EVA Vienna

The second conference of the EVA (Electronic Information, the Visual Arts & Beyond) series in Vienna under the topic "Digital Cultural Heritage—Essential for Tourism", was organized by the Pattern Recognition and Image Processing (PRIP) Group and the Austrian Computer Society (OCG). The conference was endorsed by Technical Committee (TC) 19 Computer Vision for Cultural Heritage Applications of the International Association for Pattern Recognition (IAPR). The main aim of EVA Vienna 2008 was to create a forum for discussions between the cultural heritage research community, technology researchers, and cultural institutions. Our mission is to establish new technical tools for experts in the cultural heritage field. The accompanying motto of the conference is "Digital Cultural Heritage—Essential for Tourism". Therefore the conference is focused on image analysis, cultural tourism, speech and communication in cultural heritage, archaeography, and museum and archaeological applications. The emphasis is on applied work as well as theoretical advances.

EVA Vienna 2008 was a small but very successful event, which brought together 40 participants from ten different countries. Thirteen out of 25 contributions were presented in five oral sessions. Each submitted paper received three reviews, with decisions being based on correctness, presentation, technical depth, scientific significance, and originality. In addition to our conference delegates, Prof. Armin Grün (ETH Zürich, Switzerland) gave a very interesting invited presentation on “Image-Based 3D Modeling of Cultural and Natural Heritage Objects”. The EVA Vienna 2008 conference also hosted one workshop on “Quality, Accessibility, and Usability of Cultural Websites” and Special Sessions dedicated to “Coin Recognition” and “Cultural Archives for Virtual Tourists”.

To motivate students to work in the area of Computer Vision Applications for Cultural Heritage this year for the first time an IAPR Best Student Paper Prize was awarded to the author of the best paper written solely or primarily by a student appearing in the workshop proceedings. Elena Bonini received this IAPR Best Student Paper Award for her work entitled “Building Virtual Cultural Heritage Environments: The Embodied Mind at the Core of the Learning Processes” because of the clarity and quality of the written paper. The award was presented at the Conference dinner held at the beautiful Vienna City Hall.

The success of the conference was possible due to the authors who contributed their work to the symposium, the dedicated work of the members of the program committee, and finally to the organizing committee. Following the tradition of all EVA conferences, the conference will not only impact on the current research of the readers but will also represent important archival material. The EVA Vienna also featured an outstanding venue at the Austrian Academy of Sciences and a well organized social program.

The next EVA conference in Vienna is planned in 2010. For information about EVA Conferences International visit the website.

Conference Report: EVA Vienna 2008

Report prepared by Robert Sablatnig (Austria)