The Grid Institute has appointed Tony Parisi, co- inventor of 3-D for the World Wide Web (Web3D), a fellowship to participate in the development of a new generation of interactive and immersive 3-D graphics standards for the Media Grid.

Parisi is widely recognized as a technology pioneer and accomplished entrepreneur at the forefront of Internet New Media and real-time 3-D graphics. He is co-inventor of the Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML) ISO standard for Web-based interactive 3-D, and lead editor and co-chair of the Extensible 3D (X3D) Specification, the new standard for Web3D graphics (and official VRML successor) developed by the Web3D Consortium standards organization. As president and CEO of Media Machines, a San Francisco company focused on high-performance standards-based 3-D and integrated rich media core technologies, Parisi continues to influence standards, technologies and emerging markets for interactive rich media. In 1995, Parisi founded Intervista Software, an early innovator in real-time networked 3-D graphics technology that developed WorldView, the first real-time VRML viewer for Microsoft Windows. Following his early success with Intervisita, Parisi founded Media Machines in 2001 where he continues to spearhead the development of FLUX, a real-time 3-D technology based on open Web3D Consortium standards.

As a fellow of the Grid Institute Parisi will participate in the design and development of a new generation of real-time 3-D, interactive gaming and immersive digital cinema standards as an invited expert of the following Media Grid Technology Working Groups:

• Rendering Technology Group (RTG).

• Virtual Reality Technology Group (VRTG).

• Gaming Technology Group (GTG).

"We look forward to collaborating with Tony Parisi and Media Machines to develop a new breed of standards based on Flux and related 3-D technologies," said Aaron E. Walsh, director of the Grid Institute's MediaGrid.org standards organization. "Tony is a true pioneer in the field of interactive digital media with a solid track record of success in international standards. We anticipate a long and fruitful collaboration with Tony and Media Machines as the Media Grid begins to push the envelope of what's possible with 3-D graphics and interactive digital media," continued Walsh.

"Combining on-demand supercomputing power with real-time 3-D rendering on the desktop is a unique challenge that holds great promise for the computer graphics industry," said Parisi. "Media Machines will help drive these open Media Grid standards by leveraging our extensive experience with real-time 3-D and international standards. By recently releasing our Flux Player as open source, we have already taken an important step in this direction."