This year's Stereoscopic Displays and Applications (SD&A) conference - the 14th in the series - had very good representation from a broad range of attendees: industry and academia, enthusiasts and professionals, suppliers and users, students and teachers. The conference was held during the three-day period 21-23 January 2003 and featured a broad range of topics, presentations, and events.

The first day of the conference started with a session on Stereoscopic Display Systems, chaired by Andrew Woods. The four papers in this session discussed topics that included binocular retinal laser displays, tiled stereoscopic projection displays, the use of random dot stereograms, and a thought-provoking talk on whether a screenless 3D display is possible.

The second session of the conference, Autostereoscopic Displays I: Integral Imaging, was chaired by Shojiro Nagata. Five papers discussed various aspects of this special form of autostereoscopic display technology including computer generation of integral images, capture and display systems, and computer processing of integrally captured 3D images.

The third and fourth sessions of the conference continued the theme of autostereoscopic displays. Neil Dodgson chaired the session Autostereoscopic Displays II and John Merritt chaired the session Autostereoscopic Displays III. Autostereoscopic displays continue to be a topic of keen interest to conference attendees, evidenced by the standing-room-only crowd attending most of these papers. The 10 papers discussed various topics including improved optics and components, position adaption, applications, and mathematical analysis for various types of autostereoscopic displays including pupil projection displays, parallax barrier displays, lenticular displays, and volumetric displays. The continued advancement and interest in autostereoscopic displays was further illustrated by the large number of autostereoscopic displays presented at the demonstration session on the Thursday afternoon following (discussed below).

A standby paper was presented in the first of these sessions by Yahuhiro Takaki from Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology (Japan) titled "A novel 3D display using an array of LCD panels." His paper was originally presented as an invited paper in the Liquid Crystal Materials, Devices, and Applications IX conference (Proceedings of SPIE Vol. 5003). The manuscript for his presentation will appear in that proceedings volume (paper number 5003-29).

The final formal session of the day was the 3D Video Screening Session chaired by Andrew Woods. This session allows us to showcase large screen examples of how 3D video is being used and produced around the world. This year we screened the following 3D material (or segments thereof) on the conference's high-quality 3D rear projection system:

"Help Me", a 2D music video by Timo Maas and Perfecto Records (London), which features a 3D comic book theme in the music video (using motion parallax, anaglyph colors, and analogs of other 3D aspects to reproduce the look of a 3D comic book on the 2D screen). ^*1

"Lightspeed Design Group 3D Show Reel" by Lightspeed Design Group (Bellevue, Washington) featuring a range of computer animated 3D video productions for clients including Nintendo Gamecube, Proctor & Gamble, and various science museums. ^*5

"HD3D Sports Demo" by Max Penner, Paradise FX Corp. (Van Nuys, California) was a compilation of a range of sports footage including a high school football game, pro wrestling, and other sports action all set to a lively music score in 3D HD TV format. ^*5

"NAC Army/NASCAR" by BRTRC, EFX, and Paradise FX Corp. was an army-themed piece that combined real-world footage with computer animation in 3D HDTV format. ^*5

"Nekrofilm 3D Sampler" and "A Slice of the World" by Lazlo Magyar, Nekrofilm (Hungary). The former is a collection of material from Nekrofilm's works including computer animations and real-world footage. The latter is a short documentary illustrating the wonders of Hungary. ^*5

A range of 2D footage converted to 3D by Dynamic Digital Depth (Santa Monica, California) including a Britney Spears Pepsi advertisement, Tokyo Motor Show screen test, "Men in Black" short, "Shrek" trailer, and Boeing Business Jet promotion. ^*6

"Talking Fish in 3D" and "Jako's and the Pet's Thief" (teaser) by Enrique Criado, Enxebre Sistemas (Spain) ^*5

3D ridefilms "Ali Baba's Jewel Quest" and "Phantom Loop" by Multi-Dimensional Studios (Midvale, Utah) ^*3

A 3D educational video titled "Mondo 3D" by Fernando Iñigo, 3D World Argentina ^*3

"Ultimate G's" and "Radar Men From the Moon" by Slingshot Entertainment (Burbank, California) ^*3

Two 3D videos promoting pharmaceutical products from 21st Century 3D (New York) ^*4

"Aconcague - The Top of the Western World" and "Africa 3D" (teaser) by Tom Riederer, Tree-D Films (Santa Barbara, California) ^*2

Stereoscopic music visualizations demonstrated by John Miller, Dep3D (Los Gatos, California)

The evening concluded with a delightful meal at Tresca's Restaurant in the Westin Hotel adjacent to the convention center. It was a good chance for about 40 of the conference attendees to mix and talk in a relaxed atmosphere.

The second day of the conference commenced with a session titled Stereoscopic Video, chaired by Andrew Woods. Topics of the three papers in this session included computer playback of stereoscopic video, development of stereoscopic video cameras, and assessing visual comfort of stereoscopic video.

The second session of the day was Stereoscopic Image Coding, chaired by Lew Stelmach. The four papers in this session discussed methods for the reduction of the bandwidth of stereoscopic still images and stereoscopic image streams, as well as perceptual evaluation of the performance of stereoscopic image compression.

After lunch the two technical paper sessions focused on the topic of Human Factors in Stereoscopic Imaging. John Merritt chaired the session Human Factors I and Lew Stelmach chaired the session Human Factors II. The eight papers in these sessions covered a wide range of topics including assessing the effect of stereoscopic image crosstalk/ghosting, display brightness, viewer accommodation, camera configuration, and image alignment on the perception of stereoscopic image quality.

The final session of the day was a discussion forum chaired by Lenny Lipton of StereoGraphics Corporation (San Rafael, California). The discussion topic was The Future of Stereoscopic Imaging and panel members were Daniel Sandin of University of Illinois/Chicago, Mark Bolas of Stanford University, Dave Cook of nVIDIA Corp. (Santa Clara, California), and Jeff Fergason of Ilixco Inc. (Menlo Park, California). The discussion forum covered a lot of ground and had particularly lively input from the audience. A more detailed review of the discussion forum has been prepared by Lenny Lipton and appears following this proceedings introduction.

The third day of the conference started with a session on Stereoscopic Image Processing chaired by John Merritt and Janusz Konrad. The six papers in this session covered topics which included using focus cues in 2D to 3D conversion algorithms, reducing aliasing artifacts in multiview lenticular autostereoscopic displays, algorithms for producing anaglyph 3D images, and a particularly interesting application of stereoscopic imaging for the analysis of turbulent flames.

After lunch the Poster Pop Session chaired by Vivian Walworth allowed the poster authors to provide a short oral review of their posters. The posters were made available for viewing during the following demonstration session.

This year's Demonstration and Poster Session again featured a very good selection of autostereoscopic (glasses-free 3D) displays. There were six stereoscopic displays on display, complemented by another two stereoscopic displays. This session is regularly a very well attended event since it provides attendees with a hands-on up-close experience with a large range of stereoscopic hardware and software. The session, chaired by Neil Dodgson and Andrew Woods, included these demonstrations:

4D Vision (Germany) demonstrated their autostereoscopic 50-in. plasma display.

A 3D manipulation device (called the Yo Yo) for controlling 3D VR models was demonstrated by Andreas Simon of Fraunhofer IMK (Sankt Augustin, Germany). A UNIX workstation drove an OpenGL display of various 3D models that could be manipulated with the Yo Yo device.

Steve Berezin of Berezin Stereo Photography (Mission Viejo, California) demonstrated a wide variety of consumer stereoscopic products, including various 3D glasses and viewers, books, and cameras.

Parallax Player software, high-resolution 22-in. Synthagram autostereoscopic monitor (model 222), 42-in. Synthagram (model 422), and 20-in. Synthagram (model 202) from Stereographics Corporation.

Dep3D (Los Gatos, California) demonstrated a 40-in. stereoscopic rear-projection TV using polarized 3D glasses and a range of stereo-enabled video games.

Hideki Kakeya of University of Tsukubu (Tsukuba, Japan) demonstrated a 3D workbench based on a desktop autostereoscopic display. (Visit the conference website for a video of this display in operation.)

Takashi Kawai of Waseda University (Tokyo, Japan) demonstrated Stereoedit software available from Lets Corporation (Japan). Stereoedit has been developed for the editing of digital stereoscopic video files.

Dynamic Digital Depth (Santa Monica, California) demonstrated a range of 2D to 3D conversion technologies including a new computer display driver for generating multiview stereoscopic displays for appropriately enabled computer games and applications in scientific visualization. A StereoGraphics Synthagram monitor was used on this stand.

Ian Howard of I Porteus Publishing (Canada) had the two-volume book Seeing in Depth on display.

In addition, there were the four posters - and one of the poster presenters, Amar Agoun from De Montfort University (Leicester, UK), had an integral imaging photograph on display.

Sharp UK provided a stack of flyers about the 3D Consortium that has recently been formed.

The SD&A conference concluded with the Keynote Presentation presented this year by Emeritus Professor Ian Howard from the Centre for Vision Research, York University (Canada). Professor Howard's presentation titled, "Understanding stereoscopic vision," reviewed the landmarks in the physiological and psychophysical study of stereoscopic vision as well as reviewing some recent developments in understanding stereoscopic vision. Quoting Professor Howard, "The study of binocular vision goes back to Euclid in the 3rd century BC and Ptolemy in the 2nd century AD. The study of stereoscopic vision started when Charles Wheatstone invented the stereoscope in 1836. In 1967 Barlow, Blakemore, and Pettigrew discovered brain cells sensitive to binocular disparity." Professor Howard's lively presentation was richly illustrated with a large collection of stereoscopic slides and received considerable interest from the audience, promoting much discussion following the presentation.

At the conclusion of the keynote presentation, Conference Cochair Andrew Woods thanked Professor Howard for his presentation and with this being the final event of the Stereoscopic Displays and Applications conference for this year the opportunity was taken to make a range of other announcements, thank yous, and to close the conference:

This year a number of prizes were offered as part of the SD&A conference. The prize for the best use of the available stereoscopic presentation tools during the conference technical sessions was won by James Tam of the Communications Research Centre (Canada) for his presentation "Comparison of stereoscopic and non-stereoscopic video images for visual telephone systems." James' presentation included field-sequential stereoscopic video played back from Betacam SP to illustrate the various stereoscopic video test sequences used in his study (including a number of amusing out-takes). James' prize was a copy of Ian Howard's book Seeing in Depth and a copy of StereoGraphics Parallax Player. James actually already had a copy of Seeing in Depth so he very graciously agreed that the book be presented to Christian Guill and Elisabeth Rieper of the Felix 3D research project in Germany who presented a paper on the first day of the conference. We're sure the book will receive a considerable amount of use from this very active student group. The final prize was offered for "The presentation we would have most liked to have seen in 3D (but wasn't)." This prize was awarded to Laurie Wilcox (York University, Canada) for her interesting presentation, "Determinants of perceived image quality: ghosting vs. brightness."

Many individuals and companies contributed in various ways to make this a very successful meeting:

This year the Stereoscopic Displays and Applications conference was formally sponsored by NuVision by MacNaughton Inc. Conference sponsorship is a very valuable way for companies to support the running of the conference and gain valuable marketing exposure. We thank NuVision for their support.

The conference committee plays an important role in ensuring the correct technical direction of the meeting and of course, the members play an important role at the conference itself including chairing sessions. Sincere thanks go to Neil Dodgson, Janusz Konrad, Shojiro Nagata, Lew Stelmach, and Vivian Walworth.

A new feature of this year's conference was a series of Lunchtime Discussion Topics that were organized by Lew Stelmach. These informal events provided an opportunity for attendees to discuss a nominated topic whilst eating their lunch. On the first day Eric Brisson (Boston University) and Nicholas Beser (Johns Hopkins University) facilitated discussions on tiled stereoscopic displays and the added value of stereoscopic imaging. On the second day Lew Stelmach (Communications Research Centre) and Julien Flack (Dynamic Digital Depth) facilitated discussions on Human Factors and Stereoscopic Image Compression. On the third day Vivian Walworth (Jasper Consulting) facilitated a discussion regarding the Stereoscopic Lexicon. Thank you to the participants, facilitators, and organizer of these sessions.

The ability to present high-quality large-screen stereoscopic images and video at the conference is an extremely important part of the conference. Many people and companies contributed hardware, software, and expertise to make this a truly impressive show. A particular thank you goes to Brad Nelson of Nelsonex (Los Gatos, California), Spectrum Audiovisual (Denver, Colorado), Chris Ward of LightSpeed Design Group, John Miller of Dep3D, Jason Goodman of 21 st Century 3D, Julien Flack of Dynamic Digital Depth, and Mike Weissman (Santa Barbara, California). Conference video equipment included Betacam SP player, DVD player, 3D demultiplexer, two QD line doublers, stereoscopic rear projection screen (all provided by Nelsonex), SVHS Player, two Sony VPL-FX50 projectors (Spectrum Audio Visual), 40-in. rear projection polarized stereoscopic TV (dep3D), DepthQ stereoscopic video playback software and computer (LightSpeed Design Group), dual industrial DVD players and DVD playback synchronizer (21 st Century 3D), computer with field-sequential NTSC SVideo output (for playback of 2D to 3D converted video footage), DTI autostereoscopic display (DDD), and miniDV player (Mike Weissman).

Thanks also to Takashi Sekitani (Tokyo, Japan) who provided a specially modified version of his software "3D Slide Projector" for the purposes of digital stereoscopic slide presentation at the conference.

A special thank you also goes to those who helped make the 3D video screening session run so smoothly.

Thanks to the demonstration session presenters for making equipment available to show to the conference attendees. Some equipment traveled from overseas, making the contribution to the meeting particularly praise-worthy. Particular thanks are also due to the staff at SPIE and IS&T who are instrumental in helping organize the conference.

The conference activities don't stop at the end of the January meeting. The SD&A conference website remains as a focus for conference activities during the time between conferences. We will be seeking abstracts for the 2004 conference mid-year. You can join a mailing list to receive conference announcements. The SD&A conference website provides a focal point for many activities and a timetable for important meeting deadlines, and highlights the activities of past conferences. The website also hosts the stereoscopic virtual library from which two classic texts are available for free download: Herbert McKay's "Three Dimensional Photography"and Lenny Lipton's "Foundations of the Stereoscopic Cinema". Visit the conference website to gain an understanding of the past, present, and future of stereoscopic imaging, and most of all think now about presenting a paper or attending next year's conference. The Stereoscopic Displays and Applications conference website is located at: <http://www.stereoscopic.org>.

This year's Engineering Reality of Virtual Reality conference began with papers highlighting techniques and applications useful in a number of areas. An extremely ambitious project to digitize and immersively present an entire city in China was presented by Qiang Lie and Deren Li of the Sichuan Bureau of Surveying and Mapping in China. Sung-Jim Kim presented work at University of California at Davis on enhancing data consistency in distributed environments while a joint project between Ecole Nationale Supérieure d'Arts et Métiers and Peugeot Citroen for immersive car design review was described.

The chair baton was then passed from Shojiro Nagata to Daniel Sandin who introduced a five-paper session that focused on two efforts. The first was a collaboration between the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History and Virtual Surfaces Inc. to create virtual models of dinosaurs and then study possible behaviors and biomechanics. Thanks to Arthur Anderson for carrying the presentations. Next, the Nara Institute of Science and Technology presented a series of papers outlining their progress on an augmented reality and an omnidirectional multicamera system.

The post-lunch crowd enjoyed a session chaired by Guillaume Moreau that concentrated on augmented reality systems. The first paper was a prototype design from Kumamoto University and Matrox that registers driver navigation cues with the view from an automobile; a multigroup effort to provide environmental management cues in a virtual environment; a deceptively simple video-based hand-tracking system at the University of Illinois; and a hierarchical depth estimation technique for image synthesis in mixed reality.

The final session of the day included papers describing a free viewpoint television system from Nagoya University; a stunning technology which provides depth keying for video and film by 3DV Systems Ltd; a collaboration on a system for virtual situational awareness of data streams from a vacuum chamber testing rig; and a project from Stanford University to create interfaces that can be manipulated to create 3D geometry on desktop computer systems.

As a final note, the Stereoscopic Displays and Applications and The Engineering Reality of Virtual Reality conferences will be on again next year, in the period 18-24 January 2004. Next year we will be back down in San Jose, California, at the San Jose Convention Center as part of the Electronic Imaging 2004 symposium. Photonics West will follow the week after Electronic Imaging also at the San Jose Convention Center (as such, again for 2004, the Stereoscopic Displays and Applications conference and the Engineering Reality of Virtual Reality conference will not be part of Photonics West). The 2004 meetings should be an even bigger and better event so please consider attending, presenting, or demonstrating at the 2004 Stereoscopic Displays and Applications conference or The Engineering Reality of Virtual Reality conference.