copyright1999 IEEE. Published in the Proceedings of CA'99, Geneva, Switzerland, MAY 26-28

Group Interaction in a Sourround Screen Environment

Michael HochDetlev Schwabe

ZKM | Institute for Visual Media

Lorenzstr. 19, 76135 Karlsruhe, Germany

[mpunkt | detlev]@zkm.de

Abstract
This paper describes a setup using a surround screen environment (Extended Virtual Environment EVE dome) that we used to explore group interaction in real and vir-tual space. We have created a prototype framework to explore different modes of group interaction, the position and motion of users in real space are tracked using a vision-based interface that allows the activities of real crowds to be monitored. In the virtual space, we use a simple behavioural animation system that serves as a testbed to generate virtual group and crowd behaviour. Exploring different kinds of dynamic relationships be-tween real and virtual groups gives insight to possible directions of group interaction.