Virtual Environments -(VE) the new dimension in man-machine-communication -have been developed and experienced in Europe since 1990. In early 1993 the Eurographics Association decided to establish a working group on Virtual Environments with the aim to communicate advances in this fascinating area on a scientific and technical level. In September 1993 the first workshop on VEs was held in Barcelona, Spain, in conjunction with the annual Eurographics conference. The workshop brought together about 35 researchers from Europe and the US. The second workshop was held together with Imagina '95 in Monte Carlo, Monaco. This time, around 40 researchers from Europe, the US, but also from Asia met for a 2-day exchange of experience. Needless to say -as in all Eurographics workshops -we found the atmosphere very open and refreshing. The workshops were sponsored by ONR (Office of Naval Research), UK; US Army Research Institute, UK; University of Catalonia, Spain; EDF France; CAE France, INA France and IGD Germany and locally organized by Daniele Tost and Jaques David. While in the first workshop in 1993 many concepts in VE were presented, the '95 workshop showed up various applications in different areas and demonstrated quite clearly that Virtual Environments are now used in interactive applications.

Inhalt

Is VR Better than a Workstation? A Report on Human Performance Experiments in Progress.- The Influence of Dynamic Shadows on Presence in Immersive Virtual Environments.- A Fuzzy Controlled Rendering System for Virtual Reality Systems Optimised by Genetic Algorithms.- Generating Multiple Levels of Detail from Polygonal Geometry Models.- Fine Object Manipulation in Virtual Environments.- Fast Algorithms for Drawing Nonuniform B-spline Surfaces: A Practical Application in Virtual Environment.- Virtual Molecules, Rendering Speed, and Image Quality.- Searching for Facial Expression by Genetic Algorithm.- Coordinating Vocal and Visual Parameters for 3D Virtual Agents.- Consistent Grasping in Virtual Environments Based on the Interactive Grasping Automata.- Hand-Gesture Recognition as a 3-D Input Technique.- The Virtual Treadmill: A Naturalistic Metaphor for Navigation in Immersive Virtual Environments.- Interaction Models, Reference, and Interactivity in Speech Interfaces to Virtual Environments.- Experiment Authoring for Virtual Driving Environments.- Simulating Automated Cars in a Virtual Urban Environment.- A Shared Virtual Workspace for Constraint-based Solid Modelling.- An Interactive Virtual World Experience - the Cyberspace Roadshow.- Improving the Legibility of Virtual Environments.- Design Issues for Virtual Reality Systems.- Further Development of the Responsive Workbench.- Virtual Design II - an Advanced VR Development Environment.- Using the GIVEN Toolkit for System Development in MuSE.- Appendix: Colour Figures.