This paper introduces a Collaborative Virtual Environment (CVE) system over the Internet. A Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML) 97-based user interface is developed to permit users to navigate around the virtual world. Voice-enabled interactive agents provide a more natural interface to help users interact with each other and with the virtual world. Real-time interactions between the entities in this environment are implemented over an upcoming IEEE standard for distributed simulations, called the Run-Time Infrastructure (RTI) of the High Level Architecture (HLA). For this, a Java adapter is developed to ensure the inter-operations between the VRML environments and HLA/RTI. An application to e-commerce is highlighted.
Xiaojun Shen, Ramsey Hage, Nicolas D. Georganas