NETWORKED VIRTUAL-REALITY AND COOPERATIVE WORK

We explore the issue of supporting cooperative work using networked vi rtual reality. This exploration covers three major themes: supporting communication and awareness, structuring space, and embodying users. C orrespondingly, three sets of concepts are introduced. The first is a spatial model of interaction, which defines the mechanisms of aura, aw areness, focus, nimbus, and adapters to allow the inhabitants of virtu al environments to flexibly manage their communication across a number of media. The second is a set of techniques for constructing Populate d Information Terrains (PITS), abstract data spaces that support the c ooperative browsing of information. The third is a set of design issue s for virtual bodies, Each set of concepts is illustrated with a discu ssion of prototype applications implemented within our own DIVE and MA SSIVE networked virtual reality systems.