Various research fields in science and technology are now accumulating large amounts of data in databases, using recently
developed computer controlled efficient data-acquisition tools for measurement, analysis, and observation. Researchers believe
that such a huge extensive data accumulation in databases will allow them to simulate various physical, chemical, and/or biological
phenomena on computers without carrying out any time-consuming and/or expensive real experiments. Information visualization
for DB-based simulation requires each visualized record to work as an interactive object. Current information visualization
systems visualize records without materializing them as interactive objects. Researchers in these fields develop their individual
or community mental models on their target phenomena, and often like to visualize information based on their own mental models.
We will propose in this paper a generic framework for developing virtual materialization of database records based on the
component-ware architecture IntelligentBox that we developed in 1995 for 3D applications. This framework provides visual interactive
components for (1) accessing databases, (2) specifying and modifying database queries, (3) defining an interactive 3D object
as a template to materialize each record in a virtual pace, and (4) defining a virtual space and its coordinate system for
the information materialization. These components are represented as boxes, i.e., components in the IntelligentBox architecture.