The authors have implemented a prototype computer system that combines
aspects of an on-line community with those of a virtual reality envir
onment. They believe that interactive multimedia environments, and vir
tual reality environments in particular, can provide an immersive qual
ity that lets users explore many new learning experiences. The prototy
pe's purpose is to investigate the capabilities of current technology
in this area and to develop future research directions. The system int
egrates a number of key technologies for supporting human collaboratio
n and learning. To simulate today's collaborative activities, it uses
a network architecture that lets multiple users at different locations
interact in real time. In addition to human users, the prototype supp
orts artificial agents. These agents can be collaborators in a compute
r-mediated task or characters in a virtual world visited by a user. Ar
tificial agents increase the potential richness of an environment's in
teractive behavior. Unlike users in text-based on-line communities, us
ers of the prototype communicate with each other and with artificial a
gents through speech. In addition to spoken interaction, the prototype
includes audio rendering, hand-gesture recognition, and body-position
-sensing technology. The images in this article show how users might e
xperience such a virtual reality environment. The frames in the comic
strip are taken (with some cropping) directly from a user display. A c
ompanion article in the Winter 1994 issue of IEEE MultiMedia describes
how the authors implemented and combined the key technologies.