VRML generation tools for visualization of database content in three dimensions

Abstract

New technologies for the three-dimensional scene description, such as VRML97, open new possibilities to visualize large amounts of information in a new way. These technologies used through the Internet should make the access to the information independent of the platform and of the location. To reach these goals, we explore a fusion of the VRML, Java, and Database technologies to design applications for the visualization of information stored in databases in three­dimension. The research is focused on design tools that allow a multimodal display of any kind of information in a three-dimension scene described in VRML97. The architecture associated with this design should allow interaction and dynamic refresh of these worlds. The technology is essentially client-server based with ambition to make the tools as modular as possible to have the ability to apply them visualization on different kind of databases, and to use different representations on the same database. The design should also abstract as far as possible the data from the different components of the project and store the maximum in the database to make easier to create of new applications.