3D object representations have become an integral part of modern computer graphics applications, such as computer-aided design, game development and film production. At the same time, 3D data have become very common in domains such as computer vision, computational geometry, molecular biology and medicine. The rapid evolution in graphics hardware and software development, in particular the availability of low cost 3D scanners, has greatly facilitated 3D model acquisition, creation and manipulation, giving the opportunity to experience applications using 3D models to a large user community. As the number of 3D models is continuously growing fast the problem of creating new 3D models has shifted to the problem of searching for existing 3D models. Thereupon, the development of efficient search mechanisms is required for the effective retrieval of 3D objects from large repositories, both of a single class (such as human faces) and across classes.

The EG workshop on 3D Object Retrieval was organized for the first time in 2008 with the aim to stimulate researchers from different fields (computer vision, computer graphics, machine learning and human-computer interaction) who work on the common goal of 3D object retrieval, to present state-of-the-art work in the field and provide a cross-fertilization ground that stimulates discussions on the next steps in this important research area. Thanks to the outcomes of the EG 3DOR’08, a special issue of the International Journal of Computer Vision has been organized. Further details on the EG 3DOR’08 workshop can be found here.

After the great success in terms of response to the call and attendance, the EG workshop will be organized again in conjunction with EG’09. The workshop is intended to provide one full-day technical programme.

The EG 3DOR’09 will be run in-cooperation with ACM SIGGRAPH.