Saturday, February 16, 2008

The Birth of MPEG-V (MPEG for Virtual Worlds)

Good news from Jean Gelissen from Philips Research in the Netherlands about MPEG for Virtual Worlds (AKA MPEG-V):
...as most of you already know, [I] started the standardization track already in ISO, the International Standardization Organization in order not to loose valuable time (pleas note that international standardization takes quite some time ..). The basis for the start of a new standard (or part of a standard) track is a ‘Context and Objectives’ document (see the first attachment) together with the request for a new standard. This has been done at the October 2007 MPEG meeting and this request for a new work item has been the subject for an international ballot. The outcome of this ballot has been published at the end of January 2008 resulting in the acceptance of the new work item. During the last MPEG meeting it has been decided that this will be positioned as an independent MPEG standard named MPEG-V (Information exchange with Virtual Worlds). This all is very positive news for us, it provides us a high level of recognition and visibility, however this also implies that we have to take this very serious and have to start working (preparing) for the actual standardization process already now. It’s the intention that at the end of the next MPEG meeting (end of April 2008) a call for requirements will be issued (responses, so the actual requirements, are expected at the next MPEG meeting end of July 2008 and will be the bases for a call for technology proposals to fulfill the requirements).