FORUM What’s Happening

http://www.salford.ac.uk/iti/rsa/ Department Meetings ecai-ive.html Clemson University Clemson, SC 29634-1906 ECAI-98: European Conference Tel: 864-656-2258 on Artificial Intelligence IPDS ’98: IEEE International Fax: 864-656-0145 August 23–28, 1998, Brighton, UK Computer Performance and Email: [email protected] Dependability Symposium The 13th biennial European Confer- September 7–9, 1998, Durham, North ence on Artificial Intelligence Carolina, USA PROLAMAT ’98: The (ECAI-98) will take place at the Globalization of Manufacturing in Brighton Centre, Brighton, UK on With the advent of parallel-process- the Digital Communications Era August 23–28, 1998. The aim of the ing computers and high-speed net- of the 21st Century: Innovation, conference is to serve as a forum for works, questions of the performance Agility, and the Virtual international scientific exchange and and dependability of computer sys- Enterprise presentation of AI research and to tems and networks have become September 9–11, 1998, Trento, Italy bring together basic and applied re- closely related. Both design and search. The Conference Technical evaluation methods must consider The PROLAMAT conference is an Program will include paper presenta- the relationships between the occur- international event for demonstrat- tions, invited talks, panels, work- rence of errors/failures and their ing and evaluating activities and shops, and tutorials. ECAI-98 will consequent impact on performance. progress in the field of discrete also host an exhibition of AI tech- Relating analytical techniques to manufacturing. Sponsored by the nology located in the heart of the simulations, actual measurements, International Federation for Infor- conference venue itself. and experiments will be the broad mation Processing (IFIP), For further information, contact theme of this symposium. Hardware PROLAMAT is organized by the the ECAI-98 Secretariat at and software issues in parallel and University of Trento School of Engi- Centre for Advanced Software distributed systems and networks neering and the Department of Applications will be emphasized. The conference Computer and Management Sci- is sponsored by IEEE Computer ences, in cooperation with Istituto University of Sussex Society Technical Committee on Trentino di Cultura, under the aus- Brighton, BN1 9QH, UK Fault-Tolerant Computing, and co- pices of the WG2 for ‘‘Computer- Email: [email protected] sponsored by IFIP Working Group Aided Design’’ and WG3 for ‘‘Com- Tel: ϩ44(0)1273 678448 7.3 on Performance Evaluation, puter-Aided Manufacturing’’ of the Fax: ϩ44(0)1273 671320 IFIP Working Group 10.4 on De- Technical Committee 5 for ‘‘Com- URL: http://www.cogs.susx.ac.uk/ pendable Computing and Fault Tol- puter Applications in Technology.’’ ecai98 erance, and IFIP Working Group The conference includes teams and For information on the ECAI-98 6.3 on Performance of Communica- virtual enterprises which come to- Workshop on Intelligent Virtual En- tion Systems, in cooperation with gether to develop new products and vironments, which will address the the Center for Advanced Computing bring them to global markets. There issues arising from combining artifi- and Communication at Duke Uni- will be three separate tracks at the cial intelligence and artificial life versity, Clemson University, and the conference: techniques with those of virtual en- University of Vienna. (1) Sharing experience gained vironments to produce Intelligent For more information, contact from telecommunication use in in- Virtual Environments (IVEs), see Robert Geist dustry for agility and innovation the website at Program Chair (2) Human and machine commu-

WHAT’S HAPPENING 423

Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/105474698565820 by guest on 23 September 2021 424 PRESENCE: VOLUME 7, NUMBER 4

nications, modeling, standard repre- tual environments; wheelchair Wendy Hall, General Chair sentations, and reuse navigation through virtual environ- Multimedia Research Group (3) Telecommunication and agil- ments; multi-user systems for user Department of Electronics and ity impact on software technology interaction; ambisonics (3-D sound) Computer Science for discrete manufacturing. and human-factors issues. The con- University of Southampton For more information, contact ference will be held in parallel with Southampton SO17 1BJ, Mara Gruber Mechatronics ’98. United Kingdom Prolamat 1998 For more information, contact Tel: ϩ44 (0)1703 592388 Laboratorio di Ingegneria Infor- ECDVRAT ’98 Fax: ϩ44 (0)1703 592865 matica Dr. Paul M. Sharkey Email: [email protected] via F. Zeni, 8 38068—Rovereto Department of Cybernetics URL: http://www.acm.org/ (TN) Italy University of Reading sigmm/MM98/ or Tel: ϩ39.464.443.134 Whiteknights http://www.kom.e-technik. ϩ39.464.443.140 Reading RG6 6AY, UK tu-darmstadt.de/pr/workshop/ Fax: ϩ39.464.443.141 Tel: ϩ44(0)118 931 67 04 chair/ACMMM98/ Email: [email protected] Fax: ϩ44 (0)118 931 82 20 ACM Multimedia ’98 is scheduled URL: http://prolamat.cs.unitn.it Email: to take place in the week following [email protected] IDMS ’98, which is being held in URL: http://www.cyber. Oslo, Norway, September 9–11, reading.ac.uk/people/pms/ 1998. For information on IDMS The 2nd European Conference WWW/ecdvrat/call98.htm ’98, please see the website http:// on Disability, Virtual Reality, and www.unik.no/ϳidms98/. Associated Technologies Middleware ’98 will take place a (ECDVRAT ’98) few days later in the Lake District in September 9–11, 1998, Skovde, ACM MULTIMEDIA ’98 the north of England. Watch the Sweden The 6th ACM International website http://www.comp.lancs. Multimedia Conference ac.uk/computing/middleware98/ The Second European Conference September 12–16, 1998, Bristol, UK main.html. on Disability, Virtual Reality, and Associated Technologies is designed Sponsored by ACM SIGMM, to provide a forum for international SIGCOMM, SIGGRAPH, and experts and researchers to present SIGMIS, in cooperation with SIGBIT, HFES 1998 Annual Meeting and review how advances in the gen- SIGCHI, SIGI, and SIGOIS (tenta- October 5–8, 1998, Chicago, Illinois, eral area of virtual reality can be used tive list), the sixth ACM Multimedia USA to assist people with disability. This Conference will be devoted to pre- conference will encompass all aspects senting and exploring technological The HFES annual meeting is an im- of technology used in VR systems, and artistic advancements and inno- portant event for all who are inter- and it is intended to act as a focus for vations in the field of multimedia. ested in the latest developments in international collaboration. Topics Technical issues, theory and practice, the field of human-factors engineer- to be covered include virtual and business, artistic, and consumer mar- ing and ergonomics. The HFES will enhanced environments; input de- ket applications will be presented hold its 42nd annual meeting Octo- vices, sensors, and actuators; training and discussed. The conference will ber 5–8, 1998 at the Hyatt Regency tools for personnel assisting people bring together researchers, artists, Hotel in Chicago, Illinois. Hosted with disability and for people with developers, educators, performers, by the Chicago Metropolitan Chap- disability for rehabilitation; aug- and practitioners of multimedia. ter of HFES, the annual meeting mented reality for people with dis- For more information on ACM offers opportunities to discuss new ability; cognitive processing and vir- Multimedia ’98, contact formats in presenting human-factors

Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/105474698565820 by guest on 23 September 2021 WHAT’S HAPPENING 425

efforts. Case studies, debates, dem- Swiss Federal Institute of Technol- MoMuC ’98: Fifth International onstrations, competitive product ogy (EPFL) Workshop on Mobile Multimedia designs, videotapes, new method- Tel: ϩ41-21-693-5214 Communication ologies, on-site experiments, and Fax: ϩ41-21-693-5328 October 12–14, 1998, Berlin, posters will be included, as well as Email: [email protected] Germany traditional lecture and panel ses- URL: http://ligwww.epfl.ch/ sions. ϳthalmann/mmm98.html This is the fifth in a series of interna- For more information, see the tional workshops aimed at stimulat- website at ing technical exchanges in the http://www.hfes.org/Meetings/ The First Workshop on emerging field of mobile multimedia Menu.html Embodied Conversational communications. The scope of the or contact Characters workshop includes broadband wire- Human Factors and Ergonomics October 12–15, 1998, Granlibakken less networking for data and multi- Society Conference Center, Tahoe City, media, mobile multimedia systems P.O. Box 1369 California, USA and applications, together with asso- Santa Monica, CA 90405-1369 ciated mobile computing terminals, Tel: 310-394-1811 Recent advances in several core soft- video processing, and software. Fax: 310-394-2410 ware technologies have made pos- MoMuC is an IEEE Communica- sible a new type of human-computer tion Society-sponsored workshop. interface: the conversational charac- The workshop targets experts in ter. Unlike textual natural language multimedia systems, mobility issues interfaces, conversational characters in network protocols, and communi- MMM ’98: The International have the ability to perceive and pro- cation systems, to provide an effec- Conference on Multimedia duce the verbal and nonverbal sig- tive forum for original and funda- Modeling nals that identify discourse structure mental advances in mobile October 12–15, 1998, Lausanne, and regulate the flow of information multimedia systems and to foster Switzerland between interlocutors. Research on communication among researchers conversational characters has and practitioners working in a wide The Computer Graphics Lab emerged from a number of disci- variety of scientific areas with a com- (EPFL), MIRALab (University of plines, including artificial intelli- mon interest in mobile multimedia Geneva), the Computer Graphics gence, computational linguistics, communication. Society (Geneva), and the IFIP computer animation, computer vi- For more information, visit the Working Group 5.10 are pleased to sion, psychology, cognitive science, website at announce MMM ’98. MMM ’98 virtual reality, and human-computer http://momuc98.ee.tu-berlin.de will provide a forum to discuss the interfaces. The goal of this workshop or send Email to efficient representation, processing, is to advance the state of conversa- [email protected] interaction, integration, communi- tional-character research and devel- cation, and retrieval of multimedia opment by identifying novel ap- information. In particular, MMM proaches and integrating them into a ’98 will concentrate on common framework for embodied, conversa- modeling frameworks for integrating tional human-computer interaction. Second International Symposium the diverse fields of visual, audio, The conference is presented with the on Wearable Computers video, and virtual-world informa- support of AAAI and cooperation of October 19–20, 1998, Pittsburgh, tion. ACM/SIGCHI. Pennsylvania USA For more information, contact For more information, please con- MMM ’98 Secretariat sult the workshop web page: www. The International Symposium on ComputerGraphics Lab fxpal.com/wecc98/ Wearable Computers (ISWC) is the

Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/105474698565820 by guest on 23 September 2021 426 PRESENCE: VOLUME 7, NUMBER 4

second annual conference on wear- data. The emphasis in volume graph- Shi-Nine Yang able computing. The conference is ics is on the ability to use volume Department of Computer Science sponsored by the IEEE Computer data to achieve or even surpass many National Tsing Hua University Society. The purpose of ISWC is to of the abilities traditionally sup- Hsinchu, Taiwan, 300 bring together researchers, product ported by surface-based approaches. Republic of China vendors, research sponsors, and oth- Topics at this symposium may in- Email: [email protected] ers to share information and ad- clude modeling with volumes, vol- URL: http://vr-impact.ccl.itri. vances in wearable computing. The ume manipulation and deformation, org.tw/ϳVRST/vrst98.html. conference will include presenta- intermixing volume and surface tions, exhibitions, and poster ses- models, visualization of very large sions. Topics will include applica- datasets, and applications of volume tions, ergonomics, hardware, graphics and volume visualization. human-interface issues, software For more information, see the SC98: 10th Anniversary: High architecture, training, mobility-chal- website at Performance Networking and lenged users, health issues, net- http://WWW.ERC.MsState.Edu/ Computing works, operating system issues, so- volvis98 cial implications, and the future of November 7–13, Orlando, Florida, wearable computing. USA For more information, contact Alex (Sandy) Pentland ACM Symposium on Virtual SC98: 10th Anniversary will be held Massachusetts Institute of Reality Software and Technology at the Orange County Convention Technology 1998 (VRST ’98) Center in Orlando, Florida, Novem- Media Laboratory November 2–5, 1998, Taipei, Taiwan ber 7–13, 1998. The focus will be Room E15-387 on networking, distributed comput- 20 Ames St. The ACM Symposium on Virtual ing, data-intensive applications, Cambridge, MA 02139 Reality Software and Technology supercomputing, scalable comput- Tel: (617) 253-0872 (VRST) is a major international con- ing, and other emerging technolo- Fax: (617) 253-8874 ference on the technical aspects of gies that push the frontiers of com- [email protected] virtual reality. VRST’s technical pro- munications, computing, and gram includes tutorials, papers, and computational science. The tenth demonstrations of the latest VR event in this series, this conference technology and applications. Topics and exhibition on high-performance will include distributed environ- network and computing is spon- 1998 Symposium on Volume ments, internet-based VR, haptic sored by IEEE Computer Society Visualization feedback, animation, artificial life, and ACM SIGARCH. October 19–20, 1998, Research 3-D interaction techniques, environ- For more information, contact Triangle Park, North Carolina, USA mental design, and games and enter- SC98 tainment. The conference will pro- NPACI, UCSD Cosponsored by IEEE Computer vide an excellent opportunity to 10100 Hopkins Drive Society and ACM/SIGGRAPH, in sample state-of-the-art research from La Jolla CA 92093 conjunction with IEEE Visualization many international academic and Tel: 1-888-778-SC98 ’98, the sixth meeting of the Sympo- industrial VR research centers, and Fax: 1-619-534-8303 sium will focus on volume graphics, to interact with researchers from the subfield of volume visualization around the world. Email: [email protected] that deals with modeling, manipulat- Further information on VRST’98 URL: http://www.supercomp.org/ ing, and rendering of 3-D scenes can be obtained from the general sc98 that are represented by volumetric chair:

Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/105474698565820 by guest on 23 September 2021 WHAT’S HAPPENING 427

VSMM ’98 FutureFusion: Special Sessions on Virtual paper, please contact Scot Thrane ‘‘Application Realities for the World Heritage at VSMM ’98 ([email protected]) Other Virtual Age’’ ‘‘Future Fusion’’ UNESCO/World Heritage inquiries November 18–20, 1998, Gifu, Japan November 18–20, 1998, Gifu, Japan can be directed to [email protected]. In the spirit of exploring the fusion Special sessions focused on the use For complete details of the confer- between engineering, art, and com- of virtual reality in World Heritage ence, see the conference homepage: merce in virtual reality and multime- applications will be held during The http://www.vsmm.vsl.gifu-u.ac.jp/ dia technologies, the VSMM ’98 vsmm98 conference will investigate the inte- International Conference on VSMM gration of technical excellence, cre- ’98, ‘‘FutureFusion—Application ative innovation, and industrial and Realities for the Virtual Age.’’ Top- commercial development. VSMM ics include architectural and artifact 98 will offer plenary sessions, invited construction, complex adaptive envi- talks from world-renowned experts, ronments, education, entertainment, Hawaii International Conference lectures, workshops, and online con- historical information presentation, on System Sciences ferencing in three main areas: planning and simulation, 3-D geog- January 5–8, 1998, Maui, Hawaii, USA 1) Technical, including innovative raphy and remote sensing, restora- research into human interface and tion, and tourism. Workshops will be The 32nd annual Hawaii Interna- sensing, immersive virtual environ- held to establish an international tional Conference on System Sci- ments, industrial applications, rapid consortium/subcommittee, respon- ences will be held January 5th–8th, prototyping, 3-D measurement, sible for the strategic development 1999, on the island of Maui. GWS, 3D-CG, virtual factories, 3-D of technical, economic, political, HICSS-32 will consist of advanced CAD/CAM, robotics, medical and human-relation factors, and environ- seminars, tutorials, open forums, biological, modeling and theory, mental procedures. This group will task forces, plenary lectures, a distin- multimedia, network and telecom- work directly with the UNESCO guished guest lecture, and the pre- munications, web/internet, VRML, World Heritage Center, and will as- sentation of accepted manuscripts Java, artificial life, complex adaptive sist in the development of WH VR that emphasize research and devel- systems, dynamic immersive envi- applications. Any individual, organi- opment activities in several areas of ronments, and entertainment and zation, or country interested in vir- the system sciences. Paper sessions games tual world heritage is highly encour- will be offered in the following 2) Creative, including artistic aged to attend. Members from tracks: collaboration technology, theory, design, processes, methods UNESCO’s World Heritage Center digital documents, emerging tech- and, innovative applications will be speaking and assisting during nologies, information technology in 3) Industry and Commerce, in- the lectures and workshops. It is an- health care, internet and the digital cluding medical, moral, legal, pro- economy, modeling technologies duction, commercialization and ticipated that this symposium will trade (virtual shopping), political, produce a group capable of present- and intelligent systems, organiza- ethical, marketing, and standardiza- ing information or demonstrations tional systems and technology, and tion, and common protocol devel- at international meetings and confer- software technology. opment. ences. It will also work towards For more information, see the For more information, contact the forming a research center for virtual websites at conference secretary at world and cultural heritage applica- http://www.cba.hawaii.edu/hicss/ [email protected] tions. If you are interested in partici- hicss_32/apahome.htm or visit the website at pating in the international VWH http://www.cba.hawaii.edu/hicss/ http://www.vsmm.vsl.gifu-u.ac.jp group and do not intend to submit a hicss_32/cfp.html

Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/105474698565820 by guest on 23 September 2021