Berkoff and Metakides to open Eurodisplay 2002

JULY 12--Eurodisplay, the triennial technical conference and exhibition devoted to research and technology in electronic information displays, will be held this year October 1-4 at the Acropolis Convention Center in Nice, France (www.webxy.com/eurodisplay2002). Keynote addresses will be given by Bruce Berkoff, executive vice president for marketing for LG. Philips LCD in Seoul, Korea, and George Metakides, director of directorate E (essential information society technologies and infrastructures) of the European Commission's Information Society Directorate General. The speakers will present complementary visions of a world increasingly characterized by pervasive computing and display-centric environments at work, home, and play.

Says Berkoff: "We are continuing to see more and more features and functionality embedded onto the display itself - having the PC 'locked away in the walls' to better serve both the user and IT needs. We have entered a display-centric era where LCDs are at the core for an ever-increasing number of activities and functions from computing to home entertainment, and more will certainly follow." Berkoff will explore the market and technology forces driving the new display-centric world and will discuss what this might mean for "display portals" of the future.

Says Metakides, "Progress made so far is rapidly bringing us toward the pervasive computing and networking era--with computing embedded in any/every physical object in our surroundings and with everything linked together through seamless communications networks spanning from the home to the global level. Displays in particular hold the major share of the final information communication and interaction with users." A number of display technologies are funded through the EC's Fifth Community Framework Programme (FP), which expires at the end of this year. Metakides will review these projects and discuss the objectives of the Sixth FP, which will run from 2003 to 2006.

Following the keynote addresses, there will be a three-track program of nearly 200 invited and contributed technical papers--together with a display technology and product exhibition, author interviews, and special events. Eurodisplay 2002 is sponsored by the French Chapter of the Society for Information Display and Le Club Visu.