Workshop 1: Specification of Mixed Reality User Interfaces: Approaches, Languages, Standardization

08:00 - 12:00, Saturday 25th March

Research in the field of Mixed Reality (MR) has produced a wide variety of interaction techniques for navigation in virtual worlds, selection and manipulation of virtual objects, a range of different 3D widgets, and real world enhancements in tangible user interfaces, among others. Despite these efforts, the design and creation of MR applications remains a complex task. MR user interfaces are mostly described in an informal way, which leads to incomplete specifications and missing information relevant for selecting and reusing them.

This workshop is focusing on descriptive models for MR interaction techniques and on classification approaches that may benefit the way MR user interfaces are created. For that, peculiarities of interfaces in application domains such as Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality and Desktop VR shall be examined first. We would like to analyze the design space for mixed reality interface components in these fields and to set up requirements for appropriate specification and description languages.

We would also like to discuss existing classifications for MR user interface components allowing for a consistent and unambiguous interface specification. It is an interesting issue to develop requirements and characteristics of such languages, for example automatic processing and tool support (e.g. for authoring). We would also like to discuss community involvement (e.g. through Web portals or Wikis) and possible roadmaps for standardizing MR interface components, so more complex interfaces could be built on top of previous work.

The workshop will consist of a half day highly interactive format that will encourage group dialogue. After the introductory talks by the workshop organizers accepted position statements will be presented and discussed. The workshop is continued with group work on the workshop topics and finished with a summary and conclusions for future steps.

The call for participation and further information can be found at http://www.3d-components.org/workshop

Organizers:

Raimund Dachselt, TU Dresden

Pablo Figueroa, Universidad de los Andes Bogotá
Irma Lindt, Fraunhofer FIT Sankt Augustin

Workshop 2: 1st International Virtual Manufacturing Workshop (VirMan '06)

08:00 - 17:00, Sunday 26th March

There has now been well over a decade of applied experience of, and research into, virtual reality technologies relating to manufacturing processes. This work has been characterised by a diverse range of interested engineering specialisms. It has also seen the rise and fall of a number of vendors, yet the nature and extent of sustained uptake by industry is still unclear.

The goal of this workshop is to provide an opportunity for researchers and industry practitioners to explore both the state-of-the art and the state-of-the-practice in virtual reality manufacturing systems, approaches and economics.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

standards for interoperation
applications
integration
benchmarks and comparisons
historical reflections
return on investment
simulation and training
design support
process planning
machining
assembly

Potential presenters should submit an abstract to the workshop organizers. Information can be found at the VirMan '06 website, http://www.macs.hw.ac.uk/VirMan06

Organizers:

Rick Dewar, Heriot-Watt University

Jim Ritchie, Heriot-Watt University

Workshop 3: Emerging Display Technologies—New Systems and Applications: From Images to Sensing, Interaction and Enhancement (EDT 2006)

08:00 - 17:00, Sunday, 26th March

The recent flurry of display technology development has produced families of technologies that make fixed and projected pixels cheaper, faster, more flexible, and of higher quality. These advances enable “smart pixels” and enable a number of burgeoning applications ranging from displays being used for better and more flexible images, to user interaction, scene sensing, and environment enhancement.

EDT 2006, the second “Emerging Display Technologies” workshop associated with IEEE VR, should provide an opportunity to expand attendee thinking about ways to use contemporary display devices in VR systems and applications. EDT 2005 was a big success, with over 100 attendees enjoying a full day of technical presentations and spirited panel discussion.

The EDT 2006 workshop home page is at http://www.edt2006.org/, and the current program is at http://www.edt2006.org/program.html.

Organizers:

Andreas Simon, FH-Aargau

Greg Welch, UNC

Mark Bolas, USC / Fakespace Labs
Co-chair Contact Information: chairs@edit2006.org.