共享虛擬環境下之應用程式共用技術

Abstract

多人虛擬環境是一種分散式的虛擬空間。分散在世界各地的遠端使用者可以透過網路進入這個虛擬空間與其他使用者或與虛擬環境中的任何物件做互動。多人虛擬環境可以被視為一種強大的群體合作使用者介面，使用者在這個環境中可以以最為直覺的方式來通訊及存取網路上的資訊。 多人虛擬環境最吸引使用者的地方在於它所提供的高度互動性。然而，在這樣子的環境下建構互動性物件需要撰寫大量的邏輯，以使得環境中的物件能隨著使用者的動作或是環境中的刺激以產生對應的動作。為了要使得開發多人虛擬環境下的應用更為直覺，我們提出了一個全新的想法 “在多人虛擬環境中共用一個單人視窗應用程式”。在多人虛擬環境中共用一個已經存在的單人視窗應用程式能得到以下幾個好處：(1)開發者可以用他們熟悉的程式語言來開發互動性元件，而不用學習多人虛擬環境下所提供的底稿語言 (2)許許多多現存視窗程式的介面及邏輯都可以被重複使用以建立多人虛擬環境下的互動性物件 (3)可以製造出傳統多人虛擬環境中所無法達到的應用。我們利用應用程式共享以及應用程式重導這兩項技術來實作我們的系統，在這樣的機制下完全不需要對要被共享的視窗程式做任何的修改。 在這個論文中，我們設計並實作一套整合性的系統以實現我們的想法。這個系統整合了三項不同的領域 : 多人虛擬環境、應用程式共享、應用程式重導。我們以實驗室之前開發的MPEG-4多人世界為基礎，並新增一些新的模組以將視窗程式共享技術整合進原有的MPEG-4多媒體群體合作系統。

A CVE (Collaborative Virtual Environment) is a computer-based, distributed, virtual space. In such spaces, remote users can meet and interact with others through agents or virtual objects. CVE is considered as one of the most powerful computer-supported collaboration interfaces. It provides an intuitive way for remote communication and information access over a network. The most desirable feature that makes CVE attractive is its interactive capability. However, creating interactive object under CVE is not an easy work. Programmers must spend a lot of time associating application logics (usually via scripts language) with individual objects. The logic describes how an entity will react to user interaction and stimulate from the environment. To ease the difficulty of constructing CVE applications, we introduce a novel idea -- “integrate existing single-user application sharing into CVE”. It is a novel mechanism to provide the shared use of existing single-user applications in CVE through “application sharing” and “application redirection” that is transparent to the applications. There are many benefits to integrate application sharing into CVE. (1) We can use familiar programming language, such as C/C++ or Java, to write interactive objects for CVE. (2) Lots of off-the-shelf applications’ UIs and logics can be re-used to construct CVE applications. (3) We can build complex interactive objects that never exist in traditional CVE systems. In this thesis, we have designed and implemented an integrated system to realize our idea. The system contains technologies from 3 different fields: CVE, application sharing, and application redirection. We have incorporated the Mpeg4 Multi-user World developed in our lab’s previous project as the base developing platform, and added new modules to integrate this application sharing technology.