Some Notes on Agents in the Twente Virtual Theatre Environment

We present research on visualisation and interaction in a realistic model of an existing theatre. Our virtual theatre has been built according to design drawings of the architects of an existing building. Visitors can enter the theatre and walk around. Information about today’s performances is available on a board that is automatically updated. Visitors may also go to the information desk, see previews and start a (natural language) dialogue with an agent called ‘Karen’ who has access to the theatre database with information about performances. A first version of our environment has been available on WWW since early 1998. Another version has been installed in a regional technology activity centre. The information that is provided by the system is up to date, many people use it to get informed about performances and we think that at this moment it is the only virtual environment in the world that is really used by the general public. This success has made it possible to start new research. In this paper the emphasis is on research results that are now being incorporated in a next version of the environment, again accessible for the general audience, and new research which has to provide results that will be integrated in the environment in its next update.