VR World Congress

1st VR World Congress

5-7 July 1999
Brussels, Belgium

VR World Congress - 48 hours of information, intellectual stimulation, demonstrations, predictions, opinion, debate... and visions of the future for VR

Aims of the meeting

The objective of VR World Congress was to accelerate the widespread and successful commercial adoption of interactive, three-dimensional (i3D) sensory enhanced and Virtual Reality based systems. It intended to achieve the objective by efficiently bringing together, over 48 hours, the key participants in the i3D/VR (VR) community to:

• Experience a good commercial return on their investment of time
• Provide networking opportunities to plan futures for VR

The organisers believe that they more than met this objective. The event itself was oversubscribed with over 150 participants attending. It is planned to take the consensus of the first VR World Congress to subsequent events elsewhere in Europe, in the USA and the Asia/Pacific region.

Event sponsors

The 1st VR World Congress seeked to accelerate the adoption of VR - not to do more than cover its costs. Without the support of the Sponsors, the holding of the first VR World Congress would not have been possible.

Gold Sponsors

• blaxxun interactive, Germany
• European Commission

Sponsors

• CadCentre, UK
• InterSense, USA
• Memondo Graphics, Spain
• RTZ Virtual Worlds, Spain
• Systema Infomatics, Greece
• Virtual Reality Technologies, Germany

Draft Programme

Powerpoint slides and some .pdf documents for the presentations are available to down load from this web site, from the ftp link given. The slides have been PC zipped, with the size of the zipped file for download given in brackets.

Monday 5th July 1999

12.30 Registration
"Getting to Know You" Lunch in the Versailles Room.

14.00 A Vision for industrial application of VR
With particular reference to the automotive industry, including an overview of knowledge transfer and co-operation models between academia and industry.
Dr-Ing Oliver Reidel, Director, CENIT AG Systemhaus, Germany
http://www.elpub.org/vrworld/riedel.zip (.pdf file 1.52 MB)

14.30 Projecting the image
From flatscreen, through HMD to full immersion.
Professor Fernand Vandamme, University of Ghent, Belgium

15.00 In Search of the killer application
The Holy Grail of VR suppliers
Professor David Arnold, University of East Anglia, UK

15.30 Refreshment Break

15.45 Co-operative VR projects contributing to education and culture
Dr Costas Davarakis, Systema Informatics, Greece
http://www.elpub.org/vrworld/davarakis.zip (711 KB)

16.15 The role of VR in construction
Working on partnership projects
Brian Hobbs, Professor of Construction and Director Research and Development, University of Teesside, UK
http://www.elpub.org/vrworld/hobbs.zip (680 KB)

16.45 Fashion Radically Enters Digitally (FRED)
Results of FRED workshops and related ongoing projects
Claudia Gudel, Fachhochschule beider, Basel, Switzerland

17.15 Education to industry
How the MSc programme at University College, London supports the work of the VR Centre for the built environment and its industrial partners
Lesley Gavin, University College, London, UK
http://www.elpub.org/vrworld/gavin.zip (1 MB)

17.45 Proposed partnership projects
Including a review of the ADAPT Project
Professor Nick Avis, Salford University, UK

20.00 VIP Reception
Hosted by blaxxun international

21.00 Congress Awards Dinner

Tuesday 6th July 1999

08.00 Breakfast
With opportunities to examine and discuss demonstrators of work-in-progress, applications, hardware, software and systems.

09.00 Keynote Speech
Experiences from the developers, promoters and owners of some of the most advanced collaborative and virtual environments.
Franz Buchenberger, Chief Executive Officer, blaxxun interactive, Germany
http://www.elpub.org/vrworld/buchen.zip (800 KB)

09.30 The user of VR technology in process engineering
Darrel Fanguy, CadCentre, UK

10.00 Simultaneous visualisation of complex data in multiple, remote sites
Richard Wylde, Continuum Resources, USA

10.30 An AR learning environment for industrial training
Volker Brauer, Manager of the BREVIE Project, University of Bremen, Germany
http://www.elpub.org/vrworld/brauer.zip (550 KB)

11.00 Refreshment Break
With opportunities to examine and discuss demonstrators of work-in-progress, applications, hardware, software and systems.

11.30 Present and future possibilities for VR and training
Dr Paul Brna, Leeds University, UK
http://www.elpub.org/vrworld/brna.zip (11 KB)

12.00 User Views
Dr Simon Grange MB ChB MVRS FRCS, Royal College of Surgeons, England Research Fellow '97-'98, UK and collaborator in multinational surgical simulation research

User Views: VR & surgical training
Dr Rory McCloy, Royal Infirmary, Manchester, UK

User Views: Knowledge acquisition from virtual worlds
Using data mining to underpin knowledge acquisition from virtual worlds via real world interfaces represents a significant opportunity for developers.
Dr Kathryn Burn-Thornton, Head of Data Mining, Plymouth University, UK
http://www.elpub.org/vrworld/burn.zip (142 KB)

13.00 Lunch
With opportunities to examine and discuss demonstrators of work-in-progress, applications, hardware, software and systems.

14.15 Getting the most VR from the least PC
New and revolutionary Internet work based on "getting the fastest 3D real-time data through the Internet"
Roger Gilabert, RTZ Virtual Worlds, Spain

14.35 Motion tracking and the HMD
Ben Vaughan, InterSense, USA

14.55 Paraworld
Open mass multi-user platform for content distribution - success stories, facts... and a vision
Christian Schobel, Virtual Reality Technologies, Germany

15.15 Special 3D chips for special 3D
Luis del Pino, Memondo Graphics, Spain
http://www.elpub.org/vrworld/pino.zip (10 KB)

15.35 Collaborative virtual environments and spatial audio for telepresence
Dr-Ing Stefan Noll, Fraunhofer-Institut Graphische Datenverarbeitung, Germany

15.55 Refreshment Break
With opportunities to examine and discuss demonstrators of work-in-progress, applications, hardware, software and systems.

16.30 Distributed VR
Kris Demuynck, RUCA, Belgium
http://www.elpub.org/vrworld/demuynck.zip (16 KB)

17.00 Telecomms support for the virtual world
John Mellor, Durham University, UK
http://www.elpub.org/vrworld/mellor.zip (93 KB)

17.30 Case Studies in urban planning using a VR hemispherium
Janice Webster, Director of the VR Centre, University of Teesside, UK

18.00 A new approach to traffic planning and street design
To increase the democratic involvement of citizens
Anders Sandberg, Swedish National Road Association, Sweden

20.30 Congress Dinner

Wednesday 7th July 1999

08.30 Breakfast

09.00 Soap Box
An opportunity for those who want to speak or show to make a point and have not previously has the opportunity. Check Congress notices for lively and controversial subjects!

What Can We Learn from Others?

09.30 Impressions of recent research
The speaker has recently participated at the IEEE VR 99 conference in Houston, USA where he gained a valuable insight into VR work conducted by the US Navy and NASA - this is reported in the paper: "Virtual environment-based simulations designed to develop the competencies of 'incident management' teams".
Mike Newton, Marintek AS
http://www.elpub.org/vrworld/newton.zip (920 KB)

10.00 Integrating technologies with VR
ViRTUE is an Integrated VR and Telepresence System for Monitoring Remote Engineering Sites: a mobile, real-time, 3D-hybrid VR/TP system permits the user to integrate telepresence images with computer generated virtual environments superimposed over the remote real worldview and incorporating emerging mobile telecommunications technologies to give rapid and easy access to the real and virtual construction sites from arbitrary locations. This system allows remote surveillance of the construction site, and integration of real world images of the site with VR representations, derived from planning models, for progress monitoring.
The project has just been completed and the first results will be available for presentation at the Congress.
Dr A Retik, Founder and Director of the Virtual Construction Simulation Research Group, Department of Civil Engineering, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, Scotland
http://www.elpub.org/vrworld/retik.zip (2.85 MB)

10.30 VR research in Japan
The Prefecture of Gifu in Japan has made, and encourages, massive investment in VR from local and foreign organisations. Gifu is an incubator for innovation and any company with aspirations for (or expecting to compete with) the Japanese market is well advised to study activities in Gifu.
Hisaharu Kato, Representative of the Government of Gifu, Japan

10.45 VR research in IST
The European Commission has made significant investment in VR-based projects. A review of past experience and a status report on progress with the 5th Framework Programme.
Eric Badique, DG XIII, European Commission
http://www.elpub.org/vrworld/badique.zip (436 KB)

11.00 Refreshment Break

11.15 Summaries, debate and conclusions
This session will comprise individual summaries of the first VR World Congress to address: What is constraining the growth of the VR market. Speakers will include, Professor Peter Swann of Manchester Business School, UK - author of: "Collective Invention of VR", a report commissioned by DGXII of the European Commission.
http://www.elpub.org/vrworld/swann.zip (41 KB)

12.15 Closing Remarks
Roger Frampton, CyberWizard, UK

The Event Organisers

The event was organised by CyberWizard with support from the EU 4th Framework Programme Telamatics Application Programme support actions: IESERV2 and CONCORD.

Attendance was open to any organisation and was free of charge. However, places were limited and preference was given to participants from the Telematics programme. Delegates received invitations to attend Congress breakfasts, lunches, reception and dinners at their own expense.

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