Abstract
This paper describes the basic ideas of our effort to develop a framework for the structured authoring of mixed reality (MR) applications. The overall objective of the AMIRE project is to define and implement a software system that allows content experts to easily design and implement mixed reality applications without detailed knowledge about the underlying base technologies. This requires a user centred approach for authoring in contrast to existing approaches that are primarily driven by technological features and problems of MR systems. In order to support content experts in MR design, the AMIRE framework also consist of a visual authoring tool that uses a component oriented base technology for building mixed realities. The application of reusable building blocks at different levels of granularity (MR gems, MR components) is the central idea in this project. © 2003 by Springer Science+Business Media New York.