W3C Issues Web and Virtual Reality Workshop Report

Dear News Media, Analysts and Friends of W3C,

Today W3C issued a report on Web and Virtual Reality from the Workshop it held 19-20 October 2016 in San Jose, California, hosted by Samsung. 

According to W3C technical staff contact Dominique Hazael-Massieux, more than 70 organizations actively working in the VR ecosystem came together to demonstrate the benefits of the Open Web Platform as a full-fledged development environment for Virtual Reality.  Workshop participants identified new areas for potential standards work which W3C plans to charter in early 2017.

For more information, see the Media Advisory here and text below.
http://www.w3.org/2016/11/web-and-virtual-reality-workshop-report.html.en

For interviews or briefings, please email: <w3t-pr@w3.org>

Kind regards,

Karen Myers
W3C Media and Analyst Relations
Mobile: 1.978.502.6218

 [1]W3C For immediate release

      [1] http://www.w3.org/

            Media Advisory

W3C Issues Report on “Web and Virtual Reality” from Recent Workshop

New Web and Virtual Reality Standards Work Planned for 2017
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   [2]Translations | [3]W3C Press Release Archive
     __________________________________________________________

      [2] http://www.w3.org/Press/Releases-2016#vrworkshop-report
      [3] http://www.w3.org/Press/

   [4]https://www.w3.org/ — 17 November 2016 — (Cambridge, MA) —
   The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), the global standards
   organization for the Web, has published a [5]report: "Web and
   Virtual Reality (VR)" based on the two-day Workshop held 19-20
   October 2016, hosted by Samsung in San Jose, CA.

      [4] http://www.w3.org/
      [5] https://www.w3.org/2016/06/vr-workshop/report.html

   "More than 70 organizations actively working in the VR
   ecosystem came together to demonstrate the benefits of the Open
   Web Platform as a full-fledged development environment for
   Virtual Reality," said Dominique Hazaël-Massieux, W3C technical
   staff contact.

   According to Hazaël-Massieux, VR industry experts from
   companies including W3C members Apple, BBC, Dolby,
   Facebook/Oculus, Google, Intel, Microsoft, Mozilla, Qualcomm,
   and Samsung, addressed some of the shortcomings needed to make
   the Web more feature-rich and attractive for deploying
   innovative VR applications and services.

   "As the Virtual Reality ecosystem expands, so does the demand
   for VR to leverage standard Web technologies such as HTML5, and
   to provide common ways to define, build and interact with 3D
   content on different devices,” said Philipp Hoschka, W3C
   Industry Lead. “With Web standards, there will be
   interoperability to avoid fragmentation and duplicated effort,
   which in turn lowers development costs."

   Among the features workshop participants identified as needing
   standardization attention were: better integration of existing
   Web content in VR experiences; improved support and optimized
   transmission of 360° videos and audio; turning Web pages into
   enjoyable Virtual Reality spaces; and integrating the 3D
   building bricks of VR content into the fabric of the Open Web
   Platform.

   To integrate Virtual Reality technology into the Open Web
   Platform, W3C plans to launch new standards track work in the
   first quarter of 2017. Once the work is chartered, W3C member
   organizations will begin the developing new technical standards
   to ensure that WebVR becomes a seamless part of the Open Web
   Platform.

   "There is much work to be done, but the enthusiasm and high
   level of interest among VR industry representatives for new
   standards work at W3C is very exciting to see," said
   Hazaël-Massieux. "We are eager to get continued feedback on
   this work and invite participation from the community."

About the World Wide Web Consortium

   The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is an international
   consortium where Member organizations, a full-time staff, and
   the public work together to develop Web standards. W3C
   primarily pursues its mission through the creation of Web
   standards and guidelines designed to ensure long-term growth
   and stewardship for the Web. Over 400 organizations are
   [6]Members of the Consortium.

      [6] http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Member/List

   W3C is jointly run by the [7]MIT Computer Science and
   Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (MIT CSAIL) in the United
   States, the [8]European Research Consortium for Informatics and
   Mathematics (ERCIM) headquartered in France, [9]Keio University
   in Japan and [10]Beihang University in China. W3C has Offices
   in Australia; the Benelux countries; Brazil; Finland; France;
   Germany and Austria; Greece; Hungary; India; Italy; Korea;
   Morocco; Russia; Southern Africa; Spain; Sweden; and the United
   Kingdom and Ireland. For more information see
   [11]https://www.w3.org/

      [7] http://www.csail.mit.edu/
      [8] http://www.ercim.eu/
      [9] http://www.keio.ac.jp/
     [10] http://ev.buaa.edu.cn/
     [11] https://www.w3.org/

   End Media Advisory

Media Contact

   Karen Myers, W3C <[12]w3t-pr@w3.org>
   Mobile: 1.978.502.6218
     __________________________________________________________

     [12] mailto:w3t-pr@w3.org

   [13]Translations | [14]W3C Press Release Archive

     [13] http://www.w3.org/Press/Releases-2016#vrworkshop-report
     [14] http://www.w3.org/Press/