Inter communication theater-towards the realization of interactive movies

A new type of media called `interactive movies´ is proposed which will be realized by the integration of conventional medium such as movies, telecommunications, and video games. The interactive movies have the capability of creating a virtual world with various kinds of realistic/hyper-realistic scenes and computer characters. The metaphor of `Inter Communication Theater´ gives people the ability to interact within this virtual world. Therefore people can experience the stories of the virtual world through interactions with the characters and the environments of the world. In this paper, the basic concept of such a new media will be described along with an experimental system we have developed