Virtual worlds: VRML clients linked through concurrent chat

Internet based virtual reality offers the opportunity to render content in three dimensions. In addition, the Internet provides a medium to support collaborative activities. In this work, we describe how collaborative capabilities are integrated into the Interactive Land use VRML Application (ILUVA). ILUVA is a VRML based application that supports highly interactive functionality, live updates, and the dynamic generation of VRML content. The collaborative functions have been added in the context of an Internet chat session in which multiple users may participate from the Internet. In addition to the usual functions supported by chat applications, user information sharing is supported. The union or intersection of sessions from different users may be produced and reviewed in the world.