Supporting team work in collaborative virtual environments

In this paper we present our approach in creating Collaborative Virtual Environments to provide dis-tributed collaborative teams with a virtual space where they can meet as if face-to-face, coexist and collaborate while sharing and manipulating a set of virtual data in real time. Thereby our approach moves beyond mere integration of video-conferencing and scientic visualization, to create a design frame-work for CVEs where issues of human-to-computer and human-to-human interaction in projection-based systems are addressed. It focuses on our interaction taxonomy that supports the development of applica-tions which themselves support small groups working together in rear projection-based VEs making use of video conferencing and 6DOF input devices. The ap-proach is exemplied by the design and implementa-tion of a Collaborative Medical Workbench applica-tion used for remote education purposes