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Message from the Chair of the Technical Programme Committee

The focus of the ITU Kaleidoscope 2021 (K-2021) academic conference is on how the on-going digital transformation is blurring the distinction between our physical and virtual worlds. Technical standards as well as policies and regulation have their respective roles in ensuring that the new immersive experiences benefit humanity at large. Because the Covid-19 pandemic is still affecting communities around the world, for the second year in a row, K-2021 is held online from 6 to 10 December 2021. The conference programme includes eighteen original papers retained from a total of 39 submissions, after a double-blind peer-review process. The video demonstration track, which was introduced in last year's Kaleidoscope, has now four demonstrations. Also, thanks to Laetitia Bochud, Director of Virtual Switzerland, a K-2021 partner, the coffee breaks will include entertainment segments to show how immersive technologies can be used in dance, theatre productions and live performances. The contributors to K-2021 hail from all continents. To accommodate the various time zones over the globe, each day's proceedings are limited to around 3 1/2 hours. The authors of the best papers presented at the conference will share a prize fund of CH 6 000. In addition, young authors of up to 30 years of age presenting accepted papers will receive Young Author Recognition certificates. In my role as the chair of the technical programme committee (TPC), I would like to thank all 56 reviewers, whether members of the TPC or anonymous reviewers, for assisting the steering committee in making the selection. Members of the steering committee were also essential in preparing three keynote sessions and in inviting two papers dealing with the conference's theme. They also helped organise two special sessions on the intersection of the technology with culture, and its effects on the future of museums, art galleries and live performances. I would also like to thank our technical co-sponsors and partners. The K-2021 conference proceedings (as well as those of the previous conferences) can be downloaded free of charge from http://itu-kaleidoscope.org. As customary with the Kaleidoscope conferences, per agreement with the IEEE, all papers accepted and presented at the conference will be included in the IEEE Xplore Digital Library. In addition, selected papers will be considered for publication in a special-feature section of the IEEE Communications Standards Magazine. Finally, I would like to thank the ITU team lead by Alessia Magliarditi and including Emer Windsor, Erica Campilongo and Simiso Dlodlo, as well as Gent Bajrami from the ITU-T Operations and Planning Department, for their unwavering support. It is thanks to their dedication that the Kaleidoscope series of academic conferences improves year after year.