Human and animal vision systems have been driven by the pressures of evolution to become capable of perceiving and reacting to their environments as close to instantaneously as possible. Casting such a goal of reactive vision into the framework of existing technology necessitates an artificial system capable of operating continuously, selecting and integrating information from an environment within stringent time delays. The YAP (Vision As Process) project embarked upon the study and development of techniques with this aim in mind. Since its conception in 1989, the project has successfully moved into its second phase, YAP II, using the integrated system developed in its predecessor as a basis. During the first phase of the work the "vision as a process paradigm" was realised through the construction of flexible stereo heads and controllable stereo mounts integrated in a skeleton system (SA V A) demonstrating continuous real-time operation. It is the work of this fundamental period in the V AP story that this book aptly documents. Through its achievements, the consortium has contributed to building a strong scientific base for the future development of continuously operating machine vision systems, and has always underlined the importance of not just solving problems of purely theoretical interest but of tackling real-world scenarios. Indeed the project members should now be well poised to contribute (and take advantage of) industrial applications such as navigation and process control, and already the commercialisation of controllable heads is underway.

Virtual Interaction: Interaction in Virtual Inhabited 3D Worlds answers the basic research questions involved in the development of user-friendly interfaces, such as:
* How does one navigate in and with a virtual inhabited three-dimensional world?
* How can the virtual world and the interface be part of the same world?
* How can the use of these interfaces be supported by implicit narrative structures?
* How can the autonomous agents function as assistants to the end-user?
* How can the current--what you see is what you get--be replaced by What you want is what you get:?
Containing the edited research papers resulting from an ambitious, cross-disciplinary research project, this volume examines the core activity of interfaces: interaction. It takes the reader all the way from general theories and conceptualizations of interaction aspects of virtual inhabited 3D worlds, through theories of and methods for the design of autonomous agents, ending in specific design methodology considerations and suggestions for management in the multimedia industry.

Lars Qvortrup The world of interactive 3D multimedia is a cross-institutional world. Here, researchers from media studies, linguistics, dramaturgy, media technology, 3D modelling, robotics, computer science, sociology etc. etc. meet. In order not to create a new tower of Babel, it is important to develop a set of common concepts and references. This is the aim of the first section of the book. In Chapter 2, Jens F. Jensen identifies the roots of interaction and interactivity in media studies, literature studies and computer science, and presents definitions of interaction as something going on among agents and agents and objects, and of interactivity as a property of media supporting interaction. Similarly, he makes a classification of human users, avatars, autonomous agents and objects, demon strating that no universal differences can be made. We are dealing with a continuum. While Jensen approaches these categories from a semiotic point of view, in Chapter 3 Peer Mylov discusses similar isues from a psychological point of view. Seen from the user's perspective, a basic difference is that between stage and back-stage (or rather: front-stage), i. e. between the real "I" and "we" and the virtual, representational "I" and "we." Focusing on the computer as a stage, in Chapter 4 Kj0lner and Lehmann use the theatre metaphor to conceptualize the stage phenomena and the relationship between stage and front-stage."

Human and animal vision systems have been driven by the pressures of evolution to become capable of perceiving and reacting to their environments as close to instantaneously as possible. Casting such a goal of reactive vision into the framework of existing technology necessitates an artificial system capable of operating continuously, selecting and integrating information from an environment within stringent time delays. The YAP (Vision As Process) project embarked upon the study and development of techniques with this aim in mind. Since its conception in 1989, the project has successfully moved into its second phase, YAP II, using the integrated system developed in its predecessor as a basis. During the first phase of the work the "vision as a process paradigm" was realised through the construction of flexible stereo heads and controllable stereo mounts integrated in a skeleton system (SA V A) demonstrating continuous real-time operation. It is the work of this fundamental period in the V AP story that this book aptly documents. Through its achievements, the consortium has contributed to building a strong scientific base for the future development of continuously operating machine vision systems, and has always underlined the importance of not just solving problems of purely theoretical interest but of tackling real-world scenarios. Indeed the project members should now be well poised to contribute (and take advantage of) industrial applications such as navigation and process control, and already the commercialisation of controllable heads is underway.