Integrating Electronic Institutions with 3D Virtual Worlds

The work described in this paper is embedded within a research project that has the principal goal of developing an instrument to support the complex interaction patterns of providers and consumers in an e-business setting. In particular, these providers and consumers, either humans or software agents, are members of a heterogeneous society cohabiting in a multi-agent based 3D virtual environment. Conceptually speaking, the environment is designed according to a three-layered architecture comprising i) the multi-agent system layer, ii) the middleware layer and iii) the visualization layer. This paper´s contribution lies in the description of the design and implementation of the middleware connecting the two other layers.