Subject: ANNOUNCE: VRML 97

From: [email-masked] (Don Brutzman)
Date: Thu, 5 Dec 1996 13:19:56 -0800 (PST)

[standard apologies if you receive duplicate copies]

You are cordially invited to attend the second annual Virtual Reality 
Modeling Language (VRML) Symposium.  VRML is where 3D graphics meets
the Web.  Internetworking considerations are thus just as important as
interactive 3D in this context.  A schedule and list of papers/courses/panels 
follows the press release.  Queries welcome.  Thanks!    - Don Brutzman

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:
Lynn Johnson
Evans & Johnson
408 655 9924
408 372 0846 fax
[email-masked]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

VIRTUAL REALITY MODELING LANGUAGE (VRML) SYMPOSIUM SET FOR FEBRUARY 1997

Monterey, California, November 25, 1996 - The Second Annual Virtual Reality
Modeling Language (VRML) Symposium is scheduled for February 24-26, 1997 at 
the Hyatt Regency in Monterey, California.  VRML 97 is an academic and 
technical symposium sponsored by ACM SIGGRAPH and SIGCOMM, in cooperation 
with the VRML Consortium.

This year's VRML Symposium provides a wide range of technical papers, 
educational opportunities, cutting-edge demonstrations and exhibits 
featuring the latest in VRML technology.  The VRML Symposium home page is 
http://www.sdsc.edu/vrml97

Who and What.  300-500 attendees from across the globe are expected to attend 
this powerful 3-day technical symposium.  Attendees can attend half-day or 
full-day tutorials, which are designed for both intermediate and advanced 
VRML users and developers.  The Symposium also includes working groups,
panels, academic papers and in-depth exhibitor demonstrations.  Topics 
include 3D graphics, content, behaviors, interfaces, modeling, simulation, 
multi-user environments, networking and standards. 

Why.  "VRML 97 is the future of 3D on the World Wide Web," says VRML 97 chair 
Don Brutzman. "All of the most exciting work in internetworked 3D graphics
will be shown, discussed and argued over by key players in this 
fast-moving community.  Don't miss it!" 

Courses.  The first day (Monday, Feb 24) will feature both full-day and 
half-day  tutorial courses.  The first full-day course is "Introduction to 
VRML 2.0" presented by Dave Nadeau of the San Diego Supercomputer Center.  
This course, designed for beginning graphics users,  will teach attendees how 
to use VRML to author their own 3D virtual worlds on the World Wide Web.  
"Authoring Compelling, Efficient VRML 2.0 Worlds" presented by Dave Story, 
Delle Maxwell and David Marsland, all of Silicon Graphics, is another full day 
tutorial course.  This course provides authors with a concrete toolset for 
overcoming the limitations and exploring the unique capabilities of VRML 2.0.  
Attendees will learn new approaches to solve their creative challenges. 

More Courses.  Half-day tutorials include "The VRML 2.0 Compressed Binary 
Format" presented by Gabriel Taubin, Bill Horn and Francis Lazarus, all with 
IBM.  This course will familiarize attendees with the fundamentals of the 
compression technologies proposed for the VRML 2.0 standard.  Another half-day
tutorial is "Sound Bytes VRML Authoring for Noisy Worlds" presented by 
Geoff Brown of Silicon Graphics Inc.  This course features demonstrations 
that show effective use of sound in large and small worlds and are presented 
using both PC and SGI platforms.  This tutorial is suitable for beginners and
intermediate developers.  "Networking Services for Shared Virtual Worlds" 
presented by Eric Hoffman is offered as a beginning networking tutorial.
This course will be extremely helpful for those who are considering the 
design of distributed virtual worlds, but are unfamiliar with recent work
in transport protocols. 

Exhibitors.  More than 30 companies will demonstrate the latest tools, 
technology and software at the exhibitor's showcase on Tuesday and Wednesday 
(Feb 25-26).  The exhibitor's showcase serves as a primary resource to learn 
about the latest VRML products.  Not an exhaustive trade show, this group 
includes only the best and brightest VRML developers giving one-on-one demos 
of new and forthcoming work to the most influential people working in VRML.  
An exhibitors' planning guide including detailed descriptions of products and
services will be distributed to all attendees. 

Technical Program.  Tuesday and Wednesday's program includes paper 
presentations and panels.  A solid and highly select set of academic papers 
show research work and results that may affect the future of the VRML standard.
Industry experts will explain and debate controversial topics from a variety 
of viewpoints.  A complete listing of sessions and panels is available at 
http://www.sdsc.edu/vrml97/schedule.html

Event:  Demo SIG.  All Symposium attendees are invited to the no-holds-barred 
Demo SIG hosted by the Virtual Reality Education Foundation (VeRGe).  This 
exciting two-hour presentation, scheduled 5pm Monday (Feb 24), is an intense 
series of live 5-minute internetworked 3D demonstrations.  This event was one 
of the highlights of SIGGRAPH in New Orleans August 1996.  The Demo SIG is 
followed by a dinner and reception hosted by Microsoft Corporation.

Event:  Aquarium Dinner.  Tuesday evening's activities include dinner in front
of the Monterey Bay Aquarium's new 1.2 million gallon Outer Bay exhibit.  
Attendees will enjoy a strolling dinner in front of the largest viewing window 
in the world.  This spectacular and intense exhibit is 35 feet deep, 90 feet 
long, holds over 1 million gallons of water and houses animals rarely viewed,
such as the giant tunas, ocean sunfish, a green sea turtle and soupfin sharks. 
Attendees also will have private access to the world's largest exhibit of 
jellyfish, including transparent crystal jellies and bioluminescent
comb jellies.  This exciting evening is hosted by Silicon Graphics Inc.

VRML Consortium.  The long-term future of VRML has always been a key question.  
AT VRML 97, the newly elected VRML Consortium Board of Directors will report 
on efforts to make VRML an integral part of the Internet infrastructure.  The 
VRML Consortium is a non-profit group made up of corporate and academic 
organizations, all working together to promote VRML standards, outreach and 
education. 

VRML 97 Committee.  Chair Don Brutzman, papers chairs Rikk 
Carey and Paul Strauss, Mitra, Adrian Scott, Glenn Crocker, Stephen Spencer, 
Bill Cockayne, Erkan Akyuz, Dan Ancona, Clark Dodsworth, D.J. LeGoff,
Kent Watsen, Robert Saint John, Lisa Goldman, Mark Meadows, Mark Pesce, 
David Nadeau, Timothy Childs, Gray Schlichting, Gavin Bell, Jean-Francis 
Balaguer, Jan Hardenbergh, David Kerlick, Stephen Matsuba, Tamara Munzner, 
Tom Meyer, Tony Parisi, Erika Whiteway, Dick Puk and Val Watson.  Individual 
committee positions & e-mail addresses of these expert volunteers are 
available at http://www.sdsc.edu/vrml97/committee.html

Lodging and Registration.  The Hyatt Regency Monterey is headquarters hotel 
for VRML 97.  For registration info, please refer to the VRML 97 home page 
http://www.sdsc.edu/vrml97/register.html
or contact Lynn Johnson at 408-655-9924 or [email-masked] 
Early-bird registration discounts are available through December 15 1996,
prices jump sharply thereafter.

END RELEASE



  VRML 97
  
  FEBRUARY 24-26, 1997
  HYATT REGENCY HOTEL
  MONTEREY CALIFORNIA USA
  
    http://www.sdsc.edu/vrml97/schedule.html
    
  SCHEDULE
  
  SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 1997
     * Working group meetings by request (Hyatt or NPS)
     * 12:00 PM Exhibitor setup open (prior request only, until 5)
     * 13:00 PM VRML Consortium Board of Directors (private)
     * 5:00 PM Registration open (refreshments available)
     * 6:00 PM Sponsors reception (private)
     * 9:00 PM Registration closed
       
  MONDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 1997
     * 7:00 AM Registration opens
     * 7:30 AM Continental breakfast (if sponsored)
     * 8:00 AM Exhibitor & AV setup open
     * 8:30 AM Full-Day Courses
          + Introduction to VRML 2.0, Dave Nadeau, San Diego
            Supercomputer Center
          + Authoring Compelling, Efficient VRML 2.0 Worlds, Dave Story,
            Delle Maxwell and David Marsland, Silicon Graphics Inc.
     * 8:30 AM Half-Day Courses 
          + The VRML 2.0 Compressed Binary Format, Gabriel Taubin, Bill
            Horn and Francis Lazarus, IBM
     * 8:30 AM Working groups (TBD - to be determined)
     * 10:00 AM Break
     * 10:30 AM Courses & working groups resume
     * 12:00 PM Lunch (box lunch or buffet TBD)
     * 1:00 PM Half-Day Courses
          + Networking Services for Shared Virtual Worlds, Eric Hoffman,
            National Laboratory for Applied Network Research / Ipsilon
          + Sound Bytes VRML Authoring for Noisy Worlds, Geoff Brown,
            Silicon Graphics Inc.
     * 1:00 PM Working groups (TBD)
     * 2:30 PM Break
     * 3:00 PM Courses & working groups resume
     * 4:00 PM Demo SIG and AV rehearsal (ballroom)
     * 4:30 PM Break
     * 5:00 PM Demo SIG (ballroom)
     * 7:00 PM Dinner & Reception at the Hyatt (sponsored)
       
  TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 1997
     * 7:00 AM Registration opens
     * 7:15 AM Continental breakfast (if sponsored)
     * 8:15 AM Welcome
     * 8:30 AM Papers: Implementation I, Val Watson moderator
          + Using spatial techniques to decrease message passing in a
            distributed VE system, Olof Hagsand, Rodger Lea and Marten
            Stenius, Swedish Institute of Computer Science (SICS) and
            Sony Computer Science Lab
          + An Object Oriented Approach to VRML Development, Curtis A.
            Beeson, Silicon Graphics Inc.
          + Object-Oriented VRML for Multi-user Environments, Sungwoo
            Park
     * 10:00 AM Break
     * 10:00 AM Exhibits open
     * 10:30 AM Papers: Multi-user, Dave Nadeau moderator
          + Populating the Internet: Supporting Multiple Users and Shared
            Applications with VRML, Wolfgang Broll, German National
            Institute for Information Technology
          + Community Place: architecture and performance, Rodger Lea,
            Yasuaki Honda, Kouichi Matsuda and Satoru Matsuda, Sony
            Computer Science Lab
          + SpaceFusion: A multi-server architecture for shared virtual
            environments, Hiroyasu Sugano, Fujitsu
     * 12:00 PM Consortium Report: Elected VRML Consortium Inc. Board of
       Directors
     * 12:30 PM Lunch
     * 2:00 PM Papers: Navigation and User Interface, Dave Kerlick
       moderator
          + QOTA: A Fast, Multi-Purpose Algorithm For Terrain Following
            in Virtual Environments, John W. Barrus and Richard Waters,
            Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratory
          + MaPS: Movement and Planning Support for Navigation in an
            Immersive VRML Browser, John Edwards and Chris Hand, De
            Montfort University, Leicester UK
          + Adapting VRML 2.0 for Immersive Use, Randy Stiles, Sandeep
            Tewari and Mihir Mehta, Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology
            Center
     * 3:30 PM Break
     * 4:00 PM Panel: Avatar and Multi-user Standards, Moderator Bernie
       Roehl - University of Waterloo, Mitra - ParaGraph, David Anderson
       - MERL, Yasuaki Honda - Sony Computer Science Lab, et al.
     * 5:00 PM Panel: Using Java as a VRML development platform,
       Moderator: Michael Stein - Protozoa, Chris Marrin - SGI, Chris
       Laurel - Dimension X, Rodger Lea - Sony Computer Research
       Laboratory, et al.
     * 6:00 PM Break
     * 6:00 PM Exhibits close
     * 6:45 PM Motorcoaches depart for Monterey Bay Aquarium
     * 7:00 PM Monterey Bay Aquarium Dinner & Entertainment (sponsored)
     * 11:00 PM Motorcoach shuttle back to hotel
       
  WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 1997
     * 7:00 AM Registration opens
     * 7:30 AM Continental breakfast (if sponsored)
     * 8:30 AM Plenary speaker (TBD)
     * 9:15 AM Working group reports
          + ISO Standardization and Conformance
          + Multi-user / Avatars
          + Databases
          + TBD
     * 10:00 AM Break
     * 10:00 AM Exhibits open
     * 10:30 AM Papers: Case Studies, Tamara Munzner moderator
          + The Out of Box Experience: Lessons learned creating
            compelling VRML 2.0 content, Sam Chen, Rob Myers and Rick
            Pasetto, Silicon Graphics Inc.
          + Networked VR System: Kitchen Layout Design for Customers,
            Tomohiro Fukuda, Ryuichiro Nagahama and Junji Nomura,
            Matsusita Electric Works Ltd.
          + Animation for Performance Debugging of Parallel Computing
            Systems, Noritaka Osawa, Hisaya Morita and Toshitsugu Yuba,
            The University of Electro-Communications, Japan
          + Using VRML to Access Manufacturing Data, Sandy Ressler,
            Qiming Wang, Scott Bodarky, Charles Sheppard and Gregory
            Seidman, National Institute of Standards and Technology
     * 12:30 PM Lunch
     * 2:00 PM Papers: Implementation II, Dick Puk moderator
          + V-COLLIDE: Accelerated Collision Detection for VRML, Tom
            Hudson, Ming C. Lin, Jon Cohen, Stefan Gottschalk and Dinesh
            Manocha, University of North Carolina
          + Lodestar: An Octree-Based Level of Detail Generator for VRML,
            Dieter Schmalstieg, Vienna University of Technology, Austria
          + Wired for Speed: Efficient Routes for VRML 2.0, Daniel Woods,
            Alan Norton and Gavin Bell, Silicon Graphics Inc. and Wazabi
     * 3:00 PM Exhibits close, tear down
     * 3:30 PM Break
     * 4:00 PM Panel: Dynamic and Personalized Worlds: Database
       Integration, Daniel Lipkin - Oracle, Clay Graham - Big Book,
       Adrian Scott - VRMLSite, et al.
     * 5:00 PM Panel: User Interface Design for Digital Space: 3d
       Navigation and Manipulation, Moderator: Bernie Roehl - University
       of Waterloo, Maclen Marvit - Worlds Inc., James Waldrop -
       Construct, Mark Pesce, et al.
     * 6:00 PM Symposium complete
     * 7:00 PM Dinner on own
       
  THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 1997
     * Working group meetings by request (Hyatt or NPS)

   Additional questions? Please contact:
   
   Lynn Johnson
   Evans & Johnson
   P.O. Box 51621
   Pacific Grove, California 93950 USA
   408.655.9924 voice, 408.372.0846 fax
   [email-masked]

all the best, Don
-- 
Don Brutzman  Naval Postgraduate School, Code UW/Br Root 200  work 408.656.2149
              Monterey California 93943-5000 USA              fax  408.656.3679
Virtual worlds/underwater robots/Internet http://www.stl.nps.navy.mil/~brutzman