NEM Summit 2024 Program and Presentations

The recording of the webinar is now fully available online.

Recording available

23 October 2024

09:00 – 11:00 – Opening session

Opening address by Dieter Boen, Innovation Manager at VRT
Key-note: Anne Bajart, Deputy Head of EC Unit G.2: Interactive technologies, Digital for Culture & Education
Key-note: Volker Ziegler (Nokia) “Path to 6G era platform and XR future”
Key-note: Katleen Gabriels (University of Maastricht) “Ethical virtual worlds”

Moderator: Halid Hrasnica (Eurescom)

11:30 – 13:00 – AI for Virtual Worlds

Giuseppe Amato, CNR ISTI, Use of Generative AI for XR
Giovanni Maria Farinella, , University of Catania, Procedure Understanding from Egocentric Videos
Jason Rambach, DFKI, Building Virtual Worlds with 3D Sensing and AI
Makrina Viola Kosti, CERTH-ITI XAI in VR gaming

Moderator: Silvia Boi (Sistemi Nalder, FAIR Foundation Innovation Manager)

Sponsored by FAIR Foundation

(https://fondazione-fair.it/en/)

14:30 – 16:00 – Current European research on Virtual Worlds

Nico Patz (Deutsche Welle) Virtual Worlds and Virtual Productions
Maurizio Murroni (Uni Cagliari) Virtual Worlds and Performing Arts
Werner Bailer (Joanneum Research) Digital Twins in Virtual Worlds
Omar Niamut (TNO) Communication and collaboration in virtual worlds; the future of work?
Louay Bassbouss (Fraunhofer Fokus) Efficient Rendering and Streaming of Virtual Worlds in the Web4.0 Era

Session chairs: Sergi Fernandez Langa (i2CAT, PRESENCE Project Coordinator) and Mario Montagud (i2CAT, HEAT project)

16:30 – 18:00 – Panel – Perspectives on Virtual Worlds industrial, human arts

Niall Murray (TransmiXR project coordinator) “Virtual Worlds and Creative & Cultural Sector“
Francesco Panella (Martel Innovate – OpenVerse project) “Virtual worlds at the crossroads: between innovation and user protection”
Frances Mas Peinado (3Cat) “Immersive Media: Redefining Storytelling through 360º Concerts and Mixed Reality Productions”

Panel discussion with Andrew Perkis (NTNU – Norwegian University of Science and Technology) and the session speakers.

Moderator: Gregg Young (VRT)

24 October 2024

09:00 – 10:30 – Accessible communication and inclusive democracy in virtual worlds

Anna Matamala (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona) Accessible communication in virtual worlds and standards: user perspective across use cases
Horacio Saggion (Universitat Pompeu Fabra) Towards a more inclusive democracy: Language Technology for Accessible Communication
Chris Hughes (Salford University, UK) Implementing an Accessible Metaverse: We have lots of ideas, but how do we actually make it work?
Sabine Braun (Centre for Translation Studies, University of Surrey, UK) Virtual Worlds for all through inclusive AI
Roberta Lulli (European Disability Forum) The Right to Vote: making democracy accessible to people with disabilities.

Session chair: Pilar Orero (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona)

11:00 – 12:30 – The future of the Web is immersive

The panel will analyse the next-generation Web for empowering social interactions in eXtended Reality (XR). Pablo César, head of Distributed and Interactive Systems at CWI, will analyse the requirements of the Web to manage the atomic XR elements of this kind of experiences, such as the volumetric video, the spatial audio or multi-sensorial aspects. On the other hand, Mikel Zorrilla, head of Digital Media & Communications at Vicomtech, will explore the orchestration mechanisms that would be desirable to provide context-aware adaptive experiences on the Web. Finally, François Daoust from W3C will focus on the evolution of the Web platform towards XR and immersive experiences.

Mikel Zorrilla (Vicomtech)
Pablo Cesar (TU Delft)
François Daoust (W3C – World Wide Web Consortium)

Session chair: Andrew Perkis (NTNU – Norwegian University of Science and Technology)

12:30 – 13:30 – Closing session “towards European Virtual Worlds initiative“

Everyone is invited to participate at exciting open discussion on future steps towards European Virtual Worlds initiative!!

The panel will involve representatives of EC, NEM Chairs, XR4Europe & EuroXR leaders, industry representatives from Orange and others.

Instead of a conclusion:

The NEM activities on supporting creation of the European Virtual Worlds Initiative will continue and will be based on conclusions made at by the present community at the closing session of the NEM Summit 2024 – as summarized below:

The identified related objectives, which need to be achieved to move towards implementation of the European Virtual Worlds:

Creation of a Strategy Handbook for EU including positioning recommendations on this promising playground
Consolidation of European technology landscape towards Virtual Worlds
Building a European Virtual Worlds community
Definition of strategy for development and implementation of the European Virtual Worlds

The last two points are seen as the most important for the time being, enabling work on the first two points listed above and establishment of the European Virtual World partnership, including clarification of issues related to formal/legal establishment of the partnership.