The INTUITION Network of Excellence, established by the European Union in 2004, united researchers and industrialists in an effort to develop virtual reality (VR) systems capable of introducing a new range of innovative products. “Virtual reality looks exotic to the general public,” says Angelos Amditis from the Institute of Communication and Computer Systems in Athens. “But for many of us this looks like a key technology that could really enable innovation and creation of new jobs, opportunities, and products.” The INTUITION effort attracted more than 60 formal partners and 80 associated organizations, making it the largest Network of Excellence in the EU’s Sixth Framework Programme for research. During the past four years, INTUITION created 16 internal projects and many external projects. “The idea was to increase cooperation by creating groups of two, three, or four partners to develop a specific application,” Amditis says. A major result of the effort is the ability to build virtual prototypes, which can be created in significantly less time and at a fraction of the cost of physical prototypes. The progress made by the INTUITION project, which finished last October, will be built upon by a Brussels-based association called EuroVR, which will launch later this year. A major priority of EuroVR will be drafting standards for VR applications. The lack of standards has kept costs high, which has limited investment and confined VR to niche products.

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