Collaborative configuration in virtual environments

Most collaborative work in virtual environments involves creating and changing objects according to some rules which correspond to what is known as configuration tasks in the field of knowledge based systems. Also, tasks such as presenting information as 3D objects in a virtual environment or dynamically changing (reconfiguring) embodiments to adapt to an environment are configuration tasks. These tasks can be supported by a generic tool, a configuration engine. However, collaborative configuration requires a high level of interactivity to be meaningful which hence must be supported by the engine. We are, therefore, utilising our previous experiences in developing configuration engines to develop one, SdObelics, that is suited for the highly interactive tasks of collaborative configuration in virtual environments. The engine is built on the idea of viewing configuration as a pure constraint satisfaction problem and that a well-defined modelling language can overcome the difficulties that are associated with constraint programming. 3dObelics uses DIVE, a tool kit for building collaborative virtual environments, and a system for speech control of agents in DIVE labelled 'Talking Agents'. SdObelics is meant to act as a platform for building multi-user configuration applications with a minimum of programming. To our knowledge, SdObelics is the first general tool for this. © Springer-Verlag London Ltd.