Some highlights

Some things I've taken away from this conference:

- I need to put more thought into stereoscopic filming and film, rather than focus on content developed in 3D modelling packages
- the work going on at Northumbria University is bang in line with what I'm hoping to get involved with in with our own Built Environment staff
- the stereoscopic front projection system in the lecture theatre worked very well

UCLan showcase

The UCLan showcase consisted of 3 examples, and lasted 5 minutes! One of the examples was a sterescopic promotional film about UCLan - it was quite effective. Afraid I can't remember the others...

Prof. Bob Stone - University of Birmingham

The last speaker was professor Bob Stone. I'd seen the presentation before and thought about leaving early, but I was stuck in the middle of the row in the lecture theatre, and also wanted to stick around for the UCLan showcase. He talked about the use of 'serious games', and how then can be used for education, corporate training, public healthcare, cultural training, heritage etc. The key point he made was that it isn't the technology, it's the content.

He talked about how the 'cryengine' from the half life computer game can be used to create serious games, and mentioned some other game engines. In fact he talked a lot, and went so fast is was difficult to write decent notes! One thing he did mention was that serious games are virtual reality's 'second chance', as he described that VR systems from the 80's (clunky headsets etc) had been a failure, and we are still using keyboards, mice etc for interacting with computers

As I said, he covered a lot, and this little summary doesn't really do his session justice - I'm glad I stayed

Simon Gee - Virtalis

Simon Gee from Virtalis talked about the use of VR tools in medical technology (FAO readers of Paul Helm's blog: If I hear another story about haptic cows (yes, that end) my head will probably explode) I did see some information about Virtual Veins, which has recently been purchased by our Health and Wellbeing faculty, and I have arranged to see it in September. Simon presented lots of healthcare examples, and I'm not going to list them all here. It was an interesting and useful session

Cary Kornfeld - ETH Zurich

Next, Cary Kornfeld went into detail (far too much for me, and I've got to confess I switched off a bit) about stereoscopic filming. He teaches people how to do stereoscopic filming, and said that an understanding of filmmaking is required before making stereoscpic films. I really noticed in this session that it becomes quite tiring to look at stereoscopic content, particularly where viewpoints are changing and your eyes are neding to adjust.

Wayne Cranton - Nottingham Trent University

Wayne Cranton from Nottingham Trent was the next presenter I made lots of notes here but I'm not really sure which bits to write!

Firstly, he talked about display systems, imaging, interactive systems and virtual environments, including an example of a 3D baggage scanning system, which used colour coding to determine different materials and information

The main part of the presentation was about the 3D Visualisation of Southwell Minster. An artist had been commissioned to install art in the Minster, which was to be digitally documented. It included an interactive 3D walk through, which used real-time image generation. Impressive stuff

Gordon Mair - Strathclyde University

Next up was Gordon Mair - talking about the 'three dimensions of 3D' at Strathclyde University. He talked about teleprescence - projecting yourself to another location, and then went on to describe a new facility that has been set up at his institution - a digital design and manufacture studio. Interesting stuff