Technological advances in the Internet computing and communication environment allow us to build interactive 3D visualizations of Virtual Worlds with sufficient performance and user friendliness to be acceptable to the casual, inexperienced and impatient user connected to the WEB via modem or wireless technology.

The talk will concentrate on such a 3D system developed at GMD-IPSI and currently in the process of moving into a start-up company to be set up in Germany or the USA.

The system is centered around commercial databases that will contain pictures of paintings, sculptures, photographs and other artwork offered for sale. It provides search functionality by using content analysis and description but also meta information about the piece of art to be sold, the selling artist, or the selling gallery. Potential buyers, like interior decorators, architects, art departments in companies, museums or private collectors, can search the database. Theresult will be displayed in a VRML generated interactive 3D Gallery. The layout of this gallery can me made up interactively to reflect the preferences of the potential buyer or the offering organization.

In the talk the system, the offered service and the software will be demonstrated and explained and some of the technology issues that needed to be resolved as well as the human factors that needed to be reflected will be discussed. It will also be shown how such a system could be adopted for other WEB based applications like museum and art exhibitions, product representations and sales room visualizations that go beyond the usual currently used 2D approaches when high speed networks are not available.