VSMM was founded in Japan in 1995 by Professor Takeo Ojika of Gifu University with support from the Governor of Gifu Prefecture in Japan. It was arguably the first international VR conference and has remained a leading venue for cross-disciplinary scholarly research and exchange in cutting-edge multimedia and virtual systems.
For 23 years VSMM has held annual conferences, featuring leading researchers and groundbreaking technology. The VSMM Conference Keynote addresses include a “who’s who” of pioneers in virtual and augmented reality, 3d sensing, and applied media. Over the years VSMM has had many firsts, from the launch of the field of Virtual Heritage at VSMM1998, to the first public demo of what was soon to became Google Earth at VSMM2001, the opening of Japan’s VRTechno Center with its architect, Sir Richard Rogers, as well as public demos of many early 3d scanning systems.
VSMM was an early pioneer of 3D technology for culture, and through its partnership with the UNESCO World Heritage Center helped launch in the late 1990’s the field of Virtual Heritage or Digital Heritage as it is now known, as well as helping found the DigitalHeritage Congresses.
The VSMM Society has been led over the years by Presidents: Professor Takeo Ojika, Professor Scott Fisher, Professor Bob Stone, Professor Harold Thwaites, and currently Professor Alonzo Addison. Scot Refsland served as the Society’s founding Executive Officer and was instrumental in guiding it in its early years. He was followed by Professor Mario Santana.
Here is a copy of the founding announcement from 1995:
Date: Tue, 28 Mar 95 14:50:34 JST From: ojika@ojk.info.gifu-u.ac.jp ( Takeo Ojika ) Sender: tomo@ojk.info.gifu-u.ac.jp Subject: Call for papers Dear Sir: We are going to have the first interna[tiona]l conference on Virtual Reality "International Conference on Virtual Systems '95 in Gifu" as shown below, which will be held every year hereafter. We do hope that you will join the first conference on VR. Furthermore, we are now planning to establish an international society to be named "International Society on Vitual Systems and Multimedia(VSMM)" under the planning committee(tentative): Representative: Prof. Setsuo Ohsuga, Univ. of Tokyo, Japan Members: Prof. Thomas B. Sheridan, MIT, USA, Mr. Scott S. Fisher Telepresence Res. Corp., USA, Prof. Michio Nakano, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan, Prof. Shigeki Yokoi, School of Informatics and Science, Nagoya Univ., Japan, Dr. Kazuhiko Yamamoto, Head of Image Understanding Section, Electrotechnical Lab., Japan, Dr. Junji Nomura, Matsusita Electric Works LTD, Japan, Prof. Takeo Ojika, Gifu Univ., Japan. If you are intersted in, would you please join in the society ? _____________________________________________________________________________ Call for papers _____________________________________________________________________________ International Conference on Virtual Systems '95 (ICVS '95) in Gifu September 18-20, 1995 Gifu Convention Center, Gifu, Japan Sponsored by * The executive committee of ICVS '95 in Gifu * The planning committee of the International Society on Virtual Systems and Multimedia (VSMM) * Gifu Research and Development Foundation (GRDF) * Center for Cooperative Research, Gifu Univ. For more details, please e-mail to icvs-sec@ojk.info.gifu-u.ac.jp _____________________________________________________________________________ *** EXECUTEIVE COMMITTEE OF ICVS '95 *** Honorary Committee Chair: Thomas B. Sheridan, MIT., USA General Committee Chair: Setsuo Ohsuga, Tokyo Univ., Japan Vice Committee Chairs : Michio Nakano, Tokyo Inst. Tech., Japan Susum Tachi, Tokyo Univ., Japan Takeo Ojika, Gifu Univ., Japan Keynote Address: Thomas B. Sheridan, MIT., USA Special Lecture: Susum Tachi, Tokyo Univ., Japan Invited Speakers: Jeff Edwards, Evans & Sutherland Comp. Corp., USA Scott S. Fisher, Telepresence Res. Inc., USA Mike Gigante, RMIT, Australia Mark Green, Univ. Alberta, Canada Charles Grimsdale, Division Ltd., UK Myron W. Krueger, Artificial Reality Corp., USA Makoto Nonaka, FISA, USA Joachim Sauter, ART+COM, Germany Luis Serra, National Univ. Singapore, Singapore Daniel Thalmann, Swiss Fed. Inst. Tech., Switzerland Nadia M. Thalmann, Univ. Geneva, Switzerland Kaye Wohn, KAIST, Korea David Zeltzer, MIT, USA *** TOPICS OF INTEREST *** Stereoscopic display and applications, Graphic workstations and parallel computers, Human interface, 3DCG, 3DCAD, Visualization, Pattern recognition, 3D Measurement, Control and simulation, Sensitivity Eng., Tactile sensing, Computational geometry, Mathematical modeling, Telerobotics & Telepresence, AI for VR, Artificial life, Artificial social systems, Fuzzy theory, Neural network, Bioscience, VR education software(VRES), VR in agriculture, VR in sports, Psychology, Medical surgery & supporting systems, VR for veterinary medicine, VR networks(LAN, by artificial satellite), Multimedia, VR for CAM & CIM, VR instrument, etc. *** SUBMISSION *** To present a paper at the conference, the 300-word abstract must be submitted by e-mail or fax (e-mail is preferable) by April 30, 1995, according to the Application Form below. Each presentation is expected to be a 20-minute talk. The Conference Proceedings will be published. *** SCHEDULE *** April 30, 1995 for abstracts May 31, 1995 for the notice for acceptance July 31, 1995 for completed manuscripts *** APPLICATION *** Please complete the form attached and e-mail or fax it to: Takeo Ojika, Prof., ICVS Secretariat Department of Electronics and Computer Engineering Faculty of Engineering, Gifu University 1-1 Yanagido, Gifu, Gifu 501-11 Japan e-mail: icvs-sec@ojk.gifu-u.ac.jp Fax: +81-58-230-1895 ____________________________________________________________________________ ICVS '95 Application Form Please check. __I will submit a paper. ( The abstract is included. ) __I will attend the Conference First Name/ Last Name: Business Affiliation: Dept./Bldg./Mail Stop/etc.: Street Address or P.O. Box: City/State: Zip Code: Country: Telephone: Fax: E-mail Address: Paper Title: Abstract: ____________________________________________________________________________ Would you please forward it to all who may be interested in ? Best regards Takeo Ojika Takeo Ojika (Prof.) Faculty of Engineering Gifu University Yanagido, Gifu JAPAN 501-11 Tel&Fax +81 58 230 1770 e-mail ojika@ojk.info.gifu-u.ac.jp