STANDARDS FOR 3-D ON THE WEB
SAN ANTONIO, July 23, 2002 - Intel Corporation today
established the CAD (Computer Aided Design) 3-D Working Group to define, develop
and deploy a common format to represent 3-D images on the Web. The working
group, which is part of the Web3D Consortium, includes members from various
segments of the 3-D graphics industry, including CAD software vendors, CAD
users, digital content creators and industry standards bodies. Creating 3-D
standards for the Web is expected to reduce the time and cost associated with
developing and publishing 3-D content for the Web, while providing CAD tool
users a more effective means to collaborate and share data for design, marketing
and manufacturing applications. "We believe that removing the barriers to
proliferation of 3-D data is a critical next step in offering a richer
experience for people on the Internet," said Patrick Gelsinger, Intel vice
president and chief technology officer. "The absence of a flexible, standard 3-D
format represents one of those key barriers. By working with industry leaders
and graphics experts, we plan to create a format that will do for 3-D on the Web
what the JPEG format did for digital photography on the desktop." There are
multiple formats for viewing 3-D on the Web, which make it difficult for
companies to use 3-D content. Creating Web 3-D content is also too costly for
businesses to justify using it on their Web sites. This lack of content has
slowed the pace of innovation and adoption of 3-D on the Web. The majority of
3-D data today is created in CAD applications, which is why the working group is
initially concentrating its efforts on providing greater and more effective
access to that data. In addition to Intel, the CAD 3-D Working Group members are
3Dlabs Inc., Actify Inc., Adobe Systems Inc., ATI Technologies Inc., The Boeing
Company, Dassault Systemes, i3Dimensions Inc., Lattice Technology Inc.,
Microsoft Corporation, Mental Images GmbH & Co. KG, Naval Postgraduate School,
National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Parallel Graphics Limited
(ParallelGraphics), SGDL Systems Inc. and Tech Soft America/OpenHSF. The working
group expects to complete its initial standards development effort in about 18
months.
In forming this working group, Intel is also joining the
Web3D Consortium, a forum for the creation of open standards for Web 3-D
specifications. The Web3D Consortium includes a number of working groups that
focus on specific projects. For more information on the Web3D Consortium, visit
http://www.web3d.org/
<http://www.vrml.org/>.
Intel, the world's largest chip maker, is also a leading manufacturer of
computer, networking and communications products. Additional information about
Intel is available at
www.intel.com/pressroom.
