The following paper contains a summary and brief assessment of the legal problems that may arise in virtual worlds. The results presented herein were gained during the legal research in order to establish a virtual world platform named VirtualLife. Virtual Life is an FP7 ICT research project conveyed by the EU. The project aims to provide an immersive and secure environment, combining a high qu...

The three main navigation paradigms for virtual worlds, i.e., free navigation, automatic tours, and multiuser navigation show important limitations when dealing with guided visits that involve interactive cooperation among several users in 3D virtual worlds over the Internet. In this paper, we present our research into this issue and some important results. We propose a new navigation paradigm ...

simulated environment, typically in an interactive 3D format. The rich social media data generated in virtual worlds has important implications for business, education, social science, and society at large. Similarly, massively multiplayer online games (MMOGs) have become increasingly popular and have online communities comprising tens of millions of players. They serve as unprecedented tools f...

The rise of digital technologies like 3D virtual worlds has the potential to open new directions in virtual ethnography researches. Although there has been a lot of discussion about conducting research in online spaces and in virtual games, there are few studies on conducting research in virtual worlds. In this study, within a holistic perspective, the virtual ethnography research potential in ...

The construction of photo-realistic virtual worlds is at reach of current computer graphics. Unfortunately, the philosophy currently adopted for the diffusion of virtual worlds over the Internet, which calls for downloading at client side the 3D virtual world description, does not allow several user to share the same virtual world. Recently, in order to solve this issue, the split-browser appro...

VRML has already become the standard for the exchange of static 3D scenes on the Web. However, several approaches were recently made to extend it by behaviors and interactions in order to support interactive 3D applications on the Internet. Most of these approaches including the current VRML 2.0 draft specification apply to single, isolated users, browsing through virtual worlds. But already in...

Telepresence is the future of multimedia systems and will allow participants to share professional and private experiences, meetings, games, parties. The sense of "presence" in the virtual environment is an important requirement for collaborative activities involving multiple remote users working with social interactions. Using virtual humans within the shared environment is a essential support...

This paper discusses research into online, multi-user, interactive virtual worlds for use in education. A 3D virtual gallery with a shared whiteboard has been developed using several multimedia software packages. The results show that it is possible to create effective, intuitive virtual environments in which users may interact, communicate and collaborate with projects. Technical, social and p...

In 3D interactive ction systems, a virtual camera must \ lm" the behaviors of multiple autonomous characters as they unpredictably interact with one another, are modi ed by the viewer, and manipulate artifacts in 3D worlds with complex scene geometries. It must continuously plan camera movements to clearly shoot the salient visual features of each relevant character. To address these issues, we...