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Contact:	Pierre duPont, Marketing Director,
Division Limited, +44 (0)454 615554

VIRTUOSI - Support for Virtual Organisations

Bristol, UK - 29 March 1994 - The UK Department of Trade and 
Industry (DTI) has announced funding for the VIRTUOSI project, a 
consortium of UK industrial and academic partners which will explore 
the use of virtual reality to allow multiple users to perform 
simultaneous, co-operative work across geographically dispersed 
locations. This project, part of the DTI/SERC Computer Supported 
Co-operative Work (CSCW) programme, has a total budget of 
approximately stlg2.5m over three years, with a DTI/SERC contribution 
of about stlg1m.

Virtuosi will allow people to join discussions and problem-solving 
activities at home or in different offices or factories across the world. 
Virtual reality technology from the UK company, Division Ltd, will 
contribute to the core framework of the project, providing powerful 
tools to allow users to interact within the virtual environment.

A strong theoretical basis will be provided for the project by 
Nottingham, Lancaster and Manchester Universities.  These 
Universities are all involved in UK and European research projects to 
establish the fundamental principles for interacting and co-operating 
in virtual environments that will be set up across future information 
superhighways.  In addition to developing models and systems, they 
will also be involved in capturing user requirements and assessing 
the effectiveness of the two application pilots.

Two pilot applications will be developed by the project.  One will be 
concerned with improving communication between a number of BICC 
Cable factories throughout the world.  The aim is to enable managers 
and workers to share expertise as easily as if they were in a single 
factory.  For example, technical experts on one continent will be able 
to "visit" shopfloor staff on another continent to co-operate on 
resolving technical and production issues at the remote factory.
A compact 3D representation of the total organisation will be 
generated on the screen of the desktop computer.  Users will be able 
to move round this visualisation to locate individuals and sources of 
expertise at the remote sites.  The system will then integrate video 
windows and computer based data into this virtual world while setting 
up a conference call to the participants.

The other pilot service will be based in the textile and clothing 
industry to allow co-operation between a number of small and 
medium enterprises involved in the design and manufacture of 
fashion garments.  This application will be part of Nottinghamshire 
County Council's programme to support industry in its area and to 
provide competitive advantage to its users.

Designers will be able to use virtual reality techniques to create a 
visualisation of a garment.  The designer will be able to discuss the 
design with remote buyers who will also be able to see the garment 
being worn by a model on a 'virtual catwalk'.  Users will be able to 
make changes and view the effects during their discussions and, 
once agreement has been reached, the details of the design will be 
transferred immediately to the factory for manufacture.  The work on 
this application will be supported by a consultant to the project based 
at Nottingham Trent University who will provide expertise on 
computer support and visualisation techniques in garment design

Both BT and GPT Ltd will be involved in developing the 
telecommunications aspects of the project.  GPT's contribution will 
also be supported by GEC Marconi Hirst Research Laboratories which 
has considerable experience in virtual reality applications.

NOTES TO EDITORS:  VIRTUOSI is a project within the DTI/SERC 
Computer Supported Co-operative work (CSCW) programme.  Its aim 
is to promote research into the use of computer systems to support 
groups of people working together in industry or commerce.  Virtuosi 
is one of eight projects selected for the programme.  The total budget 
for the project, which will run for three years, is in the order of stlg2.5m, 
with a government contribution from DTI and SERC of about stlg1m.

The organisations that form the project consortium are British 
Telecommunications plc (the lead partner on the project), BICC plc, 
Division Ltd, GPT Ltd, The University of Lancaster, The University of 
Manchester, and The University of Nottingham.

Note: Photographs representative of the goals of the project are 
available.

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Contact:	Pierre duPont, Marketing Director,
                Division Limited, +44 454 615554
               Clive Jones, Division Limited +44 594 529619