CALL FOR PROPOSALS and PARTICIPATION

              SHREC'08 - 3D Shape Retrieval Contest 2008

        *February 8 - Submission deadline for track proposals*

*Introduction*

After two years of success the Network of Excellence AIM@SHAPE
is taking the initiative to organize the third edition of SHREC -
3D Shape Retrieval Contest 2008. The general objective is to evaluate
the effectiveness of 3D-shape retrieval algorithms. The contest is
organized in conjunction with the SMI'08 conference (Shape Modeling
International), where the evaluation results will be presented.
*New* this year is that we aim to publish the results in the SMI
proceedings. Last year the contest was extended to cover multiple
tracks, and thanks to the effort of previous track organizers, SHREC
already provides many sources to compare and evaluate 3D retrieval
methods. For this year's contest, we aim at new and improved tracks.
For that, the participants are requested to have an active role in
the organization. This includes proposing track themes, building or
acquiring a test collection and deciding upon the queries, relevance
assessment, and performance measures.


*Tracks*

In the previous 3D Shape Retrieval Contests the task was to retrieve
ranked lists of similar 3D objects, given a query 3D object, based on
the shape characteristics of the 3D objects (no other aspects such as
color). The contest tracks organized last year covered different classes
of 3D shapes:
- Water tight models
- Partial matching
- Proteins
- 3D faces
- CAD models

Now, we solicit again proposals for tracks. You may opt for one of
the above themes, or propose new ones. Track organizers should organize
the following aspects:
- The task.
  One might ask for a complete or limited ranking, a classification, etc.
- The collection.
  Is the test set collected or generated. Are there copyright issues?
  Will it be made public? Is there a classification of the models?
- The queries.
  How are the queries determined? Are the query models from the collection
  or new models, or is it just a verbal description, etc.
- The ground truth.
  Is there a ground truth, is there a relevance scale (highly relevant,
  marginally relevant, ...), how and when is it determined (based on
  classification, visual inspection, ...), etc.
- The evaluation method.
  Which performance measure will be used for the evaluation (precision,
  recall, nearest neighbor, k-th tier, average dynamic recall, normalized
  cumulated gain, etc.).
- The procedural aspects.
  Does every participant perform the queries, or is that done in a
  central place? Who does the performance assessment? When are test set
  and queries made available?
See http://www.aimatshape.net/event/SHREC/ for examples of organizational
aspects of previous tracks.

*Procedure*

The following list is a step-by-step description of the activities:

1) Potential track organizers send their proposal to shrec@cs.uu.nl,
  describing the envisioned task, collection, queries, ground truth,
  evaluation method, and expected number of participants.
2) Promising tracks and their organizers are listed at the SHREC web
  page, the track organizers start working out the details.
3) Participants register to the tracks they want to participate in.
4) Each track is performed according its own schedule.
5) The track organizers collect the results.
6) The track results are combined into the SHREC'08 proceedings.
7) The description of the tracks and their results are presented in a
  SHREC session at SMI'08.


*Time Schedule*

February 8  - Submission deadline for track proposals.
April 1    - Each track is finished, and results are ready for inclusion
             in the SMI'08 proceedings.
June 4-6    - Results presented at a session of SMI'08, proceedings
             available.

The individual tracks will have their own time schedule for registration
of participants, release of queries or submission of executables,
submission of results, etc.

*Organization*

The SHREC contest is an initiative of the Network of Excellence
AIM@SHAPE, http://www.aimatshape.net/ and supported by the FOCUS-K3D
project. For information about the contest, the results, etc. see
http://www.aimatshape.net/event/SHREC/. To contact the organizers,
send a message to shrec@cs.uu.nl. The SHREC organizers are
Frank ter Haar and Remco Veltkamp. The results of SHREC'08 are
presented at a special session of SMI'08, Shape Modeling International,
http://www.cs.sunysb.edu/smi08/