Automatically designed 3D environments for intuitive exploration

While popular as a visual interface, current interactive 3D environments are often painstakingly created by hand. The paper proposes interactive 3D environments that are automatically designed on-the-fly based on various design rules, thereby separating layout and content. The resulting environments are compelling, customizable, and intuitive for information exploration. The interface also serves as an integrated framework for different types of rich media. The complete system for designing, constructing, and rendering the environments in real lime is discussed and shown to have implications in a variety of applications, including e-commerce.