Proceedings of the 17th International Conference on Virtual-Reality Continuum and its Applications in Industry

We are very glad to host VRCAI2009 in Japan and welcome you to Tokyo Institute of Technology which is a very active university in VR, CG and Image processing fields. Virtual Reality Continuum (VRC), which spans across next-generation info information communication environments, like Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Virtuality (AV), Augmented Reality (AR), and Mixed Reality (MR), is a key in the way we define and interact with, and within, our virtual worlds. To advance research in the VRC field, the VRCAI conference seeks to provide a forum for scientists, researchers, developers, users and industry players in the international VRC community to come together to share experiences, exchange ideas and spur one another in the knowledge of this fast-growing field. This year, VRCAI 2009 focuses on the following themes: Fundamentals, Systems, Computer Graphics, Image Processing, Interactions , and Industry and Applications. A new focus area on Computer Graphics and Image Processing related to Virtual Reality has been introduced. We see the importance of CG and image processing for developing VR systems and applications growing more and more. Especially, VRCAI2009 is held just 2 days before SIGGRAPH ASIA 2009. VRCAI and SIGGRAPH ASIA should be more strongly connected each other. So, we hope VRCAI welcomes the papers in the fields of CG and Image Processing. Since its beginning as the 1st International Workshop on Virtual Reality and Visualization in Scientific Computing held in Hangzhou, China in 1995, VRCAI has grown and matured into a reputable biennial conference. Selected papers from past VRCAI conferences have been published in special issues of Computers & Graphics journal, International Journal of Virtual Reality, International Journal of Image and Graphics, and Computer Animation and Virtual Worlds. Since 2004, the conference has been indexed by EI. It has been also co-sponsored by ACM SIGGRAPH, and its papers included in the ACM Digital Library. The 8th VRCAI 2009 conference attracted 98 submissions from 17 countries in Europe, North and South America and Asia. The submissions were reviewed by about 70 reviewers, with each full paper receiving at least three reviews. The papers were of high quality and very competitive. 40 submissions have been accepted as full papers and 29 as poster papers.