1st Forum on the Promotion of European and Japanese Culture and Traditions in Cyber-Societies and Virtual Reality - 2005, Laval, FRANCE

2005 EU-Japan Year of People-to-People exchanges (pending) in conjunction with the 7th Virtual Reality International Conference (VRIC) - Laval Virtual 2005

The forum intends to assess and enhance relationships between Europe and Japan to promote local culture and traditions, mutual understanding and exchanges between people, using information technologies such as virtual reality and augmented reality. Furthermore, the forum aims to provide novel ideas and projects to extend cyber-societies while respecting underlying human societies. Focus will be given to virtual reality due to its undeniable potential in reproducing reality, capturing and preserving human activities and  achievements, while stimulating creativity. Finally, it will cover the mobilization of young people, raising their awareness of cultural specificities, the role of traditions in shaping the world, the need for critical thinking and opportunity to learn from each-other in a globalized world that tends to homogenize populations, ideas and products.

We encourage the submission of high-quality research papers or demonstrations reporting new, unpublished, and innovative research results within the topics of forum.  Papers, demonstrations or posters whose sole or main author is an MSc or PhD student , or postdoctoral researcher are especially welcome.

The topics of interest in the forum are, but not limited to:

• Cultural issues in virtual environments
• Cultural agents
• European and Japanese online communities
• Evolution of European and Japanese culture and traditions
• Future of European and Japanese cyber-societies
• Identity and personality of European and Japanese citizens
• Linguistic and symbolic matters in cyber-societies
• Preservation, archiving and transfer of culture and traditions with information technologies
• Specificities of Virtual Reality and augmented reality in Europe and Japan

ORGANIZATION

The French Laval Virtual Organization and the Japanese IVRC Organization are organizing the 1st Forum on the Promotion of European and Japanese Culture and Traditions in Cyber-Societies and Virtual Reality at Laval, France, on 18-19 of April 2005.

FORUM ORGANIZATION:

General Co-chairs:

•  Prof. Kim VELTMAN  (MMI, Netherlands)
•  Prof. Susumu TACHI   (University of Tokyo, Japan)             

Program Co-chairs:

• Prof. Makoto SATO(Precision and Intelligence Laboratory, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan)
• Assoc. Prof. Simon RICHIR (University of Angers, France)

Program committee:

• David ARNOLD (Management and Information Sciences, University of Brighton, United Kingdom)
• Manfred A. BOGEN (Fraunhofer Institute for Media Communication, Germany)
• Laroussi BOUGUILA (University of Fribourg, Switzerland)
• Luca CHITTARO (HCI Lab, University of Udine, Italy)
• Philippe CHIWY (depinxi, Belgium)
• Costas DAVARAKIS (Systema Technologies SA. Greece)
• Lionel DOMINJON (3rd year PhD, CPNI Lab, France)
• Sebastien DUVAL   (PhD Student, Sokendai, Japan)
• Antonella GUIDAZZOLI (CINECA, Italy)
• Shoichi HASEGAWA (P&I Laboratory Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan)
• Junia HAYASHI (2nd year Phd, University of Tokyo, Japan)
• Luis A. HERNANDEZ (Universidade da Coruna, Spain)
• Aderito Fernandes MARCOS (Computer Graphics Center, Dept. Information Systems / University of Minho, Portugal)
• Prof. Kenneth OLAUSSON (The Interactive Institute, Suede)
• Dieter SCHMALSTIEG (Institut fur Softwaretechnik und interaktive Systeme, TU Wien, Austria)
• Atsuhito SEKIGUCHI (IAMAS, Japan)
• Dairoku SEKIGUCHI (University of Tokyo, Japan)
• Akihiko SHIRAI (NHK, Japan)
• Didier STRICKER (Fraunhofer Institut IGD, Germany)
• Daniel THALMANN (EPFL - VRlab, Switzerland)

Paper presentation Co-Chairs:

• Prof. Francesca BOCCHI (University of Bologna, Italy) 
• Dr. Masahiko INAMI(The University of Electro-Communications, Japan)

Poster Co-Chairs:  

• Prof. Hiromichi HASHIZUME (National Institute of Informatics, Japan)
• Dr. Didier STRICKER�@ (Fraunhofer Institut IGD, Germany)

Demonstration Co-Chairs:

• Dr. Antonella GUIDAZZOLI (CINECA, Italy)
• Prof. Michitaka HIROSE(Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology, University of Tokyo, Japan) 
• Kenneth OLAUSSON (Managing Director, The Interactive Institute, Suede)
• Prof. Daniel THALMANN(EPFL - VRlab, Switzerland)

Panel Co-Chairs:

• Dr. Hiroo IWATA (Inst of Eng Mechanics, U Tsukuba , Japan)
• Dr. Frederic ANDRES(National Institute of Informatics, Japan)