Grounding Virtual Worlds in Reality

We suggest in this article a new paradigm for the representation of data, which is best suited for the real-time visualization and sonorisation of complex systems, real or simulated. The basic idea lies in the use of the garden metaphor to represent the dynamic evolution of interacting and organizing entities. In this proposal, multiagent systems are used to map between given complex systems and their garden-like representation, which we call Data Gardens (DG). Once a satisfying mapping has been chosen, the evolution of these Data Gardens is then driven by the real-time arrival of data from the system to represent and by the endogenous reaction of the multiagent system, immersing the user within a visual and sonorous atmosphere from which he can gain an intuitive understanding of the system, without even focusing his attention on it. This can be applied to give life to virtual worlds by grounding them in reality using real world data.

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