement and making underlying QoS mechanisms more visible, malleable and flexible.

Visualising and populating the Web: Collaborative virtual environments for browsing, searching and inhabiting Webspace

Abstract This paper presents new services for accessing, exploring and collaborating via the World Wide Web. These are based on the use of Collaborative Virtual Environment (CVE) technology which is used to create navigable 3-D graphical, textual, audio and video representations of the structure of the Web and also of its users. The paper describes a number of different services which address the issues of: browsing the Web; searching the Web; directly representing the presence of other users on the Web and enabling communication with them; and finally new forms of interface to the Web, based on the notion of “mixed realities” which are used to create new forms of boundary between physical and virtual spaces.

Staging and evaluating public performances as an approach to CVE research

Staging public performances can be a fruitful approach to CVE research. We describe four experiences: Out of This World, a gameshow; Avatar Farm, a participatory drama; Desert Rain, a mixed reality performance; and Can You See Me Now?, a game that mixed on-line players with players on the streets. For each, we describe how a combination of ethnography, audience feedback and analysis of system logs led to new design insights, especially in the areas of orchestration and making activity available to viewers. We propose enhancing this approach with new tools for manipulating, analysing and sharing 3D recordings of CVEs.

A poetry performance in a collaborative virtual environment

The article presents the design of a poetry performance in a collaborative virtual environment (CVE) and discusses the experience of staging this performance to an audience of 200 members of the general public. The performance involved an extensive collaboration among computer scientists, poets, a graphic artist, and an event production team. The article explores a range of technical and production issues arising from this experience, including: developing rich and engaging forms of content for CVEs; exploring the tension between autonomy of action for audience members and the management of a performance to encourage appropriate behaviors at relevant times and places; considering spatial scoping techniques in enabling different modes of awareness and communication between participants as an event unfolds; developing appropriate embodiments for performers and audience; developing appropriate navigation interfaces for different participants who may or may not have experienced virtual reality (VR); exploring different ways of situating interfaces to a virtual environment within different physical environments based on notions of mixed reality; understanding the issues involved in designing and managing such an event and how these might influence construction tools for CVEs.

The populated web: Browsing, searching and inhabiting the WWW using collaborative virtual environments

This paper presents new approaches for accessing the World Wide Web using multi-user three dimensional spaces, or collaborative virtual environments (CVEs.) The major sections of the paper deal with the aspects of browsing and navigating, searching, populating and displaying information within, and about the WWW. The methods described are illustrated with examples of working applications developed by the authors which together present an image of a possible future for Web access and collaboration based around the Web and its contents.