Call for Submissions:
EICS-MIXER: The Challenges of Engineering Mixed Reality Systems: A Bottom-Up Workshop
To be held the *20th of June 2010
as a workshop of the EICS 2010 conference – BERLIN
Organizers: Emmanuel Dubois, Philip D. Gray, Laurence Nigay
Contact: mixer@irit.fr
Web site: http://ihcs.irit.fr/dubois/Research/Events/EICS_Mixer/EICS_Mixer.htm
THEME, GOALS, AND RELEVANCE
Currently one of the most challenging aspects of interactive systems is the integration of the physical and digital aspects of interaction in a smooth and usable way. The design challenge of such Mixed Reality (MR) interactive systems lies in the fluid and harmonious fusion of the physical and digital worlds. Examples of MR interactive systems include tangible user interfaces (TUI), augmented reality (AR), augmented virtuality (AV), Reality Based Interaction (RBI), and embodied interfaces. The diversity of terms highlights the ever growing interest in MR systems. The MR domain represents a very active interdisciplinary research area which has expanded rapidly, since the seminal Digital Desk 3. Significant achievements have been made in terms of both real MR systems for various application domains (medical, military, game, production, museum) and conceptual/software tools for their design (taxonomies, notational support and models). However, models and notations are hard to evaluate and hard to compare. Indeed, most of the design models and notations proposed in the MIS domain are used by a very limited set of people, mainly limited to their creators.
In this very dynamic context, the objective of this workshop is to bring together researchers, designers and practitioners with a clear interest in conceptual and software tools for the design, development and evaluation of MR systems in order to contribute to a vivid discussion leading to a framework for organizing and comparing the various existing design approaches. For structuring the discussion and being able to compare the existing design approaches and highlight their complementarities based on their identified strengths and limitations, we adopt a bottom-up approach by focusing on a set of case studies (i.e., existing MR interactive systems) that represents the diversity of existing MR systems. Participants will be invited to apply existing design approaches for designing those selected MR systems. The comparison of the resulting design will serve as the basis for elaborating a framework for organizing/comparing the existing design approaches. Such a framework will be structured along a set of design elements and metrics for characterizing the design approaches. During this workshop, participants will break into subgroups. Each subgroup will be invited to make use of one existing design resources (models, notations, etc.) for MIS in order to address several representative and realistic mixed reality development challenges based on case-studies. Design resources and case studies will be selected by the organizers amongst the ones proposed by participants in their workshop submission. Following this practice session, subgroups will present the results of the modelling of each case-study to the rest of the workshop, including a critical assessment of the strengths and limitations of the method, model, technique or tool. It will lead to comparisons and discussions of the results of the modelling exercises. Finally, it is intended that the workshop will identify comparison framework, that is, a set of descriptors, model element and metrics for characterizing MIS design resources (models, tools, notation, etc.).
SUBMISSION FORMATS
In this workshop our goal is to bring together researchers, designers and practitioners with an interest in conceptual and software tools for the design, implementation and evaluation of MR systems. Participants are invited to submit a position paper. There are three ways of participating in this workshop:
— Proposing a design resource:
Such participants offer to consider a / their design resource for MIS as one the potential design resources used during the workshop. The design resources overview should (1) present the basic elements of the model, notation, tool or technique, (2) state the benefits of its use when designing a MIS, (3) express the kind of application / considerations that can be and cannot be modelled with it. These “Primary” participants must commit to be in charge of a subgroup of participants with whom the “Primary” participant will use his/her design resource to model or develop the selected case studies. These workshop submissions should be 2 to 4 pages, and should follow the SIGCHI publication format: http://www.sigchi.org/chipubform. It must be sent to mixer@irit.fr by the 2nd of April 2010
— Proposing a case study:
such participants present a particular mixed reality system and its design challenges. Such a paper could state (i) the overall task(s) and context of use supported by the system, (ii) the main functionalities of the system, (iii) constraints linked to its use, (iv) an overall profile of the targeted users and (v) method by which the case study results might be evaluated. They will be involved during the workshop in the use of existing design resources in the context of predefined scenarios. They will be taught how to use one of the existing design resources for MIS and raise questions about its use. These workshop position papers should be 1 to 2 pages, and should follow the SIGCHI publication format: http://www.sigchi.org/chipubform. It must be sent to mixer@irit.fr by the 2nd of April 2010
— Expressing a prospective view:
such participants are invited to express design challenges of mixed reality systems that current or future conceptual and software design tools should address. They will be involved during the workshop in the use of existing design resources in the context of predefined scenarios. They will be taught how to use one of the existing design resources for MIS and raise questions about its use. These workshop position papers should be 1 to 2 pages, and should follow the SIGCHI publication format: http://www.sigchi.org/chipubform. It must be sent to mixer@irit.fr by the 2nd of April 2010
IMPORTANT DATES
Submissions — Design resources: the 2nd of April 2010 – Case studies and prospective: the 2nd of April 2010
Notification of Acceptance
— Design resources: 9th of April 2010
— Case studies and prospective: 9th of April 2010
— Final version of models presentation and case studies : 7th of June (long in advance in order to allow some time to the primary participants to prepare the modelling of the different case-studies)
ADDITIONAL REFERENCES
1-“MIXER: Exploring the Design and Engineering of Mixed Reality Systems”, Dubois, E., Gray, P., Trevisan, D., Vanderdonckt, J., Workshop of the CADUI’04 conference, Proceedings available at: http://ceur-ws.org/Vol-91/, (2004).
2-“The Engineering of Mixed Reality Systems”, Dubois, Emmanuel; Gray, Philip; Nigay, Laurence (Eds.), Human-Computer Interaction Series, Vol. 15, (2010), 450 p.
3-Wellner, P., 1993. Interacting with paper on the DigitalDesk, Communications of the ACM, 36, 7 (July 1993), 87-96.