Abstract

In order to encourage cooperation and communication between Worcester Polytechnic Institute and Osaka University, as well as to explore potential new applications of public displays and mobile devices, a product was designed to allow users to participate in an online, collaborative environment displayed on public monitors located on both campuses, in which each user controls a virtual pet creature. Users are able to connect to the public displays via Web-enabled cell phones and PDAs, which they use to guide and instruct their creatures to explore the environment and interact with each other. The environment state is maintained on a remote server, which handles all creature and environment updates as well as long-term data management. World information is propagated to the terminal displays, which run a Flash application to draw the environment and the creatures.

Via their creatures, users are able to explore, chat, and trade items with each other. Users can also collect items for their creatures to wear, by trading and finding treasures in the environment. As creatures interact with one another, their physical appearance will change over time to reflect their behaviors.

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