PRESENTATION OF THE EUROPEAN VIRTUAL REALITY SOCIETY (EVRS) INITIATIVE

Philippe Van Nedervelde (EVRS President)

RIASSUNTO per punti:
  • Presentazione della EVRS
  • Stato dell'arte degli studi sulla RV in Europa a confronto con USA e Giappon
  • Finalita' della EVRS: - istituire un centro di informazione per coloro che, a vario titolo, si occupano di RV in Europa - promuovere e coordinare l'attivita' europea di ricerca e sviluppo in materia - diffondere la RV presso target professionali e presso il grande pubblico - preparare e contribuire alla redazione di una normativa europea - provvedere al supporto e al coordinamento di studenti e studiosi
  • Curriculum di Philippe Van Nedervelde: sue attivita' legate alla VR
Hello, I am Philippe Van Nedervelde. I would first like to thank the organizers of this conference, and in particular Prof. Urbano Stenta, Mr. Luigi Taruffi, Mr. Giovanni Turco, Mr. Chiabra as well as Miss Lorenza D'Anna, for inviting me here and for kindly giving me the opportunity to come and speak to you. Let me also congratulate them with the effort that has gone into this conference. It's a honour and a pleasure to be here. Before I start, I want to stress that I am really here to listen more than to speak, so I hope that some of you will come up to me after this and let me know what you think. It is probably more important for me to hear what you have to say than what little I can tell you. Ladies and gentlemen, I will briefly talk to you about a significant new development on the VR scene, which is the formation of the European Virtual Reality Society.
Why this initiative? I have no doubt that all of us here realize full well that -by and large- what Europe, maybe with the exception of Great Britain, has been and is doing in the field of Virtual Reality, is painstakingly catching up with the rest of the world.
A recent document of the European Commission could conclude nothing else than: 'Europe already lags seriously behind the USA, Japan and Taiwan in terms of fundamental research and the development of the key technologies which control Virtual Environments'. The same document furthermore reported that 'Both the US and Japanese governments have made Virtual Environments a long term research goal', substantiating this with a statement from US vice-president Al Gore made in the course of a Senate Committee enquiry into VR (May 1991), who said 'Virtual Reality promises to revolutionise the way we use computers... clearly the Japanese are serious about not only catching up but dominating this new field, just like the famous VCR story.'
You know, when I first heard that quote by Vice-President Gore, I asked myself: which European political champion has gone on record in the same way? Which infuential opinion leader has publicly been similarly supportive of Virtual Reality? Which leading European has stressed the urgent need to give this fast emerging technology proper and due attention? You all know the answer.
So, where is Europe ? As you know, there are three major players vying for position in the VR arena at present: the US, Japan (leading S.E. Asia), with Europe as the poor third. The world's major players, the other two members of this so-called global economic triad, _are_ freeing up considerable resources towards the development of VR, as we speak. In Japan, for instance, under the impulse of MITI, a research consortium called Advanced Telecommunication Research Labs (ATR) comprising 70 private companies has been established since 1989. It is focused on VE-applications, televirtuality, human-machine interaction, CSCW, teleworking, etc. Somehow, the Japanese and the Americans do seem to know in which direction they want to go. And they are allocating resources accordingly. In stark contrast to the picture in the US and Japan, the European scenario is much less promising. Europe does not appear to have a similar sense focus. We Europeans have not yet shown any serious commitment towards this very promising new enabling technology. Every single European state appears to want to explore every possible Virtual Reality direction at the same time as all the other states. To date, very little European-wide collaboration is evident in the realm of VE applications, and much of this research effort is being duplicated in different labs in the different countries. This situation is made worse by the fact there is a lack of standards and a lack of co-ordinated effort towards defining such standards. These situations alone -and they certainly aren't the only problematic ones- obviously cause major losses of time and energy it multiple levels. Resources that we badly need for engaging in truly constructive activities, are being flushed down the drain.
In spite of the evident existence of high-quality, I daresay world-class European VR-products, -applications, -initiatives, and research projects that, again, are at least on a par with the rest of the world (and sometimes leading as with the success of the Virtuality Group in the area of VR entertainment), in spite of all that, Europe still is internationally perceived as not being as active, imaginative and driven as the other major players are in the field of Virtual Reality. We seem to be merely good at catching up. We appear to be dragging our feet and well on our way to remain little more than a potential, educated VR consumer market.
Europe fundamentally lacks focus drive vision commitment and courage in the field of Virtual Reality. Even though we have great creative and other assets, there is clear danger of being left behind, with all the economic and technological consequences attendant to that.
Without immediate initiatives at the Community level the future for VR in Europe will be one of a lost opportunity.
So what is being done about this situation?
Since about a year and a half now, a swiftly growing number of people in the European VR community, have been thinking about and working towards the formation of an organisation that pulls together, organises and embodies the entire European VR community and the efforts of each and everyone of its members in developping VR. This organisation is called the European Virtual Reality Society. -to name but one- the Societa Italiana Realta Virtuale, cooperating with the fledgling European VR industry and an awakening Commission of the European Community, is dedicated to, at the very least, _articulating_ and possibly _giving_ Europe it's much needed _focus_, _vision_ and _drive_. For that is what we need: _focus_, _vision_ and _drive_. We need to _focus_ on what we are really good at in this new field. We need to have a clear _vision_ of where it is we want to go to with all this. We need to show the others that, in spite of what they are thinking, we have at least as much guts as they have to commit ourselves in a big way to making this vision happen. If we Europeans want to fork lightning in the world of VR, we need to dedicate ourselves to making Virtual Reality become a reality in Europe and beyond.
We, the EVRS, want to do that, and more. We want to act as the unifying force and catalyst of Europe in the field of VR. We want to do this through a 5-point programme. Let me offer you the main thrust of those 5 programme points:
(1) Firstly, the EVRS wants to become the principal _information hub_ for VR and related activities within Europe. As a first building block for this, we have already set up an EVRS listserver and other automatic electronic services on the Internet. All of you are quite welcome to join us there at your earliest convenience and to peruse these services.
(2) Secondly, we want to _promote awareness and appreciation of VR with professional publics and the general public_ through a well-tuned range of activities, carefully selected, planned and tuned for maximum impact.
(3) Thridly, We also want to _support, coordinate and orient European R&D_. Of course, we will only be able to do this to the extent that it will eccept this from us.
(4) Another thing we want to do is to _prepare and promote relevan European & national legislation_.
(5) And finally we want to _coordinate and support students and SME's_ with an interest in getting started with VR.
I will not go into the finer details of this programme here, but the EVRS will gladly provide you with full details at your request.
Over the last nine months, this initiative has been presented at a number of European VR-related gatherings, and it was generally well received. In particular it is being endorsed by a growing number of often prominent European VR people like Prof. Robert Stone, Philippe Queau, Barrie Sherman etc.; but also from the US: Bob Jacobson, Scott Fisher, Linda Jacobson etc.
Several national VR interest groups from all over Europe have already joined the initiative: UK, Italy, Belgium, Austria, Norway and many more are under way. Companies small and large like Division and Meckler are also starting to join and some of them are genuine sponsors.
Needless to say, I warmly invite you all to join the EVRS initiative and to become a supporting, or better still, an active member of it. We need you. We need your help. Your active participation can contribute to making VR in Europe a success sooner. It is only by pulling together that we will be able to do something.
Joining us is easy. In order to do so, I invite you to pick up our flyer at the end of this hall. If there aren't enough, the organizers will be happy to provide you with one later on. This flyer contains a detailed outline of our proposed goals and activities. You will also find phone, fax and e-mail numbers on it. Another thing you can do is too come up to me and to give m your business card and e-mail number so that our welcoming officer can get back to you promptly.
Let me wrap this presentation up for you by saying that I look forward to communicating with you about what we can do together to firmly put Europe on the world map of VR. If we Europeans want to fork some lightning out here, we had better get our act together and get started. I hope you will join our effort and thank you very, very much for your kind attention.

EVRS's main objectives are:

  • To act as information hub for VR activities in Europe
  • To support, coordinate and orient relevant European R&D
  • To promote awareness and appreciation of VR with selected professional publics and the general public
  • To prepare and promote European & national legislation.
  • To provide student support and coordination

INFORMATION HUB

    Outward-oriented:
  • Promote awareness and appreciation of VR with selected professional publics and the general public (through general and sector specific information packs; demonstrations)
  • Establish and maintain a European technology and application showcase centre and/or a 'roadshow' with general, technical and applications-oriented seminars aimed at introducing VR to organisations large and small across Europe.
  • Contact, inform and promote the work of major European users and developers of real applications
  • International promotion and representation of European VE work Internal:
  • Establish and maintain a supporting -electronic- infrastructure for (in)formal information exchange via an Internet listserver. (see below)
  • Provide platforms /occasions for personal networking in R&D and business circles
  • Establish and maintain a virtual library -- accessible via the electronic infrastructure
  • Publish a European-focus periodical (not in competition with existing media; no press-release news or a rehash of existing journals) containing scientific and technical contributions, e.g. update of the advancements achieved by European R&D centres, discussing compatibility issues, how to's, making better use of low-cost equipment, 1 page of announcements & news, job offers and social communications.

SUPPORT, COORDINATION AND ORIENTATION OF EUROPEAN R&D

  • Help avoid unnecessary duplication of efforts and facilities: promote and facilitate collaboration between Academia and Industry
  • Help starting businesses
  • Help small organizations and SME's to do the formal drafting of applications for European or national funding (e.g. How to respon Invitations To Tender (ITT))
  • Initiate and coordinate Europe-wide pilot-projects and technology demonstration experiments (e.g., high-bandwidth shared immersion; experimental multi-participant dataspaces that interested individuals can log onto)
  • Be represented on VR-standards bodies, or act as the 'consensus forming body' for them
  • Promote VR-standards, once they are established

PREPARE AND PROMOTE EUROPEAN & NATIONAL LEGISLATION

  • Stress the need for and importance of legislation concerning Health and Safety issues
  • Propose protective measures for impressionable individuals.
  • Ethical issues in advertising, sales and other persuasive communications etc.
  • Professional jurys at European and national level to arbitrate in trade and civil trials
  • Contact with professional bodies on ethics issues (Medical Council, Law Society, etc.)

STUDENT SUPPORT AND COORDINATION

  • Provide information packages -- at basic charge to cover cost
  • Advertise VR projects they can join to do some work so as to acquire experience >

VR-related activities of Philippe Van Nedervelde:

* Philippe Van Nedervelde is Belgium's first -and so far only- independent expert-consultant in the field of new media. In this capacity he leads an expertisebureau, that specializes in VR, among other things. His bureau has already carried out projects for the Commission of the European Community, the Flemish Government, Apple, IBM, the Belgian Army, King Baudouin Foundation, ASLK-bank, Kredietbank, Minolta etc.
* His bureau recently won, after a competitive call for proposals, a contract of the Commission of the European Community for the first EC study on Virtual Reality as a emerging technology wordlwide. The study will last for 6 monhts. The team he brought together for this study comprises the VR-experts of France and the UK: Philippe Queau of the Institut National de l'Audiovisuel and Prof. Robert Stone of the Advanced Robotics Research Laboratory respectively.
* He is founder and president of the Virtual Reality Foundation of Belgium, an information clearing house, and much more, serving more than 250 professionals in the Benelux with an interest in VR.
* Van Nedervelde is currently founding the European Virtual Reality Society.
* Philippe VN undoubtedly is Belgium's most active and wellknown expert, promotor and proponent of Virtual Reality. At the introduction of the phenomenon to the Belgian public, he was the principal figure on television and radio, as well as in magazines and newspapers. But there is more. He writes a fortnightly VR-column for the French and Dutch editions of CM Corporate, the leading professional computer magazine distributed throughout the Benelux. He frequently lectures and gives presentations, throughout the Benelux, on VR and other new-media subjects.
* At the international level, he has been repeatedly invited as a speaker to VR-conferences and congresses throughout Europe. He is also correspondent for the Low Countries for Virtual Worlds Applications, an electronic 'journal' on the Internet.
* Next to the study for the European Commission, his present VR-related work comprises, among others, the design and development of user- interfaces and non-verbal communication aspects for four networked desktop VR systems.
Most notable are CyberTerm (CT), Visual CompuServe Information Manager (VisCIS) etc. For CyberTerm, he is working with its Australian developers.
Philippe mainly works on the user-interface in general and on facial expression displays in particular and also as liason to the European VR community. For the end-users, CT and VisCIS are both to be interactive 3D graphic interfaces (DVR) to and visualisations of electronic computer networks, in this case BBS's, the Internet and the CompuServe network. The overall goal here is to open the 3D doors of cyberspace. He is currently also engaged in talks with the Belgian Sciene Policy office to explore the possibilities of doing similar work for BELNET, Belgium's academic electronic network.
* He is also leading, planning and designing the VIRTUALIB project, a networked system using a dektop VR navigation front-end to access academic and other libraries (with the Flemsih Inst. for Technol. Research; IICM, Austria and Canon, UK).
* He is also prototyping a desktop VR interface for an hypermedia database containing content-analysis intelligence of the British 'information refinery' Trend Monitor. This work is currently in progress. * In the Flemish media Philippe is presently advocating the swift installation of a Flemish Information Infrastructure. He finds that there is an urgent need for it.
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