Using Virtual Environments to Enhance Visualization

Within the EU ESPRIT demonstrator project VIVRE, a commercial virtual environment system has been used to create a user-centred interaction environment for two commercial general-purpose data visualization systems. The project has exploited mechanisms provided by all three systems to incorporate new user-developed functionality. In addition to updating and navigating the visualization scene, this includes user control of the visualization application from within the virtual environment. The project is assessing the degree to which this extended interactive capability results in greater benefits for commercial users.