Abstract This case study is about ‘Gulliver’s World’,

a multi-user mixed reality environment that functions

simultaneously as interactive edutainment platform

and learning environment as well as flexible infra-

structure for the expansion of mixed reality environ-

ments via innovations in technology and media art. As

an exhibition project, the installation is characterized

by a nonlinear exhibition concept that activates inter-

action between individual users and different modes of

virtual reality as well as collaboration among the users

themselves. At seven workstations, people of all age

groups range along the Reality–Virtuality continuum

while collaboratively creating 3D worlds. Results of

these creation activities are interactive worlds at the

nexus of theatre, digital film production and game

environment. As a research project, ‘Gulliver’s World’

features multilevel infrastructure with exemplary con-

tent in which the latest insights and models to emerge

from HCI research as well as concepts of mixed reality

and virtual environments and their supporting tech-

nology are brought together and developed further.

Keywords Collaborative virtual environment ÆMulti-user mixed reality system Æ Nonlinear exhibition ÆEdutainment Æ Virtuality–Reality continuum ÆPhysical-based interaction

1 Introduction

The ‘Gulliver’s World’ installation is based on several

conceptual approaches. Prime emphasis was placed on

combining an exhibition project with a research project,

which resulted in two very different approaches to

designing ‘Gulliver’s World’. On the one hand, the

exhibition project is characterized by a highly specific

and very distinctive exhibition dramaturgy concept

designed to achieve a nonlinear mode of mediating its

content. Technical components, design elements and

conceptual factors activate interaction both between

an individual user and different modes of virtual reality

as well as among the users themselves. Here second-

arily considered is ‘Gulliver’s World’ as research pro-

ject that features multilevel infrastructure with

exemplary content: the latest insights and models to

emerge from HCI research, concepts of mixed reality

and virtual environments and their supporting tech-

nology are brought together and developed further.

They are assembled on a multimedial platform that

enables scientific development to dovetail with an

educational application.

This paper describes the ‘Gulliver’s World’ exhibi-

tion project with the following focal points: Sect. 2

reflects the conceptual approach to configure and de-

sign the exhibition project. This contains the nonlinear

principle of installation as well as the physical-based

interaction design that range along the Reality–Virtu-

ality continuum (Milgram and Colquhoun 1999). Sec-

tion 3 demonstrates the composition of the exhibition.

Several components ‘Gulliver’s World’ consists of are

described. Section 4 depicts the installation’s embed-

ding in self-directed reporting by its permanent public

usage as well as extended task workshops.

C. Lindinger (&) Æ R. Haring Æ H. Hortner Æ D. KukaArs Electronica Center Museumsgesellschaft mbH,Ars Electronica Futurelab, Hauptstr. 2-4, 4040 Linz, Austriae-mail: Christopher.Lindinger@aec.at

H. KatoOsaka University, Machikaneyama 1-3,Toyonaka 560 8531, Japan

Virtual Reality (2006) 10:109–118

DOI 10.1007/s10055-006-0047-1

123

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Multi-user mixed reality system ‘Gulliver’s World’: a case studyon collaborative edutainment at the intersection of materialand virtual worlds

Christopher Lindinger Æ Roland Haring ÆHorst Hortner Æ Daniela Kuka Æ Hirokazu Kato

Received: 8 March 2006 / Accepted: 1 August 2006 / Published online: 6 September 2006� Springer-Verlag London Limited 2006

2 ‘Gulliver’s World’: the exhibition project

The ‘Gulliver’s World’ project features a nonlinear

exhibition approach that emphasizes visitor’s interac-

tion on the basis of haptic interfaces. The installation

serves as a multimedial realm of human interaction in

and with a virtual environment and enables users to

experience and experiment with different strata of

digital media production in a playful way, e.g. tech-

niques used in contemporary filmmaking and computer

game development. Thus, users in all age

groups—regardless of their previous knowledge about

computer technology and virtual reality—can experi-

ence the interweaving of material and virtual worlds

and explore it in creative ways. As heterogeneous but

consistent interactive medium at the nexus of theatre,

digital film production and game environment, ‘Gulli-

ver’s World’ lets users get creative with their hand as

stage designer, prop man, director, actor and spectator.

This way they realize the interlinkage of the stations in

a social sphere of creating and learning.

Unlike familiar input units like mouse und key-

board, various levels of interaction are opened up by

seven workstations. Users, here, do not interact in order

to learn; instead, they learn while they are interacting.

The effective element is inherent in—and not located

in front of or behind—the interaction interfaces, which

not only provide for the content-related flow leading

from one installation component to the next but also

stage the inter-spatial transition between material and

virtual worlds.

2.1 Exhibition design

The exhibition concept takes advantage of insights

about how people learn new things and partake of new

situations, and directly translates them into action: ‘‘In

contrast to the cinema, where the viewer relaxes in a

comfortable seat and views a series of images and plot

devices passing before him, the visitor to an exhibition

moves through a space in which everything is motion-

less. By the very act of proceeding through it, he pro-

duces a sequence of alternating scenes. An exhibition

designer has to take this into account. [...] But if an

exhibition is to be designed in a way that takes these

points into consideration, then it has to be kept in mind

that the visitor also occasionally remains stationary,

that he turns and retraces his steps and, thus, that the

dramatic performance has to be effective from many

different points of view’’ (Ponti 1969). Numerous

exhibitions work with linear structures and programs

so that the visitor proceeds from one installation to the

next and follows the components of the exhibition in a

linear learning process. If the model of the linear

exhibition does indeed correspond at first glance to

Nathan Shedroff’s hypothesis that ‘‘knowledge builds

[...] upon knowledge’’ and knowledge thus ‘‘becomes

the basis for acquiring additional knowledge’’ (Shedr-

off 2001), then it is—essentially—the contrary to what

is meant by a performative learning approach. In line

with the performative learning approach, organized

constructions are deconstructed and reconstructed in

project-oriented tasks in the form of acquired knowl-

edge. This activates the process of understanding

complex, dynamic interrelationships. This allows the

reorganization of consecutive architectures and dra-

maturgies subsequent to the demolition of the self-

evident process of successively partaking of exhibited

content. This process is replaced with self-determined,

attentive movement on the part of the user. To achieve

this, ‘Gulliver’s World’ consists of an installation clus-

ter composed of subcomponents that, considered

individually as well as in an overall context, are inter-

esting with respect to their content, their technology

and especially as a manifestation of the interaction

concept: In jumping back and forth among the various

components, users come up with their own ways of

relating to the overall principle of the installation. The

secret of nonlinear exhibition design in ‘Gulliver’s

World’ lies in the discovery of individual paths through

the complexity. The process of learning the ins and

outs of the entire installation is played out in the ab-

sence of prescribed paths along which the user must

proceed and without hierarchically structured se-

quences of actions in a universe of information frag-

ments that the user can discover only through the

process of action and interaction and can interconnect

into an individual experience. Complexity is applied as

a method—in a sort of multidirectional ‘Easter egg

hunt’ as a basic principle for generating knowledge and

experience. In doing what it does, ‘Gulliver’s World’ is

an installation to make the content to be learned a part

of the mediation concept itself instead of merely uti-

lizing it as an aid to prepare and pass along information

that has to be gathered in step-by-step fashion. To a

certain extent, the environment is the content.

2.2 Interface design

In ‘Gulliver’s World’, the design of the man–machine

communication is based on customary cultural tech-

niques and social experience in order to minimize as

much as possible the barriers between physical practice

(input) and virtual events (output) in the way human

users work with media. Using reality-connected inter-

face metaphors like puzzle pieces, brushes, stamps and

110 Virtual Reality (2006) 10:109–118

123

boxes which motivate to going behind their functions

affect a user-independent understanding of the instal-

lation because of relying on collective bodies of

knowledge and established systems of signs. Thus, the

user’s explorative way from material into virtual

worlds is supported by physical-based interaction

principles.

2.2.1 Along the Reality–Virtuality continuum

The link connecting the installation’s components is the

question of where exactly to position the human body

within the realm at the intersection of material and

virtual reality. As in Milgram’s model of how to differ-

entiate between a real and a virtual environment, the

path leading through the installation also leads to the

realization that real environments and virtual environ-

ments ‘‘are not to be considered simply as alternatives to

each other, but rather as poles lying at opposite ends of

a reality–virtuality (RV) continuum’’ (Milgram and

Colquhoun 1999). ‘Gulliver’s World’ proceeds through

this continuum and, in doing so, assumes intermediate

positions like augmented reality (as in its precursor,

‘Gulliver’s Box’) and augmented virtuality (Greenbox,

Modelling Table)—subsidiary forms of mixed reality

(World Creator). Users take as their starting place a real

space, the exhibition area with its installation compo-

nents. The new spaces that users discover finally display

varying degrees of immersion until the boundaries

between the materiality of the body and the virtuality of

the surroundings completely vanish over the course of a

Virtual Expedition.

2.2.2 Physical-based interaction principles

For ‘Gulliver’s World’, we consider the maintenance of

the connection to the physical or haptic world—as

illustrated, for example, by the ArtDeCom project

(Winkler et al. 2002a, b)—as essential for collaborative

and constructive learning in practice: ‘‘a mixed reality

environment as a collaborative and constructive

learning space [...] allow children to explore concepts

by interaction and with their senses and therefore

allow to build and to correct mental models and a

deeper understanding of the underlying domain’’. In

concurrence with Winkler et al. (2002b), this is

supported to an especially high degree through the use

of mixed reality applications: ‘‘In order not to separate

the learner from their real world and their traditional

tools and their senses the alternative approach with a

mixed reality environment is used.’’ In designing the

workstations used in ‘Gulliver’s World’, effort has been

made to maintain from beginning to end the connec-

tion between physical and sensory representation via

physical-based interaction principles that are demon-

strated in the next section. Our thinking here was

that taking an approach often used by media artists

opens up the possibility of getting computer-supported

learning situations away from the desktop terminal and

transferring them into a workshop situation in which

objects that have a familiar significance in the material

world become portals leading to and instruments for

use in immaterial worlds.

3 Composition of the exhibition

The ‘Gulliver’s World’ installation comprises seven

components, also referred to as stations. The core of

each subcomponent is composed of intuitive editors

with which users can create, select and arrange the

contents of the World, namely, the characters, land-

scapes and scenarios, which are combined in the final

part of the installation, where they can create a variety

of micro-stories in ‘Gulliver’s World’. The following

subsections describe the seven stages in the creative

virtual staging of ‘Gulliver’s World’. They deal with

both its contents and technical aspects.

3.1 Creating the objects for ‘Gulliver’s World’

3.1.1 Modelling Table

Consisting of a workbench complete with plastiline

modelling clay (Fig. 1), a photo chamber featuring a

rotating stage and a 3D scanner (Fig. 2), transparent

data storage media and several displays, the Modelling

Table station shows one possibility of directly trans-

forming material objects into their virtual counterparts.

At this station, objects are created for ‘Gulliver’s

World’ by means of augmented virtuality. Real

modelled objects made of Plasticine of different

colours are photographed from 12 different perspec-

tives. The resulting texture is then transferred to a 3D

model (3D scanner). RFID tags (radio frequency

identification tags) hidden in transparent object data

carriers store the related database code under which

the 3D data are saved. The models created here as well

as on the Extruder can be viewed three dimensionally

from all sides using the station’s displays and data

storage media. The data can be read again at other

interfaces elsewhere on the installation. The modelled

material objects can be taken, in the form of virtual

equivalents, on a trip round Gulliver’s world.

Virtual Reality (2006) 10:109–118 111

123

3.1.2 Extruder

Users can create 3D objects from graphic inputs on a

VR flipchart by drawing simple lines on it. The ap-

proach to creating virtual objects by means of classical

cultural techniques here is transferred due to a typical

flipchart design. Drawing an object by hand with a

stylus is the first step in digitally designing the object

and saving it to memory (Fig. 3) Users draw a number

of points on the flipchart, which are then automatically

linked with one another. When the pen is moved

manually, ultrasound sensors track its position. It is

necessary to draw half the silhouette of the mentally

conceived image, which is then rotated around an axis

of reflection, which is to the left of the drawing. When

the silhouette is turned 360�, additional points appear

that are necessary for computing the 3D object.

3.2 Creating the landscapes for ‘Gulliver’s World’

3.2.1 World Editor

The station is the workshop for the stage set. A globe-

like ball with a diameter of 110 cm serves as the

rotatable carrier of the landscape image, which is

projected onto the ball in the correct perspective (un-

distorted). The interface between the user’s activity

and the virtual landscape design has been conceived as

a crossover combining the form of conventional

drawing utensils and the function of digital input de-

vices and consists of four brushes (with paint pots) and

12 stamps (with inkpads) mounted on a ring around the

globe (Fig. 4) Thus, images and symbols derived from

the real world are translated into a virtual image by

means of classic cultural techniques. The stamp motifs

are divided into two categories: eight for the fixed

objects and four for the dynamic ones that are created

on the Modelling Table and Extruder stations. Topo-

graphic structures can be selected, landscape textures

Fig. 1 Modelling Table. Infrastructure for the (material) crea-tion of objects of ‘Gulliver’s World’

Fig. 2 Three-dimensional scanner. Interface for the (virtual)creation of the objects of ‘Gulliver’s World’ based on 3D scansfrom real Plasticine models (Fig. 1)

Fig. 3 Extruder. Interface for the creation of objects of‘Gulliver’s World’ based on graphical inputs

112 Virtual Reality (2006) 10:109–118

123

painted and objects added to this mixed-reality envi-

ronment. The objects are positioned on the globe with

the aid of a magnet-tracking system.

Puzzle pieces, which can be placed in a specially

created indent, serve as symbolic carriers of the basic

textures (Fig. 5). The worlds depicted on the different

puzzle pieces are identified and projected by RFID.

The users’ creations are saved too, so that the modified

landscapes are transported from the mixed-reality

station World Editor to the virtual environment of

Gulliver’s World Stage where they can be viewed as 3D

images and used in the further experience process.

3.3 Creating characters for Gulliver’s World

and mise en scene

3.3.1 Character Editor

The station consists of displays, transparent boxes and

no-touch sensors. Here, virtual characters (avatars) are

selected and endowed with abilities, characteristics and

moods. This is performed manually with touchless

capacitive sensors. Users have at their disposal a set of

designs for action figures, decorative elements and

capabilities with which they can be endowed, all of

which are freely combinable (Fig. 6). This is the way in

which the characters in animated films and computer

games are created too. The created avatars are located

in real Perspex boxes whose content disappears in a

seemingly mysterious manner after it has been re-

moved from the storage room and reappears only on

the projection surface of Gulliver’s World Stage. The

boxes can be moved anywhere in the room. A camera

tracking system using optical markers identifies both

the box on the stage and its position.

3.3.2 Greenbox

The station consists of a green-walled space that is

open at the front and integrated into the architecture

of the exhibition space. Juxtaposed to this Greenbox

are a camera and a chamber that accommodates the

Plexiglas box that metaphorically serves as the data

storage and transportation medium for the sequences

recorded there.

Using this station, the visitor can participate as an

avatar in the virtual stage action. The body images

recorded by the camera can be fed visually into the

virtual world. Body language can be used to purpose-

fully create moods and influence the role of the virtual

protagonist being created here: the user can con-

sciously influence his later role in the virtual scenario

by performing certain kinds of movements. Therefore,

a simple movement analysis derives specific behavio-

ural patterns from the movement patterns.

Fig. 4 World Editor. Interface for the creation of the landscapesof ‘Gulliver’s World’

Fig. 5 Puzzle pieces. Symbolic carriers of the landscape’stextures of ‘Gulliver’s World’

Fig. 6 Character Editor. Interface for the creation and mise enscene of the characters of ‘Gulliver’s World’ based on touchlesscapacitive sensors

Virtual Reality (2006) 10:109–118 113

123

With this method, the person is recorded at one

position only and filtered out in a chroma key process.

An emotion-identification program generates a motion

history. A graph, which is generated from deviations in

the pixels in two frames, triggers the emotion recog-

nition function and interprets the rapid jerky move-

ments as aggression (negative) and slow, gentle

movements as jovial behaviour (positive). This sim-

plification allows the intentional assignment of virtual

character’s moods. A projection screen set up next to

the Greenbox displays the sequences and their trans-

formation into virtual characters (Fig. 7).

3.4 Arrangement and manipulation of Gulliver’s

World

At the workstations Gulliver’s World Stage and Virtual

Expedition, the resulting 3D worlds become visible.

Different interfaces enable the user to navigate

through and manipulate the virtual arrangement.

Interventions by one or more users generate ever-new

configurations, demonstrating the basic character of

the installation as a whole, as the processes involved in

making a virtual environment (as in the development

of the game, for example) are rendered visible. The

collaboratively created 3D worlds differ in their

embodiment as well as their narrative course that

permanently can be manipulated. The types of created

worlds vary in their landscape textures that route the

characters differently and affect their motion and

behaviour. One further aspect is the mobilization of

various character interaction sequences that are the

focus of directing the virtual protagonists—both the

‘Gulliver’s World’s’ inhabitants and the self-created

video sequences using body language to intervene the

scene.

3.4.1 Gulliver’s World Stage

Here, the results of the work in the previous stations

are brought together at a round table that forms part of

the interface for arranging and manipulating the sce-

narios. The table upon which a landscape image is

projected provides ample workspace and has a

scooped-out area in the middle in the shape of a jigsaw

puzzle piece. The world that has been arranged is

projected here (Fig. 8).

The digital play consists of the landscape (designed

on the World Editor station), which supplies the set

and the object-like components (puzzle pieces) of the

world, the animated characters from the Character

Editor, and the Greenbox (Perspex boxes) (Fig. 9). The

play is projected on to a big screen.

The displayed section can be selected and scaled by

moving a hand-held camera (cf. Fig. 8).

The camera tracking system identifies the position of

the boxes and the relationship of the actors to one

another and to their environment. The user can not

only observe the interaction and transformations but

also actively influence and modify them, e.g. by moving

the figures, adding new objects and characters and

switching between different landscape designs.

One basic working point is the direction of the

avatars in order to affect their interaction principles.

That is indicated via physical behaviour and mood

symbols above the heads of the virtual characters.

Fig. 7 Greenbox/projection screen. Interface for the creationand mise en scene of the characters of ‘Gulliver’s World’ basedon chroma keying and emotion recognition

Fig. 8 Gulliver’s World Stage. Virtual stage and interface for thearrangement and manipulation of the ‘Gulliver’s World’ scenariobased on user’s intervention from the outside/from a superordi-nate position

114 Virtual Reality (2006) 10:109–118

123

Thus, small social behavioural micro-stories are gen-

erated (Fig. 10). They influence the way the virtual

setting behaves, which, in turn, generates ever-new

constellations and reciprocal affects and creates a

complex scenario.

Influenced by defined character’s moods as well as

the self-created elements and their temporary compo-

sition, the change of landscape and weather conditions

indicates the overall disposition of the current stage

setup (Fig. 11).

In observations, trainers detect that children start to

cook up their own stories by not only intentionally

using the mobile boxes but by restarting to create

virtual elements and characters. Thus, Gulliver’s

World Stage is not like the last element of a chain but

the centre of networked stations from which virtual

requisites can be applied, tested and modified in every

phase of the experience.

An additional camera function allows users to send a

screenshot of the current frame at the click of a button

to the Pic-Mailer, who can then process it individually

and send it by e-mail. Figure 12 shows a screenshot of

the Gulliver’s World Stage how it was arranged in the

scope of a client presentation of the Voestalpine AG.

‘Gulliver’s World’ was used as platform for creating

industry-specific content. Vehicles and tools for steel-

making were placed on the stage next to a Greenbox

video of the team and the clients of the company.

3.4.2 Virtual Expedition

Whereas Gulliver’s World Stage allows the user to

arrange and manipulate events on the stage from the

Fig. 9 Screenshot of the Gulliver’s World Stage projection.Greenbox recordings (avatars) shown in the virtual scenario onthe Gulliver’s World Stage after placing the Perspex box

Fig. 10 Avatar interaction resulting from people’s stage arrange-ment

Fig. 11 Landscape intervention resulting from people’s stagearrangement

Fig. 12 Screenshot of the Gulliver’s World Stage in the scope ofa client presentation of the Voestalpine AG

Virtual Reality (2006) 10:109–118 115

123

outside by assigning him a superordinate position from

which he can intervene in the scenario, the Virtual

Expedition completely dissolves the transition between

material and virtual reality (Fig. 13). The user im-

merses himself—physically—in the virtually created

environment by assuming the identity of a character in

the Character Editor. The station essentially consists of

a display surface for stereoscopic projections, the

polarization goggles needed to view them, a camera for

image recognition purposes, as well as an illuminated

quadrant positioned across from the projection wall,

which captures the dark–light contrast between the

user and the background for use in the image recog-

nition process recognition (cf. the Sony Eye Toy). The

carrier is identified in the silhouette as a bone struc-

ture, which allows the system to identify gestures. This

way, users can interactively experience, influence and

manipulate the dynamic world. Both the changes in the

landscape and the interactions between the different

elements and characters are experienced ‘live’ (as on a

theatre stage) in the form of stereoscopic projections.

To navigate in Virtual Expedition, the user intuitively

steers via simple arm movements—just like in imagi-

nary flight. Through the connection of physical move-

ment and navigation in virtual space, the immersion

achieved by the principle of interaction becomes

especially pronounced (Fig. 10).

3.5 Metaphorical interlinkage of the installation’s

components

The links that connect up the installation’s components

are likewise metaphors that provide mobility for the

content produced at the individual stations. The world

created at the World Editor is saved to a mobile data

storage medium whose form and function correspond

to a jigsaw puzzle piece that, as ‘the world’s last miss-

ing piece’, is placed into the matching space at the

Gulliver’s World Stage. The media to which the object

data are stored, featuring a design derived from a

laboratory, combine simplicity and fascination in one.

Three-dimensional data are transportable via a trans-

parent disk featuring a knob-like handle, and the

objects can be read out from a simple-to-use plug-in

slot. The Plexiglas boxes in which the virtual characters

are transported between the stations are imitations of a

transparent container that might actually serve to

accommodate such an action figure and from which

it can subsequently be ‘unleashed’ by opening the

container’s hatch on the Gulliver’s World Stage.

4 Self-directed exhibition reporting

‘Gulliver’s World’ is an installation in permanent

public usage so that it is frequently assessed by dif-

ferent user groups. Additionally, extended task work-

shops show the creative exposure to both the content

and the media technology modules. People’s under-

standing of the installation principles becomes trans-

parent about what is useful for further developments.

4.1 Permanent public usage

In 2004, 64,000 visitors toured the Museum of the Fu-

ture, the venue of ‘Gulliver’s World’. In 2005, the fig-

ure was 72,000. Visitors are escorted by Trainers,

guides who have themselves been specially trained by

the installation’s developers. The Trainers accompany

the visitors as they encounter the installation and then

document their experiences and observations, mostly

the products of visitor queries and conversations in a

small group setting. This allows acquiring user’s feed-

back that is applied for redesign processes.

4.2 Extended task workshops

In conjunction with the ‘Gulliver’s World’ exhibition,

Ars Electronica offers an ongoing program of work-

shops that provide a setting for more intensive

involvement with digital media production. The pro-

gram is consulted by different grades of school.

Workshops, which are about 30 min in time, make it

possible to add a solid theoretical and technical basis to

the experience acquired in working with ‘Gulliver’s

World’ by applying this knowledge in other contexts.

The multilevel configuration of the workshops pro-

Fig. 13 Virtual Expedition. Interface for physical immersion andintervention in the ‘Gulliver’s World’ scenario based ontelepresence and image recognition

116 Virtual Reality (2006) 10:109–118

123

ceeds from learning-by-doing in the ‘Gulliver’s World’

environment to a phase of acquisition of more ad-

vanced knowledge and then back to learning-by-doing

in so-called extended tasks. The workshops are the-

matically tiered and designed for youngsters between 8

and 16 years of age. Extended tasks encompass, for

example, digital storyboard development and the pro-

cess of designing and customizing a complete scenario

for ‘Gulliver’s World’ with aid of a digital content

development tool (Fig. 14).

Another extended task is the development of action

figures for ‘Gulliver’s World’ and their transfer from

the material to the virtual world by 6–10 year olds

(Fig. 15).

This workshop’s content package includes con-

structing the installation components that are neces-

sary for this procedure as well as learning the principles

of the Greenbox and of telepresence. In another task,

experts from the Ars Electronica Futurelab staff and

game designers explain to youngsters 16 and up the

process of creating computer games, which closely

resembles the process of constructing ‘Gulliver’s

World’. Thus, computer game development can be

understood in step-by-step fashion and this knowledge

can be implemented by the youngsters themselves in

their own small-scale projects.

5 Summary

The several stations of ‘Gulliver’s World’ enable to

collaboratively create 3D worlds that include self-cre-

ated 3D models, landscape textures, virtual characters

with lives of their own and video sequences. Brought

together on a virtual stage, the components merge in

micro-stories that show small social behavioural and

environmental change scenes. The stations feature

many different modes of content creation from purely

real to purely virtual and enable this tightrope walk

due to physical-based interfaces and navigation tech-

niques. The different modes of manipulating the stage

events emphasize the collaborative work of the users

and let them get creative with their hands. Results

show that users come up with a multitude of different

ways using the system for content creation. Some of

them are sold on intentionally creating sophisticated

own stage settings and stories and start to verbalize

them in small teams. They generate consistent worlds

in which they dovetail the modules of ‘their’ scenario.

Based on the fact of the character’s specific traits

people add complementary or contrary ones to mobi-

lize small social interaction sequences. Other users

concentrate on playing with the interfaces and try out

multiple ways through the nonlinear installation by

jumping back and forth within the environment. They

intuitively place objects and characters and just ob-

serve and reconfigure the scenes afterwards. However,

the worlds differ in every cycle because of collabora-

tively designed landscapes and entities that live

through a multitude of micro-stories.

The approach taken to designing ‘Gulliver’s

World’— as a socio-technical field of experimenta-

tion—has established a public laboratory situation that

pursues two approaches. The prototypical design of an

edutainment-based learning platform in a nonlinear

interactive exhibition context is coupled with the

observation and analysis of a mixed reality collaborativeFig. 14 Children in action during the digital storyboard devel-opment workshop

Fig. 15 Children in action during the virtual character develop-ment workshop

Virtual Reality (2006) 10:109–118 117

123

environment for the optimization and expansion of this

installation in pursuit of an R&D agenda.

6 Future prospects

Both individual components as well as the entire

environment are applied to a wide range of contexts.

Currently, the Ars Electronica Futurelab is developing

an application that will replace the Gulliver’s Travels

content with a virtual city ecosystem—‘Citypuz-

zle’—for the Ars Electronica Festival 2006. The infra-

structure and the concept for mediating the encounter

with content are being applied in a business context for

the simulation of business procedures and to depict

production sequences in industrial processes. Currently

in planning are applications designed to perform sim-

ulations in the auto industry and to turn out scientific

visualizations.

References

Milgram P, Colquhoun H Jr (1999) A taxonomy of real andvirtual world display integration. In: Ohta Y, Tamura H(eds) Mixed reality. Merging real and virtual worlds.Ohmsha/Springer, Tokyo/Berlin Heidelberg New York,pp 5–30

Ponti G (1969) Mailand 1954. In: Internationale Ausstellungsg-estaltung, Haus Neuburg, Zurich

Shedroff N (2001) Experience design. New Riders, IndianaWinkler T, Kritzenberger H, Herczeg M (2002a) Mixed reality

environments as collaborative and constructive learningspaces for elementary school children. In: Barker P,Rebelsky S (eds) Proceedings of ED-MEDIA 2002, AACE,Norfolk, USA, pp 1034–1039

Winkler T, Kritzenberger H, Herczeg M (2002b) Collaborativeand constructive learning of elementary school children inexperimental learning spaces along the virtuality continuum.In: Herczeg M, Prinz W, Oberquelle H (eds) Mensch &Computer 2002: Vom interaktiven Werkzeug zu kooperati-ven Arbeits- und Lernwelten. BG Teubner, Stuttgart,pp 115–124

118 Virtual Reality (2006) 10:109–118

123

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.