[X3D-Public] Web3D AR Working Group: organizational teleconference

[Don Brutzman]

[resent to list]

Today's call is hopefully of broad interest, comment and engagement
are most welcome.

On 11/15/2010 8:03 AM, Anita Havele wrote:
> Hi All,
>
> Based on the current interest in AR within the W3C, ISO and Korea chapter community and given the X3D AR functionality, the Web3D Consortium expects to start an AR Working Group in January, 2011.
>
> Don and I are taking the responsibility for developing a charter for this work, it will be worked on cooperatively using the Web3D Member Wiki with input from the Fraunhofer team and Dr. Gun Lee from the Korea chapter. We recommend that we start working on the charter for this working group while working together with Korea Chapter next month in Seoul. Hopefully we will have a draft prior to that meeting.

We had a good discussion on this topic today during the weekly
X3D+HTML5 teleconference.

Attendees:
Anita Havele, Timo Engelke, Johannes Behr, Gun Lee, Len Daly, Don Brutzman.

Backround:  slideset for SIGGRAPH 2010 and X3D Mobile Workshop last summer
by Johannes and Don showing how a potential X3D Mobile Profile closely
relates mobile platforms with interoperable HTML5 content and AR content.
http://www.web3d.org/x3d/wiki/index.php/Image:X3dProfilePossibilitiesMobileHtml5AR.2010June29.pdf

Extensive past discussion details from 14 September teleconference available
to Web3D members are at
http://web3d.org/mailman/private/x3d_web3d.org/2010-September/000774.html

W3C POI working group:
	http://www.w3.org/2010/POI/
	The mission of the Points of Interest Working Group,
	is to develop technical specifications for the representation
	of "Points of Interest" information on the Web.

Workshop in San Francisco 4 OCT,
	Changing the Mobile Landscape: From Apps to AR
	San Francisco, California, US
	POI Staff Contact Matt Womer will present some of the new
	technologies that will enable the mobile Web apps of the future.
	He will review new efforts including new geolocation APIs and
	protocols, a "points of interest" format for sharing information
	about places, and an overview of the w3c's foray into enabling
	Augmented Reality on the Web.

There were 2 workshops organized by Christine Perry regarding AR,
June 2010 in Barcelona and also at ISMAR in Korea in October.

	http://www.perey.com/ARStandardsMeeting.html
	11-12 October 2010
	Seoul Korea
	http://www.perey.com/ARStandardsMeetingOutputs.html

There is a very interesting AR Landscape diagram that came out of
this meeting:
	http://www.perey.com/ARStandards/Landscape_of_AR_topics.pdf

There are interesting synergies with Khronos and OpenGlES (Embedded Systems)
that need to be explored and actively coordinated.
http://www.khronos.org/opengles

Similarly there are some important capabilities provided by KML, and
4-part proposal by X3D Earth Working Group for maximizing interoperability
between KML and X3D.
http://www.web3d.org/membership/login/memberwiki/index.php/X3D_v3.3_Specification_Changes#KML_Interoperability_Issues

There is also recent announcement by W3C of HTML5 Korea interest group.
http://web3d.org/mailman/private/x3d_web3d.org/2010-November/000818.html
	HTML5 Korean Interest Group
	http://www.w3.org/html/ig/ko

	HTML5 Korean Interest Group Charter
	http://www.w3.org/html/ig/ko/charter.html

Christine Perey will host another workshop in Barcelona 17-19 February 2011.
http://www.perey.com/ARStandardsMeetingFeb2011.html

Web3D Conference Paris, 21-24 June (tentative) provides another major venue
for targeting common work and milestone progress.

So there is a lot of interest in AR, and also interest in standards-based
interoperability.

This was an excellent discussion with many points and possibilities explored.

Potential charter goals for a Web3D AR Working group:
- Extend X3D Graphics specification to include AR nodes & functionality
	perhaps including Camera, tracker sensors, overlays, occlusion etc.
	Also need to coordinate European, Asian and U.S. technical efforts.
- Track and align with other standards and cooperative efforts for
	maximum interoperability between mobile devices and web content.
	This includes aligning X3D mobile, HTML5 and DOM efforts with AR.
- Ensure the best 3D rendering technology is available for mobile AR, so
	that AR is not solely/simply considered a 2D overlay problem that
	uses a mobile display oriented within a real-world environment.

Timo discussed how, from some perspectives, it is a bit difficult to
define the boundaries of AR since it includes many things to many people.
Nevertheless the recent workshops and advancement of Point Of Interest
(POI) from W3C Interest Group to Working Group have shown emerging
sentiment that standards  and interoperability.

The cooperation with other groups is essential, it bounds our technical
challenges to the visualization and interaction capabilities that we are
very good at.  Of course it also makes other X3D results more broadly
accessible and usable.

Next steps to form a working group:
- Produce draft outline of charter (Anita, Don, Len)
- Create X3D+AR wiki (at next teleconference)
- Defer creation of separate mailing list until up and running
- Use X3D mailing lists to solicit comment and participation,
	initially public for maximum discussion and outreach,
	possibly public or members only  once we form a group
- Alternate weekly meetings on Tuesday mornings (pacific time)
	with W3C Declarative 3D discussions; both of these efforts
	are spinning off from our X3D+HTML5 X3DOM successes
- Meet, discuss, plan and produce draft charter at upcoming
	Web3D Korea Chapter meetings at SIGGRAPH ASIA in Seoul Korea
	Tuesday-Wednesday 14-15 December
- Reach out other standards-related groups and forums to solicit
	their  comment, collaboration and participation
- Review and confirm support for any new technical items related to AR
	already under consideration  for X3D v3.3.
- Web3D Consortium initiate a new work item at ISO for pursuing and
	formally proposing new technical extensions for X3D
- Identify commonality of functionality in the broader field of AR
	that can be integrated with X3D

Next week's topic 23 November is W3C Declarative 3D.

We hope to meet again Tuesday 30 November, same time (8-9 pacific,
5-6 Germany, 11-2 Korea).  Many thanks to participants working odd hours.

all the best, Don
-- 
Don Brutzman  Naval Postgraduate School, Code USW/Br      brutzman at nps.edu
Watkins 270   MOVES Institute, Monterey CA 93943-5000 USA  +1.831.656.2149
X3D, virtual worlds, underwater robots     http://faculty.nps.edu/brutzman