Collaborative Immersive Networked Environment
extracted from http://www.studioimc.com/CINE.html

Test Application

Though it has many applications, we are focusing on CINE's immense potential to enhance group experiences in the context of entertainment and education. More specifically, the first software application we will build to test and demonstrate the functionality of CINE is an artwork and a game called Infinite City II. It is a multi-user game that people can participate in while in the streets, on the Web, or in the actual immersive Holodeck environment.

Inside the environment, Infinite City II is represented as a futuristic city-scape that is meant to suggest new paradigms for 3D desktops and the image database searching. As in other projects like the MIT research project, City of News, CINE uses the city as a metaphor for information organization. For example, in CINE, a group of similar documents could be found in the same building or neighborhood. Yet it is up to the users must play along and decide how to organize the incoming imagery. There are three types of users. "Street Users" explore Manhattan and send cell phone pictures of landmarks or of their favorite parts of the city. "Web Users" monitor the status of incoming image content from webcams and email and can play a role in organizing the content. And "Insiders" operate inside the environment, sorting through the incoming imagery, navigating the virtual city-scape and trying to find the appropriate parts of Manhattan to post their image in (as if plastering billboards and signs).

Those inside the environment find themselves in a flying taxi cab and they are told at the outset that they have been given the responsibility of organizing the images on this new futuristic urban desktop while navigating the space and composing music in real time.

Not only can this application inspire creativity and collaboration, it can also be educational. Another layer of this urban infoscape might take them outside of the game, allowing them to explore various architectural landmarks around Manhattan.
- posted by 770 @ 00:58