Conference Theme: Virtual Worlds - The coming evolution

The terms "virtual worlds" generally refer to Virtual Reality applications or experiences. We extend the use of these terms to describe experiments that deal with the idea of synthesizing digital worlds on computers. Thus, Virtual Worlds (VW) could be defined as the study of computer programs that implement digital worlds with their own "physical" and "biological" laws. Constructing such complex artificial worlds seems to be extremely difficult to do in any sort of complete and realistic manner. Such a new discipline must benefit from a large amount of work in various fields: Virtual Reality and Advanced Computer Graphics, Artificial Life and Evolutionary Computation, Simulation of Physical Systems, and more. Whereas Virtual Reality has largely concerned itself with the design of 3D immersive graphical spaces, and Artificial Life with the simulation of living organisms, Virtual Worlds is concerned by the synthesis of digital universes and virtual worlds as wholes. Besides it applications in simulation, computer games, on-line business, etc, this approach is something broader and more fundamental. Throughout the natural world, at any scale, from particles to galaxies, one can observe phenomena of great complexity. Research done in traditional sciences such as Biology and Physics has shown that components of complex systems are quite simple. It is now a crucial problem to elucidate the universal principles by which large numbers of simple components, acting together, can self-organize and produce the complexity observed in our universe. Therefore, Virtual Worlds is also concerned with the formal basis of synthetic universes. In this framework, it offers a new and promising approach for studying complexity.

This second issue of the Virtual Worlds Conference confirms the interest of the scientific community to this new trend of research and applications. Unlike the first issue, the conference is organized as a single thread. This was decided in order to catalyze discussions and information exchanges between speakers and other participants during the conference. As a consequence, the selection level was higher than two years ago and only a reduced set of the submitted papers were finally accepted. The approaches and works covered by the resulting program is rich and diverse. This ensures a very good program that will represent for all participants a stilmulating mix of ideas.

The proceedings will be published by Springer LNCS/AI and will be available at the conference desk. The proceedings are available on-line on the Springer Web site.

Conference Preliminary Program

* * WEDNESDAY 5 JULY 2000 * *

8H45	CONFERENCE OPENING

9H00	INVITED LECTURE

	Conferences and Trade Shows in Inhabited Virtual Worlds
	A case study of Avatar98 and Avatar99
	Bruce Damer (Contact Consortium, USA)

10H00	COFFEE BREAK

10H30	SESSION 1 - VIRTUAL WORLDS COMMUNITIES AND APPLICATIONS

	Hutchworld: Lessons Learned - A Collaborative Project:
	Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center & Microsoft Research
	L. Cheng, L. Stone, S. Farnham, A.M. Clark, M. Zaner
	(Microsoft/FHCRC, USA)

	Organization and Visualization of Tacit Knowledge in Virtual Communities
	K. Bruynseels, J. Vos
	(Sesuadra, BE)

	Integration of Simulation Tools in Virtual Worlds:
	Towards Virtual Ecosystems
	S. Sikora, D. Steinberg, C. Lattaud
	(Paris-5 University, FR)

	Towards Digital Creatures in Real-time 3D Games
	A. Buendia, J.C. Heudin
	(IIMlab, FR)

12H30	LUNCH

14H00	SESSION 2 - VIRTUAL WORLDS TECHNOLOGY AND TOOLS

	A Framework to Dynamically Manage Distributed Virtual Environments
	Y. Fabre, G. Pitel, L. Soubrevilla, E. Marchand, T. Geraud, A. Demaille
	(EPITA Research & Development Lab., FR)

	Using GASP for Collaborative Interaction within 3D Virtual Worlds
	T. Duval, D. Margery
	(IRISA, FR)

	Generic 3D Ball Animation Model for Networked Interactive VR Environments
	H. Noser, C. Stern, P. Stucki, D. Thalmann
	(University Zurich/EPFL, CH)

	An Overview on Virtual Sets
	A.L.P. Albuquerque, J. Gomes, L. Velho
	(VISGRAF Lab./TecGraf Rio, BR)

16H00	BREAK

16H30	TECHNOLOGY AND TOOLS DEMO SESSION

	The 2nd World and AvatarStudio
	F. Lediberder
	(CanalNumedia, FR)

	Virtual Worlds Platform
	T. Oerting
	(Microsoft Research, US)

	Maya 3
	P. Paradi
	(AliasWavefront, FR)

	More to appear ...

18H00	END

* * THIRDAY 6 JULY 2000 * *

9H00	INVITED LECTURE

	Creating Emotive Responsive Characters within Virtual Worlds
	Ken Perlin
	(Media Research Laboratory, New York University, USA)

10H00	COFFEE BREAK

10H30	SESSION 3 - VIRTUAL HUMANS AND AVATARS

	Avatar Physics and Genetics
	J. Ventrella
	(USA)

	Virtual Living Beings
	M. Bret
	(Paris-8 University, FR)

	A Sound Propagation Model for Interagents Communication
	J.S. Monzani, D. Thalmann
	(EPFL, CH)

	Communication and Interaction with Learning Agents in Virtual Soccer
	C. Sanza, Y. Duthen
	(Paul Sabatier University, FR)

	3D Clothes Modeling from Photo-Cloned Human Body
	T. Furukawa, J. Gu, W. Lee, N. Magnenat-Thalmann
	(Shinshu University/University of Geneva, JP/CH)

13H00	LUNCH

14H00	SESSION 4 - ART AND VIRTUAL WORLDS

	Toward Alive Art
	L. Pagliarini, C. Locardi, V. Vucic
	(Artificialia/University of Aarhus/Electronic Music Foundation, IT/DK/USA)

	In Search of Vital Presence - Evolving Virtual Music
	R. Berry
	(ATR Media Integration & Communication, JP)

	Birth of a New World Order: Iceborg or Lost in Space
	with Only your Underpants!
	A. Best
	(MeetFactory, FI)

	A Virtual World's Theater of Memory (A Contemporary Museum Scheme)
	B.U. Mendoza
	(Inst. Investigaciones Esteticas, CO)

16H00	ART EXHIBITION INTRODUCTION AND VISIT

18H00	END

20H00	CONFERENCE BANQUET

* * FRIDAY 7 JULY 2000 * *

9H00	INVITED LECTURE

	From Artificial Life to Artificial Worlds: an Overview
	Claude Lattaud
	(University of Paris V, FR)

10H00	COFFEE BREAK

10H30	SESSION 5 - ARTIFICIAL LIFE AND COMPLEX SYSTEMS

	The World of Framsticks: Simulation, Evolution, Interaction
	M. Komosinski
	(Poznan University, PL)

	A 3D Biomechanical Model of the Salamander
	A.J. Ijspeert
	(University of Southern California at LA, USA)

	Virtual Cotons: The Firstborn of the Next Generation of Simulation Models
	E. Jallas, R. Sequeira, P. Martin, S. Turner, M. Cretenet, E. Gerardeaux
	(USDA/CIRAD, USA/FR)

	Basins of Attraction and the Density Classification Problem
	for Cellular Automata
	T. Bossomaier, L. Sibley-Punnet, T. Cranny
	(Charles Sturt University, AU)

12H30	LUNCH

14H00	SESSION 6 - VIRTUAL REALITY AND INTERFACES

	Text-to-Audiovisual Speech Synthesizer
	U.K. Goyal, A. Kapoor,  P. Kalra
	(Indian Institute of Technology, IN)

	Virtual Environments for Visually Impaired
	S.K. Semwal, D.L. Evans-Kamp
	(University of Colorado at Col. Springs, USA)

	VR American Football Simulator with Cylindrical Screen
	M. Doi, T. Takai, K. Chihara
	(Nara Institute of Science and Technology, JP)

	Multi Screen Environment with a Motion Base
	H. Takeda, S. Hiyohara, K. Chihara, H. Kawase, Y. Matsuda, M. Yamasaki
	(Hitachi/Telecommunications Adv. Org./Nara Inst., JP)

	AR Based Input Interface for Wearable Computers
	H. Sasaki, T. Kuroda, Y. Manabe, K. Chirada
	(Nara Institute of Science and Technology, JP)

16H30	BREAK

17H00	VIRTUAL WORLDS PANEL DISCUSSION

	Panel members to be confirmed.

18H00	CONFERENCE CLOSING