The Zircus Concept Sketch for a Learning Environment and On-Line Community

This paper describes premises of a video about an as-yet unimplemented design for a virtual environment. The video is a basis for discussion – a sketch, rather than a specification, of a virtual playspace and interactions that can happen there. The playspace is conceived as a "learning environment" in which activities can focus thinking on certain sets of ideas. Conversations within the multiuser environment can also be conducive to learning, and to developing an "online community." These actions and conversations would depend on a future system combining technologies in networked graphics, speech, AI, various input devices, and high-level software for constructing animations and audio/video sequences. This work may not be copied or reproduced in whole or in part for any commercial purpose. Permission to copy in whole or in part without payment of fee is granted for nonprofit educational and research purposes provided that all such whole or partial copies include the following: a notice that such copying is by permission of Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories of Cambridge, Massachusetts; an acknowledgment of the authors and individual contributions to the work; and all applicable portions of the copyright notice. Copying, reproduction, or republishing for any other purpose shall require a license with payment of fee to Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories. All