Spine: An Introduction

What is SPINE?

A platform for building immersive digital environments

S P I N E is a lightweight software framework designed to help you build any kind of immersive, interactive computer-generated environment.

Spine will help you create software that can visualize 3D environments and presentations that can be applied in a multitude of ways. Any kind of useful (or useless) functionality can be built into a life-like, real-world model, or an imaginary immersive 3D interface that will engage participants and invoke awe and curiosity.

I am particularly interested in the use of Spine as a framework for building immersive filter programs: applications that provide methods of displaying information in ways that endow human beings with high-speed data access and assilimilation capabilities. This type of application would make full use of the major features that Spine offers:

Basic Services

A portable base platform upon which to build a wide range of applications.
A collection of useful software objects and related functions that make programming easier.
An expressive set of sensory output capabilities which can be used to display all sorts of media.
A comprehensive set of data input capabilites to enable the ingestion of essential file and database formats and communicate using standard network protocols.

Spine was designed to be easy by being self-explanatory. Spine provides features that help remove some of the difficulties inherent in building complicated interactive multimedia programs...

Additionally Spine provides:

A framework for designing virtual world applications.
A comprehensive library of documentation and tutorials that teach you how to use the system.
A wide variety of example programs and test modules.

S P I N E is a simple, coherent toolkit that takes away much of the difficulties of integrating a functional, real-time, multi-user 3D environment into an application, educational tool, or artwork.

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