DIAMOND PARK AND SPLINE - SOCIAL VIRTUAL-REALITY WITH 3D ANIMATION, SPOKEN INTERACTION, AND RUNTIME EXTENDABILITY

Diamond Park is a social virtual reality system in which multiple geog raphically separated users can speak to each other and participate in joint activities. The central theme of the park is cycling. Human visi tor; to the park are represented by 3D animated avatars and can explor e a square mile of 3D terrain, in addition to human visitors, the park hosts a number of computer simulations, including tour buses and auto nomous animated figures. Diamond Park is implemented using a software platform called Spline, which makes it easy to build virtual worlds wh ere multiple people interact with each other and with computer simulat ions in a 3D visual and audio environment. Spline performs all the pro cessing necessary to maintain a distributed, modifiable, and extendabl e model oi a virtual world that is shared between the participants. Fo r more information visit http://www.merl.com.