Qualitative physics in virtual environments

In this paper, we describe a new approach to the creation of virtual environments, which uses qualitative physics to implement object behaviour. We adopted Qualitative Process Theory as a qualitative reasoning formalism, due to its representational properties (e.g., its orientation towards process ontologies and its explicit formulation of process' pre-conditions). The system we describe is developed using a game engine and takes advantage of its event-based system to integrate qualitative process simulation in an interactive fashion. We use a virtual kitchen as a test environment. In this virtual world, we have implemented various behaviours: physical object behaviour, complex device behaviour (appliances) and "alternative" (i.e. non-realistic) behaviours, which can all be simulated in user real-time. After a presentation of the system architecture and its implementation, we discuss example results from the prototype. This approach has potential applications in simulation and training, as well as in entertainment and digital arts. This work also constitutes a test case for the integration of an Artificial Intelligence technique into 3D user interfaces.