Interacting with Presence: HCI and the sense of presence in computer-mediated environments
Editors:
Giuseppe Riva, John Waterworth, Dianne Murray
Introduction
Our experience of using and interacting with the newest computer information technologies is profoundly affected by the extent to which we feel ourselves to be really ‘present’ in the computer-mediated world that the technology makes available to us. This feeling, which is described as ‘Presence’, is the “feeling of being inside the mediated world”.
It is a crucial and increasingly necessary element in both design and usage of many recent and developing interactive technologies. In the same way that ‘feeling present’, or consciously ‘being there’, in the physical world around us is based upon perception, physical action and activity in that world, so the feeling of presence in a technologically-mediated environment is a function of the possibilities for interaction.
Unlike the physical world, the extent to which presence is experienced in an interactive context can be manipulated by design. For example, by linking the display of appropriate information directly to movements of the body of the interacting person, the illusion of flying, or swimming underwater, or walking in a wide variety or seemingly-real places – all actually generated by the technology.
Interacting with Presence provides an introduction and overview of the increasingly important topic of mediated presence or tele-presence – which is the compelling illusion of being physically located in a computer-generated or augmented world. This timely edited volume presents a range of theoretic perspectives and empirical evidence casting new light on understanding and designing for presence in interaction.
Because of its experiential impact on the user, presence is emerging as a key concept for understanding and predicting developments in diverse areas such as interactive entertainment, gaming, psychotherapy, education, scientific visualization, sports training and rehabilitation, and many more.
Target audience
The book will be aimed at researchers and graduate/post-graduate students in human computer interaction, cognitive science, psychology and computer science, as well as at experienced professionals from ICT industry. It will fill a gap in the academic market by providing a comprehensive overview of the emerging field of presence research, featuring contributions from internationally renowned scholars in the field.
Submission procedure
Authors are invited to submit a 250-word abstract explaining the content of their proposed chapter by July 30, 2013. Full chapters are expected to be submitted by October 31, 2013. All submitted chapters will be reviewed on a double-blind review basis (contributors may also be requested to serve as reviewers for this project).
Publisher
This book is scheduled to be published by VERSITA in open access model. In this model, the book is available online to all interested readers, who do not have to pay for accessing its contents. No publication fees will be charged to the authors. For information about the publisher, please visit www.versita.com
Important dates:
30 July, 2013: Abstract submission deadline
31 October, 2013: Full chapter submission
15 December, 2013: Review results returned
30 January, 2014: Final chapter submission
Inquiries and submissions
Inquiries and submissions can be forwarded electronically or by mail to:
Giuseppe Riva: giuseppe (dot) riva (at) unicatt (dot) it
John Waterworth: jwwort (at) informatik (dot) umu (dot) se
Dianne Murray: Dianne (dot) Murray (at) blueyonder (dot) co (dot) uk