Paris to host Fifth Virtual Reality World Congress

Brussels, 13 June 2002

The fifth Virtual Reality (VR) World Congress will take place in Paris, France on 9 and 10 September 2002.

The congress, with the theme 'Systems for visionaries,' is timed to provide the opportunity to identify prospective partners for the submission of proposals for the European Commission's forthcoming Sixth Framework programme (FP6). The budget for the category including virtual reality is 3.6 billion euro.

Managers from the European Commission will be available to answer questions about the information society technologies (IST) and FP6 schemes and will give a presentation on the new simplified procedures for research under FP6. The Commission has proposed a 'radical shift' in the current management model, with more flexible rules and contracts and a reduction in administrative red tape.

The event's agenda includes demonstrations of existing VR projects as well as presentations of innovative and emerging technologies, techniques and applications of VR and interactive three-dimensional (i3D) systems.

The projects on show will include narrative applications that mix the real and virtual worlds, a new form of multi-sensory content, strategic e-learning experiments for laboratory education; new ways of working over distance and ways of improving building design and construction.

The keynote address will be delivered by Dr Louise Guay, founder and CEO of My Virtual Model in Montreal, Canada. Speakers from Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, Norway, the USA and the United Kingdom will also be delivering papers.

For further information and to register, please consult the following web address: http://www.VREfresh.com

CORDIS RTD-NEWS/© European Communities, 2001