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February 1998, Vol. 15, No. 2 |
VRML becomes ISO/IEC international standard
VRML (Virtual Reality Modeling Language) has been approved as an international standard by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC). The VRML97 specification, also known as ISO/IEC 14772, was published by ISO/IEC in December 1997 as the result of a close collaboration with the VRML Consortium (San Ramon, Calif.; http://www.vrml.org).
As an ISO/IEC standard, VRML has gained international endorsement and provides a guarantee of specification stability, which will promote content compatibility to drive the growth of 3-D on the Internet. Adoption as an ISO/IEC standard also enables VRML to be referenced as the 3-D component in other ISO/IEC standards — further widening the potential use of VRML-based technology.
The VRML97 International Standard was developed by the Joint Technical Committee 1 (JTC 1) of ISO and IEC in partnership with the VRML Consortium. VRML was standardized within 18 months and becomes the first international standard to be published in HTML.
"Specifications that are adopted by ISO and IEC as International Standards have demonstrated the highest degree of consensus, stability and quality," said George Carson, chairman of ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 24, Computer Graphics and Image Processing. "The adoption of VRML97 as an International Standard represents an important step both for the VRML Community, and future ISO standardization efforts that can reference the 3-D technology of VRML97."
The VRML Consortium is a nonprofit organization with a mandate to establish and promote VRML as an open, ubiquitous standard for 3D graphics on the Internet. Comprised of over 60 technology companies, the VRML Consortium members provide technical and marketing expertise for the continued evolution of the VRML standard.
Supporting an open enrollment credo, the Consortium provides its members with early access to new VRML technological and business developments through participation in technical working groups and promotional and marketing activities.
