Collaborative Virtual Environments Using Traditional Japanese Crafting Objects over the Ultra High-Speed Network

In this research, we propose a virtual traditional crafting system that realizes the multimodal communications by using cave system or tiled display over the next generation network. In this system, various places in Japan are connected by a super-high-speed network to construct a presentation system which takes into consideration of human sensitivity for impression to Japanese traditional crafting in virtual reality environment. Three versions of the Japanese traditional crafting system have been prototyped including PC version, CAVE version and tiled display version were developed. In addition, in there, interactive communications between remote users are enabled by using non-verbal communication information and user´s sensibility as an additional information. Thus, a new communications system that integrates the virtual reality space of Japanese traditional crafting system and 3D video images is realized.