Emerging Web Graphics Standards and Technologies

Migrating graphics applications and techniques to the Web introduces technological challenges not present in traditional graphics. The shortage of library tools to support Web graphics application development poses a particular problem for real-time 3D Web graphics. The Internet, with its long latency and low bandwidth, can’t easily handle large 3D graphics geometry. These restrictions limit the graphics applications we can develop and deliver for the Web. To address these challenges, we need new graphics standards that let us develop library tools for portable graphics applications. These standards must run on diverse machine architectures and operating systems to cater to as many potential users as possible, and the major computer firms interested in this market must accept the standards. As 3D Web graphics advance, human modeling and animation will be important not only for the application contents but also as a human–computer interface. Distributed virtual environments form a core part of the Web 3D engine, and research focuses on making DVEs both realistic and lightweight for the Web environment.