Panels

[PN-001] Virtually face-to-face: Telecommunication and collaboration using Virtual Reality

One of the major challenges of technology today is to enable coworkers to collaborate across large distances. Audio and video conferencing technology enables people to communicate, but is a video conference the same experience as sharing a space with someone, face-to-face? VR enables people to share a space and interact, with applications such as collaborative visualization, design, urban planning, or social interaction. Until recently, however, VR has been missing the necessary ingredients to bring collaboration alive.

[PN-002] The Future of Consumer Virtual Reality

Although virtual reality has existed in research labs and some niche markets for decades, only recently has it started to gain acceptance for the consumer. This trend started with the Nintendo Wii, the Playstation Move, and Microsoft Kinect. More immersive VR—with tracked head-mounted displays, hand tracking, and low-cost and easy-to-do integration—is now beoming available at a low cost. Is this just another passing fad that will move back to the laboratory or is it here to stay? Will consumer virtual reality move beyond gaming to cover a wide range of digital media?

[PN-003] VR Science Meets Fiction

Virtual Reality (VR) and three-dimensional user interfaces (3DUIs) are common themes in cyberpunk movies or science fiction literature. Directors and authors of this genre use VR and 3DUI as a metaphor to illustrate their visions of the future of human-machine communication and/or human-computer interaction. In this context, for instance VR is often used to question whether we truly “know” whether our perceptions are real or not.