An Extension of the Multimodal Presentation Markup Language (MPML) to a Three-Dimensional VRML Space

摘要

We are conducting research into multimodal presentations that make use of anthropomorphic character agents as a new type of multimodal media that can be used to effectively communicate information in conjunction with the World Wide Web (WWW) and we are developing a markup description language for this purpose, the Multi-modal Presentation Markup Language (MPML). In the research reported here we have developed a Multimodal Presentation Markup Language for VRML (MPML-VR), which is a markup language that enables the description of multimodal presentations in a three-dimensional VRML space and that inherits features from MPML. We have also implemented an MPML-VR Agent system, an anthropomorphic agent system that functions on the VRML platform. By using the three-dimensional VRML space, presentations such as showing products in three dimensions, virtual exhibition halls, and virtual museum environments become possible. The audience is able to move their position at will and view the contents from an arbitrary direction. In this paper we report the MPML-VR markup language, MPML-VR Agent system that we have created for the VRML environment, and the MPML-VR Viewer, a presentation viewing system.