The fourth international AR standards Meeting (http://www.perey.com/ARStandards/fourth-international-ar-standards-meeting/) was held in Basel, Switzerland on Oct 24-25. There were attendees representing a number of standards groups, including World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), Open GeoSpatial Consortium (OGC), Khronos, and Web3D Consortium.

The future consumer demand for AR applications goes beyond the current use of geo-located points of interest. Looking at the larger “2D plus 3D” space for AR - extending location based AR to vision based. Web3D Consortium discussed their work on these new paradigms to develop standards that address the larger 2D plus 3D space for AR. The Consortium’s efforts to harmonize proven capabilities into best practices for AR and 3D graphics, implementable by multiple X3D viewers, and usable by content authors were  demonstrated.  Web3D Consortium presented X3D’s roadmap for AR and AR proposals with demos from their members - Fraunhofer and Web3D Korea chapter.  X3D, a mature, reliable and viable standard, can save considerable time for developers looking to design new AR applications. Much work has been accomplished already towards integrating AR capabilities in X3D. Current efforts are focused on harmonization of AR options, lightweight deployability, heavyweight consistency, and interoperability with AR and Web standards. As we achieve clarity on the larger strategy for AR, we plan to continue outreach and collaborate with all AR standards groups in establishing compatibility of X3D with other AR models. There is much work yet to be done to achieve synergy. Now is the time for serious AR developers to consider these essential challenges and get involved.

Web3D Consortium membership is open to companies, government agencies, educational institutions, and individuals. All X3D Specification capabilities can be implemented on a royalty free basis. We look forward to further participation and collaboration by the AR community to achieve long-term success for AR content on the Web.  For information on the Web3D AR Working Group please see:  http://www.web3d.org/realtime-3d/augmented-reality-ar

The Web3D position paper is available at http://www.perey.com/ARStandards/%5BWeb3d%5DAR_Roadmap_for_X3D.pdf.