Submissions Due: 20 October 2006
Author Notification: 17 January 2007
Final Versions Due: 20 March 2007

To expedite the review process we would appreciate it if authors
intending to submit a paper could send a title, author list, and
abstract to 3d-docs@cgv.tugraz.at by 2 October 2006.

Digital libraries (DLs), in general, and technical or cultural
preservation applications, in particular, offer a rich set of
multimedia objects like audio, music, images, videos, and, of course,
3D models. However, instead of handling these objects consistently as
regular documents—in the same way we handle text documents—most
applications handle them differently.

Looking at textual documents as being only one media type among many,
it becomes clear that this type of document is handled quite
specially. A full-text search engine permits retrieving a specific
document based on its content, that is, one or more words that appear
in it. Content-based retrieval of other media types is an active area
of research, and only pilot applications exist. The deficits in
handling nontextual documents are especially annoying in a situation
where the proportion of classical text (journals, books, and so on)
is decreasing. It becomes ever easier to create a digital image, a
video, or a 3D object—but our libraries, be it classical public
libraries or company internal repositories, are not equipped with the
right tools to provide all the services for nonstandard documents
that are available for books, journals, or technical spec sheets.

This is due to the fact that standard tasks like content
categorization, indexing, content representation or summarization
have not yet been developed to a stage where DL technology could
readily apply it for these types of documents. Instead, these tasks
have to be done manually making the activity almost prohibitively
expensive. Consequently, one of the pressing research challenges is
the development of an adequate vocabulary to characterize the content
and structure of nontextual documents as the key to indexing,
categorization, abstracting, dissemination, and access.

Even more pressing is the demand for having automated categorization
at hand—this is true even for those only taking pictures with digital
cameras and then just dumping them into folders where we can’t find
particular pictures later on.

As more and more artifacts in the technical and engineering world are
digitally born the content categorization, the abstraction, the
adequate representation—which, by the way, must coexist with long-
term archival demands—is vital to all disciplines.

We solicit papers for this special issue that present innovative
results and concepts in the domain of 3D documents. Potential topics
to be covered include but are not limited to

    * indexing,
    * content classification,
    * domain-specific metadata,
    * domain-specific phrasing of search terms,
    * automated markup,
    * content-based retrieval,
    * search by similarity / similarity measures,
    * abstracting (that is, what’s the 3D analogy to a thumbnail in
2D),
    * semantic enrichment,
    * avoiding the loss of model semantics in the classical graphics
process pipelines,
    * transport (for example, over channels with limited bandwidth),
    * semantic level of detail,
    * interaction with 3D documents,
    * navigation in (distributed) 3D documents,
    * linking in 3D documents (that is, where and how to attach
links), and
    * long-term storage.

Articles should be no more than 10 magazine pages, where a page is
800 words and a quarter page image counts as 200 words. Cite only the
12 most critical references, and consider providing technical
background in sidebars for nonexpert readers. Color images can be
interspersed through the article and should be limited to a total of
10. Visit CG&A style and length guidelines here.

Please submit your article using our online manuscript submission
service. When uploading your article, please select the appropriate
special issue title under the category Manuscript Type. Also include
complete contact information for all authors and coauthors in the
submission. If you have any questions about submitting your article,
please contact Alkenia Winston.

Submit a Manuscript

Please direct any correspondence prior to submission to one of the
guest editors:

Dieter W. Fellner
CGV, TU Graz
Inffeldgasse 16c
A-8010 Graz, Austria
Phone: +43 316 873 5400
Email: 3d-docs@cgv.tugraz.at

Dietmar Saupe
Fachbereich Informatik u. Informationswissenschaft
Universitaet Konstanz
Fach M697
D-78457 Konstanz, Germany
Phone: +49 7531 88 4220
Email: 3d-docs@cgv.tugraz.at