Real-time 3D model sharing conference system based on agent and VRML

The contemporary design and assessment of products press more and more emphasis on the cooperation of teams. The environment for distributed cooperation becomes especially important. Meanwhile using three-dimensional models to express the information of the product is the most intuitionistic. This paper deals with several key technologies and uses them to develop an agent-based real-time 3D model sharing conference system. It uses VRML to visualize artificial joints models, takes advantage of Microsoft NetMeeting SDK and integrates the multi-media conference function of the NetMeeting. To achieve the best real-time performance, we used distributed file system architecture and only transferred controlling commands among distributed participants. This system has been successfully used in "artificial joint fast implanting" project of National High Technology Plan 863/CIMS.