Monday 15 June 2020 11:53pm
Otago's Associate Professor Tobias Langlotz will co-chair a major conference on virtual reality in 2022.
An Otago Business School academic is half of the duo behind the successful bid to host the world’s largest and most prestigious virtual reality conference in New Zealand.
Associate Professor Tobias Langlotz, of the Department of Information Science, along with his Canterbury University colleague Professor Stephan Lukosch will co-chair the 2022 IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces (IEEE VR).
This is the first time the conference will be held in the southern hemisphere. It will take place in Christchurch and is expected to attract hundreds of experts from around the world – both physically and virtually.
"We want to have a great conference, but this is also the perfect opportunity to also showcase the amazing work that is being done here in New Zealand."
“IEEE VR will be a hybrid event - on place as well as virtual - so people can even join in remotely if they cannot physically attend the conference,” Associate Professor Langlotz says.
“Since 1993, the IEEE VR is the premier academic conference for all topics related to virtual reality, augmented reality, and 3D user interfaces. Because of the recent popularity of these topics, IEEE VR has attracted an increasing number of attendees from academia and industry reaching more than 1000 participants in recent years.
“As a globally recognised event for introducing the next big advancements in the field, IEEE VR 2022 will feature latest research in different forms from full research papers presented as oral presentations to posters, keynotes, research demos, and workshops.
“We plan to organise satellite events in Dunedin and other centres to allow conference attendants to experience the breadth and strength of VR research in New Zealand and here in particular also in Otago.”
He hopes the conference will also help put virtual reality and augmented reality in New Zealand on the world stage.
“Given the size of New Zealand, we are internationally in a very good position and very well represented when it comes to virtual and augmented reality. Showing this is also one of our key goals when bringing IEEE VR to New Zealand.
“We want to have a great conference, but this is also the perfect opportunity to also showcase the amazing work that is being done here in New Zealand.”
Story by Lea Jones (Communications Adviser, Otago Business School)