Component based video communication tool for collaborative virtual environment

This paper treats a component based video communication tool for collaborative virtual environments. Especially the authors propose a new concept and its realization mechanisms for easy construction of distributed 3D graphics applications using video communications, e.g., network meeting, conference, and training in a 3D virtual space. If a software component is represented as a visible, manually operable object, users can make its copy and transfer it to another computer easily and rapidly. If a facility that manages video/audio data is realized as such a object, even end-users can easily and rapidly build networked video communication environments through the copy-and-transfer operation. To clarify an availability of this concept, the authors employ the IntelligentBox system as a research platform. The authors introduced a video communication facility as a software component into the IntelligentBox system. IntelligentBox has provided a network communication facility as a software component. Using these components, it will be possible to build collaborative virtual environments, which support video communications, through copy-and-transfer operations.