Special SDO Session – Avatar Standards: Communication

The Metaverse Standards Forum is organizing Special SDO Sessions and invites members and SDOs (Standards Development Organizations) to present relevant ongoing or completed work to the MSF and the public.

The topic for this Special SDO Session is Avatar Standards for Communication. We have two presentations followed by Q&A and Discussion.

Presentation 1: Enabling Avatars in AR Communications

Abstract: The standardization of avatars in AR communication is gaining momentum through the collaboration of 3GPP and MPEG. MPEG’s new Avatar Representation Format (ARF) is a pivotal development, enabling interoperability across platforms by defining a unified framework for avatar storage and exchange. ARF ensures seamless integration of avatars into immersive media services and applications and is able to leverage existing tracking frameworks such as the Khronos OpenXR extensions for face and body tracking. Concurrently, 3GPP is extending its multimedia telephony service to support avatar-based AR communications, leveraging the MPEG ARF to achieve interoperability. This presentation will provide an insight into the MPEG ARF format and the role it plays in the 3GPP avatar-based communication service.
Presenter: Imed Bouazizi, Qualcomm Incorporated – LinkedIn
Speaker Bio: Imed Bouazizi is a Director of Technical Standards at Qualcomm, specializing in multimedia systems, immersive media, and 5G technologies. He holds a Ph.D. from RWTH Aachen University and has contributed to the development of several technologies and technical standards. His recent research and standardization work has been focused on XR technologies, where he’s currently working towards standardizing enablers for AR communication, including Avatar formats.

Presentation 2: VRM – Practical Interoperable Avatar Standard for VR and Metaverse

Abstract: VRM is an avatar format that is simple to implement, create, and trade. Specifically designed for virtual reality, VRM encompasses all essential data needed for avatars within a single file.
Presenter: Hideaki Eguchi, VirtualCast – LinkedIn
Speaker Bio: Hideaki has been a VR and mobile app engineer at VirtualCast, Inc. since 2019. Prior to that, he worked as an English-to-Japanese technical translator for eight years. In addition to his engineering responsibilities, Hideaki is active in overseas public relations for the Japan-based VRM Consortium. He also serves as the co-chair of the MSF Interoperable Characters and Avatars working group.