Virtual reality conference comes to Reutlingen

From Los Angeles to Reutlingen: in 2018, the premier international conference on virtual reality and 3D user interfaces will be held in Germany for the second time in the conference’s 25-year history. Over 500 academic and industry experts from more than 20 countries are expected to attend the 25th IEEE VR 2018 conference in Reutlingen from March 18 to 22, 2018.

“I’m so happy that we managed to get the conference to Germany this year,” says Professor Betty Mohler, who is one of the general co-chairs of the conference. Betty Mohler has been a Professor at the Technical University of Darmstadt since 2017. She maintains close ties with the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, where she spent many years working on the use and advancement of virtual reality technologies for basic research with the aim of understanding human perception and performance.

The annual five-day IEEE VR event is co-chaired by Betty Mohler, Matthias Bues (Fraunhofer IAO), Torsten Kuhlen (RWTH Aachen), Evan Suma Rosenberg (University of Southern California) and Martin Goebel (FH Bonn-Rhein-Sieg). Matthias Bues is head of virtual and augmented reality research activities at Fraunhofer IAO. His team works closely with the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics on the CoAvatar project.

Experience virtual reality: research laboratories open their doors

On the evenings of March 19 and 20, 2018, conference participants can visit VR research laboratories in Stuttgart and Tübingen, both of which boast outstanding facilities. Fraunhofer IAO will open the doors to its Visual Technologies Lab, Immersive Engineering Lab and Vehicle Interaction Lab and present the latest technologies and applications from the fields of virtual reality, augmented reality and driving simulation.

In addition, the High-Performance Computing Center Stuttgart (HLRS) of the University of Stuttgart will showcase its CAVE cube and present Hazel Hen, Germany’s fastest supercomputer. The Max Planck Institutes for Biological Cybernetics and for Intelligent Systems in Tübingen will also open their laboratories to conference attendees.

The conference attracts experts from industry and academia alike. Europe, and specifically Germany, play a key role in the advancement of virtual reality technology and 3D user interfaces. “VR is such a hot topic at the moment, and Europe, in particular, has a lot to contribute,” says Mohler. “It therefore came as no surprise that we received nearly twice as many submissions this year as in previous years.”

Industry meets academia: industry users present their technologies to VR researchers

Special highlights at the conference include internationally renowned keynote speakers from both academia and industry, such as Professor Skip Rizzo from the University of Southern California and Professor Katherine J. Kuchenbecker, Director at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems. The IEEE VR 2018 will also host three leading industry experts: Professor Oliver Riedel from the University of Stuttgart, Helmut Hobmaier from Audi AG and Robert Menzel from NVIDIA.

The exhibitors’ lunch on March 20 offers companies the opportunity to present their new technologies and software products to the world’s foremost VR researchers and application developers.

Contact
Dr. Matthias Bues
Team Leader Visual Technologies
Fraunhofer IAO
Nobelstraße 12
70569 Stuttgart
Phone +49 711 970-2232
matthias.bues@iao.fraunhofer.de

http://ieeevr.org/2018/
http://www.iao.fraunhofer.de/lang-en/labs-equipment/380-visual-technologies-lab….
http://www.iao.fraunhofer.de/lang-en/labs-equipment/976-immersive-engineering-la…
http://www.iao.fraunhofer.de/lang-en/labs-equipment/280-vehicle-interaction-lab-…