A wireless software architecture for fast 3D rendering of agent-based multimedia simulations on portable devices

New technological developments in wireless networks and location-based information systems are greatly affecting the prominent scenarios represented by mobile markets, commercial and industrial organizations, and cooperative social environments. To model and control such complex organizational systems, the use of scientific methodologies, such as participatory simulation and agent-based modeling, is becoming increasingly common. Further, users of these collaborative systems demand the availability of sophisticated tools that are able to present visually the results of cooperative simulation activities on the screen of handheld devices. We have designed and developed a software architecture able to support the execution of agent-based participatory simulation activities, and to render them in a 3D virtual world over wireless devices. We report on several experiments, gathered in the field, showing that the architecture we have developed is able to render, in a timely fashion, on a wireless device, the results of cooperative simulation activities performed by agent-based programming platforms.