User interface for multi-user application with human interface devices

An apparatus for enabling a user to edit and create content of a virtual space comprising:

• at least one virtual space hosting device which maintains a virtual space;
• one or more human interface devices for displaying the virtual world to the user and allowing user gestures to be detected for providing user input to the virtual space hosting device;
• wherein the hosting device is operable to generate a selection virtual object which the user can manipulate using the interface devices in order to select a virtual object within the virtual space, and, in response to the selection of a virtual object, to generate a tool palette virtual object with which the user can interact using gestures recognized by the interface devices, wherein interaction with the tool palette object causes changes to the tool palette representation and/or changes to the selected object;
• wherein
• interaction with the tool palette causes new interactive virtual objects to appear which handle certain types of editing tasks, wherein the new interactive virtual objects comprise reference objects which refer to objects within the shared virtual space and which affect the functionality of those objects but which do not form a part of the set of objects which a user experiences when experiencing the shared virtual world in a mode other than an editing mode, wherein an editing mode is a mode in which the shared virtual world is modifiable by a user;
• wherein
• all of the objects, both experiential objects and reference objects, are objects which interact with each other by passing messages from one object to another;
• and wherein
• reference objects can be wired together using wire objects generated in response to user-recognized gestures.