Lunch & Demonstration Opportunities

It is hoped that this and other refreshment breaks will provide opportunities for delegates to identify prospective partners to submit proposals for VR/i3D projects in the Second Call of the Sixth Framework Programme. There will be opportunities to display posters and other illustrations of expertise and experience available for future projects.

Keynote Address: Proaction, Reaction, Interaction, Roger Frampton, founder of VREfresh

The keynote will consider the current position of the VR/i3D community and potential future applications, technologies and techniques based upon discussions with users and suppliers of VR/i3D in Europe, North America and Japan. In addition, three hypothetical projects will be described to create "talking points" for plenary discussions to consider further support for VR/i3D representation in forthcoming Framework Projects.

Culture, Heritage & Education - Scanning & Digital Representation

This session will feature technology presentations in the context of its theme and conclude with a moderated discussion with particular reference to FP6.

The session will open by considering the creation of 3D content by using scanning. Extreme accuracy in texture and colour as well as dimension is required for virtual artefacts to provide a satisfactory interactive 3D experience to preserve real objects. How good is scanning - and how good will it get? How can organisations collaborate to share the cost of creating content in this fashion?

The difference between involvement and interaction is not yet well defined: the "virtual video-conference" and "digital shopper" are with us, but not yet widely used by us. What does the "avatar" have to do to build an active user community? What are the relative merits of photorealism compared with metaphors to represent humans in virtual environments? What is the breakthrough we are waiting for?

Speakers will include:
• Xavier Marichal, Alterface, Belgium
• Joao Goncalves, European Commission Joint Research Centre, Italy
• Henk Berits, Kestral3D, Ireland

Refreshment Break, Networking & Demonstration Opportunities

It is hoped that this and other refreshment breaks will provide opportunities for delegates to identify prospective partners to submit proposals for VR/i3D projects in the Second Call of the Sixth Framework Programme. There will be opportunities to display posters and other illustrations of expertise and experience available for future projects.

Data Visualisation & Knowledge Management - Augmented Reality & Displays

This session will feature technology presentations in the context of its theme and conclude with a moderated discussion with particular reference to FP6.

The assimilation of information through the visualization of complex datasets and knowledge management is well established with proven benefits in a small number of industries; the "3D spreadsheet" revolutionised the desktop in the office. How and when will lessons learned in, for example, the oil and gas community be transferred to wider application areas - moving the benefits of VR/i3D from large "early adopting" organisations to small and medium sized enterprises?

Experience indicates that not all workers are prepared to wear even light-weight headsets to experience 3D for anything but short periods. Is the answer monitors that display three-dimensions. How convincing are they and what price-breaks are on the horizon?

Reception

Bilateral Discussions, Networking & Demonstration Opportunities

The 3D Consortium, Dr Ian Thompson, Sharp Laboratories of Europe

The 3D Consortium is a not-for-profit initiative of, originally, Itochu, NTT Data, Sanyo, Sharp and Sony, which now has 80+ member companies worldwide. Key to the success of the consortium is recognition of the need for the organisation to be truly global (as are the technologies and their users).

The consortium seeks to develop the market for 3D, foster international standards to facilitate data exchange and interoperability and create opportunities for collaboration. European VR/i3D companies will be attracted by the expanded market with export potential, a multi-continental influence in standards making and opportunities for bi-directional technology exchange.

Entertainment, Leisure & Games - Motion Capture and Mobility

This session will feature technology presentations in the context of its theme and conclude with a moderated discussion with particular reference to FP6.

Is motion tracking close to becoming "mainstream" in VR/i3D? Gaming has led in the widespread adoption of computer generated graphics - will "edutainment" be the first mass market for this medium of content creation?

Humans on the move interface with data all the time: the wrist watch, the telephone and automobile instruments are examples. The scale of adoption of the Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) indicates the demand for data to be available all the time and everywhere. The early adopters of "3D on the move" are playing games: what applications will take us beyond ways of passing time to a mobile generation of the information society - and what compromises, forced by physical dimension and technological capacity, will be acceptable to the nomadic consumer of information?

Initiatives to create interesting (immersive and engaging) 3D applications of the web as an evolution of the existing web infrastructure have met with limited success. At the same time, massively multiplayer on-line games have created virtual on-line worlds to which many players dedicated large portions of their day for years. It can be argued that this disjunction arises because the web has originated from a fundamentally 2D metaphor, and the emphasis in its evolution towards 3D has been based upon its origins in information presentation. Is it the case that the step to a general i3D global network cannot be made as an evolution of the WWW, but is more appropriately regarded as an evolution of massively multiplayer game technology.

The concept of a web browser might be supplanted by that of a general purpose on-line 3D game client. Similarly an internetworked system of 3D worlds requires a server network based upon game server technology: the result will be a game multiverse, a system of interconnected 3D worlds that do not merely present information and environments in which the visitor can move around, but provide virtual places supporting specific forms of experience and engagement. The web server must be replaced by an inter-networked system of multi-game servers, supported by  standards for portable AI as well as graphics and animation data.

Speakers will include:

• Craig Lindley, ZeroGame/Interactive Institute, Sweden
• David Lowe, Vicon Motion Systems Ltd, United Kingdom
• Dr Sina Mostafawy, rmh, Germany

It is hoped that this and other refreshment breaks will provide opportunities for delegates to identify prospective partners to submit proposals for VR/i3D projects in the Second Call of the Sixth Framework Programme. There will be opportunities to display posters and other illustrations of expertise and experience available for future projects.

Plenary Discussion & Closing Remarks

There will be opportunities for informal discussion with speakers throughout the event and, if time permits, there questions will be answered at the end of each presentation. This session provides the opportunity for delegates to voice their questions and concerns in open debate.

Lunch followed by Bilateral Discussions & Networking Opportunities