Authors:

 Simo, Agueda. POSTER

Title:

 MICROWORLDS, SIRENS AND ARGONAUTS: Navigation in Virtual Environments

Keywords:

 virtual environments, virtual reality, navigational systems
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Abstract:

 Virtual worlds may contain objects or special areas that add opportunity for rich interactivity with the users. For example, these special areas could be portals to another environment. Special objects could respond to the acts of the users with special behaviors such as morphing, sound emission, etc. One of the most interesting and difficult challenges in designing a virtual environment is to attract the attention of the users to these areas.

Many times the users do not notice those objects or areas. Because of this, the users cannot fully experience the environment we designed for them. They miss many of the sensations that we want them to feel. They may be stuck in one environment and may not be able to leave because they miss an exit portal. As a result, the magic does not work, and the users are not engaged by the virtual world.

We solve this problem in our environments, Microworlds, Sirens and Argonauts (MSA). We use the concept of "Attractors." Attractors are like the Sirens in Jason's famous Greek voyage. But in this case the Sirens facilitate the navigation with their songs. They lead the Argonauts to a perfect position to view an interesting perspective, or to reach the specific part of the object we want the users to touch or even pass through. MSA uses a rich set of Attractors.

Virtual environments should let the users or "Argonauts" navigate freely, explore the virtual 3D space discovering new emotions and thoughts. Thus, the attractors do not limit the users mobility, but facilitate their navigation within the environment, and their interaction with it.

The environments mirror reality by containing rich experiences at multiple scales. Sometimes, diminutive worlds that could have existed, exist, or will exist, though we do not perceive them because of their very small resolution. Argonauts experience a fantastic journey through worlds that grow and transform as they interact with them, revealing new patterns, structures and sounds.
Thus, the narrative of MSA is an open and flexible structure, a living organism that evolves as the users navigate. This very unique type of narrative allows the construction of navigational maps and representational models that can coexist with the narrative of the environments.

The virtual space becomes a living narrative landscape where the Argonauts navigate along time and space, taking part in the complex visual and aural behaviors of the environments.
Simo, Agueda. simo@rcf.usc.edu Agueda Simó is a multimedia artist who investigates the interaction between art and science using new technologies. Her work has been exhibited internationally in museums, conferences, festivals and on TV. Her current work is a virtual environment entitled "Microworlds, Sirens and Argonauts." It explores an interactive narrative by means of attractors and sound as navigational clues. Her first virtual environment was developed at ART+COM, Berlin, in 1992. In that work she pioneered the use of fractal structures in virtual reality in collaboration with the mathematicians Heinz-Otto Peitgen and Hartmut Jürgens. Ms. Simó has received numerous awards including the Basque Government Art Grant in 1995, an award by the Annenberg Center for Communication, USC, 1998, and the prestigious Fulbright fellowship in 1997.Ms. Simó taught the first Virtual Reality courses at the California Institute of the Arts in 1993, and at the University of Southern California, in 1998. She received an MA in Image Synthesis and Computer Animation from Middlesex University, London, in 1993. She was awarded a BA in Fine Arts, in 1991, and a BA in Communication Science, in 1989, both from the University of the Basque Country, Spain (you know, the home of Picasso).