Page 5 - Kaleidoscope Academic Conference Proceedings 2022

Foreword

Dr Chaesub Lee
Director
ITU Telecommunication Standardization Bureau

Innovation to match the world’s growing metaverse ambitions was in focus this year at Kaleidoscope 2022:
Extended reality − How to boost quality of experience and interoperability.
The conference provided a forward-looking perspective on the future development and widespread adoption
of extended realities.
Now in its fourteenth edition, this key academic event from the International Telecommunication Union (ITU)
supports productive dialogue between academics and standardization experts on how standards can help boost
quality of experience and interoperability in extended realities.

Kaleidoscope 2022, kindly hosted by the Ministry of Communications and Digitalisation, with the support of
the Ghana-India Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence in ICT, will take place in Accra, from 7 to 9 December at
the National Communications Authority of Ghana, with online participation provided too.
The concept of extended reality (XR) has captured imaginations worldwide. It has inspired blockbuster films
envisioning a metaverse of enthralling virtual worlds. To technologists, the promise of truly immersive
experiences equates to key problems to solve in interoperability and user-perceived quality. These come down
to the ability of different worlds, physical or virtual, to interact seamlessly and offer experiences that can
convince and captivate us. Focusing on the technical developments that are contributing to a new and more
immersive future, the research selected for presentation also sheds light on the standards that are needed to aid
in this digital transformation and provide a safe, human-centred future. The various sessions highlighted
different perspectives on future networks; design and implementation of augmented reality systems; building,
deploying, and managing QoE in XR communications; Metaverse interoperability in hyper-connected and
hyper-personalized virtual environments; and challenges for XR and Holographic-Type Communication. A
survey of XR Standards was also presented.
This year’s conference included a local University Exhibit that offered the opportunity to local students and
professors to present research on a variety of topics related to the broad field of ICT, and an invited special
session on “The Metaverse and the Future of Education - Frameworks, features, potential applications,
challenges and opportunities”. The video demonstration track provided an online demonstration on how to
make extended reality safe and secure for teenagers.
I would like to express my great appreciation to the Kaleidoscope community and the larger ITU Academia
membership for their enduring support to this series of conferences. With over 160 academic and research
institutes now members of ITU, the Kaleidoscope series is certain to continue growing in strength.
My sincerest thanks go to our technical co-sponsors, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
(IEEE), and the IEEE Communications Society (IEEE ComSoc). I would also like to thank our academic
partners and longstanding ITU members, Waseda University, the Institute of Image Electronics Engineers of
Japan (I.I.E.E.J.), the Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers (IEICE) of Japan,
the Chair of Communication and Distributed Systems at RWTH Aachen University, the European Academy
for Standardization (EURAS), the University of the Basque Country, the Liverpool John Moores University,
and the University of Limerick.

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