Flexible parametrization of scene graphs

Scene graphs have become an established tool for developing interactive 3D applications, but with the focus lying on support for multi-processor and multi-pipeline systems, for distributed applications and for advanced rendering effects. Contrary to these developments, this work focusses on the expressiveness of the scene graph structure as a central tool for developing 3D user interfaces. We present the idea of a context for the traversal of a scene graph which allows to parameterize a scene graph and reuse it for different purposes. Such context sensitive scene graphs improve the inherent flexibility of a scene graph acting as a template with parameters bound during traversal. An implementation of this concept using an industry standard scene graph library is described and its use in a set of applications from the area of mobile augmented reality is demonstrated.