Abstract. Intelligent MultiMedia (IntelliMedia) focuses on the computer processing and understanding of signal and symbol input from at least speech, text and visual images in terms of semantic representations. We have developed a general suite of tools in the form of a software and hardware platform called "Chameleon" that can be tailored to conducting IntelliMedia in various application domains. Chameleon has an open distributed processing architecture and currently includes ten agent modules: blackboard, dialogue manager, domain model, gesture recogniser, laser system, microphone array, speech recogniser, speech synthesiser, natural language processor, and a distributed Topsy learner. Most of the modules are programmed in C and C++ and are glued together using the Dacs communications system. In effect, the blackboard, dialogue manager and Dacs form the kernel of Chameleon. Modules can communicate with each other and the blackboard which keeps a record of interactions over ...