I-Gate: Interperception - Get all the Environments

Abstract

We present in this chapter the I-GATE architecture, a new approach, which includes a set of rules and software architecture, to connect users from different interfaces and devices in the same virtual environment, transparently, even with low capacity of resources. The system detects the user resources and provides transformations on the data in order for its visualization in 3D, 2D and textual-only (1D) interfaces. This allows users from any interface to get a connection in the system using any device and to access and exchange information with other users (including ones with other interface types) in a straightforward way, without need to changing hardware or software. We formalize the problem, including modeling, implementation, and usage of the system, also introducing some applications that we have created and implemented in order to evaluate our proposal. We have used these applications in cell phones, PDAs, Digital Television, and heterogeneous computers, using the same architecture, with success.

Key Terms in this Chapter

Interperception: A software architecture and set of methodologies that allow the users of a virtual environment or game to share this environment through software clients with different visualization interface.

Visualization Interface: Interface of for visual output from any graphical software application.

Perception: The human capability of sense.

Collaborative Interaction: A kind of interaction that allow people to work together in the resolution of a problem or act together in the same software application.

Middleware: Software layer located between the operational system and the applications, it allows the execution of a application in different hardware platforms.

Shared Virtual Environment: An multi-user virtual environment that is shared by all the users in real time.

Multimodal Interaction: A kind of interaction that allow the people to use different types of input devices to use software.