Components for immersion

A person is immersed when they feel part of an environment they experience and influence. While virtual immersion systems are usually designed on a case by case basis, and are not easily reusable or scalable, our goal is to specify and develop a framework for the design and integration of immersive systems. We address the issues raised in the design and implementation of the middleware components necessary for immersion, in a generic, extensible, modular architecture for Integrated Media Systems we have developed for efficient generic concurrent processing of data streams. Design principles are illustrated on specific visual immersion components. Utilization of these components is demonstrated with a real-time immersive interactive application.