Data compression in distributed virtual environments

The development of large-scale virtual environments is the new grand challenge in computing. New breakthroughs in 3D computer graphics and networking enable us to perceive and share virtual worlds in new and familiar ways. There is a natural desire to make these environments both large and detailed. This brings up many problems in efficiently managing the flow of large amounts of data between users. We are looking at ways to complement current work in the field of network traffic redundancy. Traditional and new data compression techniques can effectively be used to reduce the flow of information between participating hosts, especially at a local level.