Call for Expressions of Interest for book on “Everyday Virtual (+Augmented/Mixed) Reality”
Dear colleague,
If you attended this year’s online Workshop on Everyday Virtual Reality held at IEEE VR 2020, you might remember that we mentioned we were in talks with Springer about editing a book on Everyday Virtual (+Augmented and Mixed) Reality. Ideally such a book would collect more in-depth versions of research experiences related to the Workshop themes, and about the impact they might have had.
If you are interested in contributing, please get in touch with us by sending to everydayxr@gmail.com.
- A 0.5-1 page abstract with your proposal.
- References for up to 5 of your most relevant publications (or ongoing work).
We will consider your abstract for invitation to submit a full chapter (subject to peer review) into the edited book, once approved by Springer. The book will be edited by Adalberto L. Simeone (KU Leuven, Belgium), Benjamin Weyers (University of Trier, Germany), and Rob Lindeman (University of Canterbury, New Zealand)
More information about the workshop themes including the program and proceedings of past editions can be found at https://wevr.adalsimeone.me. Some potential themes of interest are listed in the following. For an overview of the book see below.
- 3D User Interfaces for XR in everyday settings
- Gameplay Design and Player Interaction in consumer XR
- Overcoming constraints of ordinary environments
- Tangible and haptics support to interaction
- Asymmetric collaboration in XR
- XR applications in everyday contexts
- XR home healthcare and education
- Long-term immersion in XR
BOOK OVERVIEW
This book on “Everyday Virtual Reality” represents the continuation of a series of concerted efforts began more than five years ago, when the first Workshop on Everyday Virtual Reality was held in Arles (France) at the IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality. The workshop aimed at raising awareness to the challenges present in domestic environments, which are markedly different from those affecting research laboratories and professional environments. In the meantime, an accompanying workshop in everyday VR/AR has been founded (VARECo) and takes place the 2nd time this year in conjunction with the Mensch und Computer conference, the central German conference on HCI.
The desire of seeing VR and AR technologies become more pervasive, efficient, and usable by the wider public has and continues to drive the efforts of the international research community in these areas. Supported by the commercialization of affordable consumer-grade VR and AR headsets, the potential public use has increased throughout the years. However, the body of existing scientific knowledge is still for the most part aimed at specialist use, who are typically not limited by the same constraints everyday users might be.
By recognising that the existing approaches which are known to work in a laboratory might not have the same effectiveness when used in a living room, we can stimulate the development of novel interaction techniques that are especially suited to support these usage scenarios, and foster a more nuanced understanding of how these technologies are used in a domestic context.
Some of the main challenges differentiating specialist (in-lab) use from everyday use revolve around the limitations in terms of space available, control over contextual factors in the environment of use, as well as the variety of users with different backgrounds and levels of knowledge. Specialist VR laboratories typically consist in large and empty rooms, whereas domestic environments such as a living room or an office are designed to have other and diverse purposes. In these scenarios, VR and AR needs to fit in around the existing constraints, rather than being used in locales built to support VR and AR. This poses challenges in terms of tracking as there might be large furniture that cannot be easily moved, thus either drastically decreasing the tracked area available or allowing for uneven tracking due to occlusion and the potential for collision with these obstacles not part of the VR experience. Solutions designed for use in specialist environments (e.g., redirected walking) must therefore be rethought for domestic use.
Another challenge is represented by the fact that interaction in domestic environments is constrained by the availability of commercial input devices. Most users will not possess the means to engineer custom devices or solutions, which is instead a typical avenue of research, by showcasing how creative custom-made solutions can address interaction challenges. In everyday VR and AR most users will be limited by the capabilities of the default controllers and other trackable devices. Additionally, requirements due to intrusiveness and ergonomics will be much stronger compared to in-lab scenarios. Further, these environments present also unique study opportunities, such as the interplay between immersed users and non-immersed users (e.g., friends, relatives, co-workers, or even pets).
After these five years, we believe the concept of “Everyday VR and AR” made its way in the research community, with more researchers focusing on the challenges of its everyday use than ever in the past. With this book we thus want to present an overview of the research field, by highlighting the main research directions currently pursued, presenting a comprehensive collection of research methods and concepts supporting established and new researchers in this research field and proposing a vision for the future.
—
Adalberto L. Simeone
Assistant Professor
Department of Computer Science
KU Leuven
Follow me on Twitter @Adal_LS
https://www.adalsimeone.me