Flexible Architecture for the Development of Realtime Interaction Behavior

In this paper, we describe our work in progress on the architecture of StateStream, a software model for the development of interaction behavior in realtime interactive systems. The StateStream design aims to support the design and development cycle of complex interaction techniques, object behavior and interaction scenarios and is currently targeted at concurrent and fluent direct manipulation in Virtual Environments. StateStream provides a dual modeling approach to model both discrete behavior and continuous interactive behavior. The architecture integrates these modeling features with the underlying graphics and tracking libraries. By design, a dynamic programming language is used both throughout the architecture and in the behavioral model descriptions. We highlight some of the features of the StateStream model and illustrate how its tight integration through the Python language offers a flexible framework for studying and adapting the complex interactions between description models and architecture components. We believe this approach provides flexible run-time experimentation environments and tool chains, and can lead to improved insights and requirements for future interaction description models and architectures for realtime interactive systems.