CHAMBRE: Integrating multimedia and virtual tools

Current research in interaction aims at defining new types of multimedia and multimodal experience, at enriching everyday objects and environments with the ability to capture user actions and intentions, and at integrating real and virtual sources of information, typically exploiting the visual channel. These forms of interaction usually require dedicated architectures, often relying on different component models, and with rigid types of configuration. We present an approach to the integration of real and virtual world sensors and effectors, and of traditional multimedia environments within a single component-based architecture. Environments in this architecture are defined as networks of plugins, each equipped with computational, presentation and communication capabilities. Examples of integrated environments produceable with this architecture are given.