After surviving the long-haul flight from Ireland, complete with some questionable coffee from KLM we touched down in on Sunday! With clear skies, flying in over the wonderful views of Cape Town and the surrounding area – It was evident straight away ACM Multimedia Systems 2025 was going to be a special one! Chaired by Professor Herman Engelbrecht (Stellenbosch University), the event was held a short drive away at the Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study (STIAS), Stellenbosch.
The event kicked off on March 31st with the International Workshop on Immersive Mixed and Virtual Environment Systems (MMVE). Organised by Marta Orduna, with organisational support from Sara Baldoni, and Nuria Oyaga – MMVE showcased cutting edge research in a wide array of immersive experiences. I’ve been attending MMVE since 2017, and it’s consistently been a standout workshop in my research journey. Over the years, the welcoming community has grown into a supportive space for diverse work from both academia and industry.
TUS at ACM MMSys 2025
This year I had the delight of attending ACM MMSys with two of my students!
- Sahir Sharma (PhD) would be presenting a technical demo of his paper on “No code XR-CAx experience creation workflows for conducting Equipment Design Reviews”. The work, a collaborative effort with industry partner Boston Scientific, presents a no-code workflow for creating extended reality (XR) experiences tailored to equipment design reviews. It simplifies the XR content creation process, enabling engineers and designers to build immersive review environments without programming. The approach bridges the gap between design tools and XR platforms for more accessible collaboration.
- Fabrizio De Fiore, an undergraduate BSc (Hons) in Virtual Reality and Gaming took the spotlight with his novel work on “Danger Detection and Cloud-Based Vocal Assistance System for Visually Impaired Users Using Meta Quest 3”. Co-supervised with John Barrett (TUS Athlone) – the paper introduced a framework for danger detection and voice assistance system for visually impaired users, designed for use with the Meta Quest 3 headset. It combined real-time environmental sensing with cloud-based vocal feedback to enhance user safety and navigation. The system aims to make XR technology more accessible and supportive for visually impaired individuals.
Cape Town
The conference offered a great chance to experience a little slice of life in South Africa – with warm hospitality, beautiful scenery, and cutting-edge multimedia research all in one place! After the event had ended we have the privilege to experience the beauty Boulders Beach and Table Mountain (one of the 7 wonders of nature!) with barely a cloud in the sky. Overlooking Cape Town, the views of the stunning landscape from Table Mountain were breath taking to say the least. It would have been a shame to visit South Africa without sampling a local wine – with a late flight and a few hours to kill, we made out way to Babylonstoren Wine Estate to sample a Cabernet (and maybe a few others!).
It’s safe to say South Africa left a lasting impression, I can only hope to visit again for vacation!🍷🌄
