Open Scenario System for Interactive Application – OSSIA

To all areas using interactive digital media of various kinds, is an undergoing need to get these organized according to specific logical time constraints.

Whether it is for interactive digital displaying, museum installation or video gaming, performance arts or cultural industry, the writing of a scenario defining the interactions between the medias is required.

The Open Scenario System for Interactive Application (OSSIA) project, one of whose objectives is to gather and create knowledge for the formalization of logical and temporal constraints aims at offering developers some generic tools for the writing and the application of those. Ultimately, it aims at encouraging the emergence of software tools allowing the user to write complex scenarios as intuitively as possible.

The first phase of this industrial research project involves the implementation and validation of the logical representation of loops, feedback activities and branches of complex scenarios. It will then enhance the Iscore library containing, as of today, the formalisms expressing the representation of hierarchical and variable time length. Beside, it aims at getting this formalism within a C++ and cross-platform framework to be shared in various software environments.

Following the development of this formalism and its implementation will be held various multidisciplinary projects for the very experimentation of the early research results. The methodology supporting the systematic interplay between theoretical and practical use, and whose conduct has proved to be successful at work within the Virage platform, will validate the results, reverse them if necessary and then guide the necessary adjustments.

In order to allow these experiments, some software sketches are proposed: an enhanced version of the Virage sequencer dedicated to the intermedia writing and controlling; a browser-based graphical editor allowing remote control of dynamical content; some externals for Max/MSP offering an interface to cue management; an hardware show-controller example; an experimental implementation in video games.

In order to conduct this work, the OSSIA project, bring together a consortium of co-workers from institutional or private research, from the industry or from the arts field: Laboratoire Bordelais de Recherche en Informatique (LaBRI), le GMEA – Centre National de Création Musicale d’Albi-Tarn, l’École Nationale du Jeu et des Médias Interactifs d’Angoulême (ENJMIN) et les sociétés Galamus, Blue Yeti et RSF. It also fits into a network of many collaborators associated with the creation or the education and training.

This project builds on research and work of the Virage platform funded by ANR from 2007 to 2010 involving several members of this consortium. From its beginning, the platform's objective is to observe and support the changes of current practices in the fields of performing arts and cultural industries through the development and testing of software prototypes.

In summary the OSSIA project aims to offer a close knowledge together in a set of software services for the writing of open and multi-users scenarios.