SIRIS

SIRIS (Semantic Reflection for Intelligent Realtime Interactive Systems) is a research project which explores novel software architectures for Virtual, Augmented, Mixed Reality and computer games and similar domains. The project is realized in cooperation between the University of Würzburg and the Beuth University of Applied Sciences in Berlin. The first versions of Simulator X [Latoschik & Tramberend, 2011], a software technology testbed, has been developed and used in the project’s context.

Simulator X introduces the concept of state variables, which facilitate the decoupling of the components of an application. This concept utilizes the actor model to simplify the creation of highly parallel applications. Architecture elements, e.g., components (rendering, physics simulation, etc.) and entities residing in the application, are annotated with semantic descriptions. These descriptions are stored in an OWL ontology. Combining the automatic type conversion feature, which is provided by the Simulator X framework, with semantic descriptions each component is completely independent from others.

The image to the left show a scene in the game Sixton’s Curse [Fischbach et al., 2011], one of the first demo applications based on the techniques developed in this project. The game is an immersive VR experience. Users take on the role of a wizard who has to defend a city against marauding ghost using multimodal, speech and gesture spells in front of a large screen display (powerwall, CAVE, etc.).

More demos can be found on our youtube channel (see left) or on the Simulator X page. The following videos give a brief introduction of Simulator X’s software architecture features initially developed in the SIRIS project.

Clip: General Siris Concepts

Clip: Fishtank App

To evaluate, validate and optimize the Simulator X architecture, a typical application from the commercial sector (provided by project partner vertigo systems GmbH) has been ported: An interactive virtual fishtank. The fish tank application incorporates image based touch detection, interactive shader effects as well as a distributes behavior model for the fishes and was used to analyze Simulator X’ concepts for exchangeability and parallelization.