InTml: A Dataflow Oriented Development System for Virtual Reality Applications

Abstract

This paper presents our research on the Interaction Techniques Markup Language (InTml). Our final goal in this work is to find ways to evolve and fit virtual reality (VR) applications over heterogeneous hardware platforms, a process we call retargeting. Toward this goal, we have developed a hardware-independent, componentbased, formal model that describes the execution of VR applications; an XML language for describing complex and implementation-independent VR applications; a methodology for InTml-based development; a manual way to isolate and replace interaction techniques as a contribution to VR retargeting; and a set of tools for development support. This paper describes these topics and states future directions of our research.

A reusable library of 3D interaction techniques

“…We plan to complement previous usability studies we have performed. We have shown that non-programmers could understand InTml and do simple applications after few hours of introduction [10]. We want now to do more studies on the issue of library reusability, and how we can compare productivity with InTml to other formalisms.…”

“…This library is defined on top of the InTml [10], which describes VR applications as a dataflow of components, which can then be translated to a particular runtime environment, provided that such a target environment has been implemented. Each component has a type, that describes a set of input and output ports that can be used, as the only method for intercomponent communication.…”

“…It is based on the InTml, the Interaction Techniques Markup Language [10] , that allows the description of VR applications as a dataflow of components that represent devices, content, and behavior. Since reuse might happen at a lower level of granularity that a whole technique, we want interaction techniques to be composed by simple, independent components, which could be reused in other techniques.…”

VR Development with InTml

“…In summary, our proposal describes how to retarget devices and interaction techniques in VR applications, as opposed to changes in graphic content only. More details about InTml and its implementation can be found at Figueroa et al (2008) and Figueroa (2010).…”

Insights on the Design of InTml

“…Our research around InTml (interaction techniques markup language) targets these goals. InTml (Figueroa, Bischof, Boulanger, Hoover, & Taylor, 2008;Figueroa, Green, & Hoover, 2002) is an architecture, a language, and a set of tools that allow developers to create applications that use novel input and output devices. It is designed to allow retargeting of such applications to new scenarios of usability and hardware.…”