From patrick.schouller@inria.fr Fri Mar 19 08:19 MET 1999
To: (Recipient list suppressed)
From: Patrick Schouller 
Subject: LETIThe " Advanced Technologies Division" (DTA) of the French
  Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) is currently promoting an important
  program called RV/IHM (virtual reality / man machine interfaces),
  which aims at applying a number of technologies developed at CEA to
  various fields of Virtual Reality (VR)

MEFI-SEI-DiGITIP-STSI-SDPP-PS-1999-132

Virtual Reality hardware interfaces

The " Advanced Technologies Division" (DTA) of the French Atomic Energy
Commission (CEA) is currently promoting an important program called RV/IHM
(virtual reality / man machine interfaces), which aims at applying a number
of technologies developed at CEA to various fields of Virtual Reality (VR).
A major goal of that programme is to achieve in the short term the
demonstration  of  a range of advanced low-cost interfaces perfectly adapted
to the needs of various applications of VR.

1. 	Our technologies

*	Micro-technologies: accelerometer, microfluidic, biosensors,
magnetic sensors, gyro, microoptics, microlasers, flat panel displays...
*	Robotics: tele-manipulation, force feedback, some software
developments
*	Systems: wireless transmission, magnetometry, active vision, passive
vision, movement detection, telemetry, eye movement measurement, near sensor
signal processing, ASIC development.

Most of the mentioned technologies are typical requirements of to-morrow
person/system interfaces.

2. 	Some possible developments

In many countries there is nowadays a significant effort aiming at
developing new interfaces since to-day commercially available products
are most often not satisfactory. Among many possible ways, our technologies
could help in the development of :

*	Head mounted display (HMD) with high quality image and real immersion effect
*	Transparent HMD
*	Eye movement detection, possibly included in the HMD
*	Low cost accurate 6D positioning (6D tracker)
*	Force feedback mouse
*	Wireless interfaces
*	...and still many others, using a combination of  various technologies

3. 	Applications

We strongly believe that such developments must take into account as close
as possible the requirements and feedback from identified applications.
We intend to work on interfaces which should be tested in real environment
at each stage of their development. CEA/DTA is potentially interested in all
applications of VR, including:

*	Games
*	Culture (virtual museum, patrimonial aspects, artistic creation...)
*	Reality centres
*	Medical applications (surgery, disabled...)
*	Design (automobile, fashion...)
*	...

4. 	Profile of partners

We have already established a number of contacts in various countries,
but we are willing to consider every possible proposition for collaboration.
We are mainly seeking partners which could propose applications, and also
partners who should be able to produce and market devices resulting from the
projects. Partners having knowledge about databases for VR, networking,
and various intermediate software layers, or other "hardware partners" could
also be included in the projects.

We also established contacts with Regional representatives, in order to
initiate regional projects in the field of VR (eg. cities network,
reality centres), and also in order to take into account human and sociological
aspects (one of the EU 5th Framework Programme requirements).

5. 	Link with the EVA project of CEA

Presently we are also circulating a separate call for partners for our
project named EVA (European Virtual Art) which is also part of the global
RV/IHM programme of CEA. The aim of EVA is to develop a complete
networked platform for Artistic Creation and virtual Museum based on VR.

6. 	Contacts

Dominique David (CEA/DTA, System Department): for the present proposition.
Phone: +33 - 4 76 88 32 47 / Fax +33 - 4 76 88 57 87
Email: dominique.david@cea.fr

Michel Ida (CEA/DTA, Microtechnology Department): for the EVA project.
Phone: +33 - 4 76 88 49 51
Email: michel.ida@cea.fr

Christian Cochet (CEA/LETI, Directorate): LETI European Projects Manager.
Phone: +33 - 4 76 88 93 72
Email: christian.cochet@cea.fr

LETI, the Laboratory for Electronics, Technology and Instrumentation, is
part of CEA/DTA.
 Christian COCHET
 Responsable des programmes européens du LETI
Adresse postale:		Tél : 	+33-476 88 93 72
17, rue des Martyrs		
38054 GRENOBLE CEDEX 9		
http://www-leti.cea.fr
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                        Patrick SCHOULLER
      MINISTERE DE L'ECONOMIE, DES FINANCES ET DE L'INDUSTRIE
                SECRETARIAT D'ETAT A L'INDUSTRIE
Direction Generale de l'Industrie, des Technologies de l'Information et des
Postes
     Service des Technologies et de la Société de l'Information
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Telephone : + 33 1 43 19 34 25    Telecopie : + 33 1 43 19 35 51
Archive de la liste : http://www.evariste.org/actu/schouller/
http://www.industrie.gouv.fr.   http://www.telecom.gouv.fr
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