Call for Long/Short Papers, Abstracts, Demos and Posters

2nd Workshop on INTERFACE AND EXPERIENCE DESIGN WITH ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE FOR VR/AR (DAIVAR)
In conjunction with the IEEE Artificial Intelligence Virtual Reality (AIVR) Conference
10th-12th December 2018
Taichung, Taiwan
http://www.artur-lugmayr.com/activities/current-activities/daivar2018/

• Workshop proceedings published in an Scopus indexed proceedings series
• Best papers will be published as edited book, or journal special issue

Submission Deadline: 14th October 2018

Submission System:
http://www.ambientmediaassociation.org/Submissions/2018DAIVAR/

The objective of this workshop is to invite scholars and practitioners to discuss synergies between interface and experience design in artificial intelligent reality virtual and augmented environments. The aim is to gather a cross-disciplinary team of contributors researching HCI related issues contributing to this fascinating newly emerging domain. We especially seek contributions from experts with a background in computer science, HCI, psychology/cognitive sciences, culture/communication studies, design and art to develop this fascinating intersection. Aspects can range from user-experience, technologies supporting end-users, practical applications, methods, content production, cultural implications, communication theories, up to more artistic approaches in artificial intelligent interaction.

While AI’s main aim is to replicate human intelligence, AR and VR focuses its research efforts on the creation of artificial worlds either in complete virtual world, or as part of our physical environment. Many examples that bridge the two fields have emerged recently, e.g. intelligence in digital games and the utilization of computer graphics hardware for deep learning and AI. Philosophical discussions around issues arising in this new area range from ideas when things start to think to Alan Turing’s work. In this workshop, we would like to raise a question: what would happen when artificial worlds start to think, and how we humans can interact and communicate with AI through e.g. affective interfaces? Thus, while AI and VR/AR went rather distinct research pathways, we attempt to bring them together, and discuss different aspects at the intersection of machine intelligence and human interaction in a mixed reality.

The workshop intends to attract a broad range of contributions to develop this scholarly field during a full day venue. As the emphasis is on creating the synergy between VR/AR and AI/ML, we are not limited to particular areas; instead, the following exemplary topics might help to gather ideas for a possible contribution: affective and emotional computation, communication with AI, digital game analytics, utilization of computer graphics hardware for deep learning, personalization and recommender systems, UX with agents and physical robots, cultural robotics, or AI in information visualization.

The workshop program stretches over a full-day, and will contain a combination of invited keynote presentations, oral presentations, posters, and demonstrations.

The workshop proceedings will be published in a Scopus indexed proceedings series, and the very best contribution will be published in an edited book from a highly reputable publisher which has been pre-arranged. Depending on the quality and amount of contributions, we are also considering to publish a journal special issue within an indexed publisher.

TOPICS OF INTEREST (BUT NOT LIMITED TO) Read more on Call: 2nd Workshop on Interface and Experience Design with Artificial Intelligence for VR/AR (DAIVAR 2018)…

CALL FOR PAPERS

ECSCW 2019 – The 17^th European Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work
Salzburg (Austria)
8-12 June 2019
https://ecscw.eusset.eu/2019/

Paper submission deadline: October 26, 2018

ECSCW is a single-track conference that contributes to developing an interdisciplinary and global community, sponsored by EUSSET, the European Society for Socially Embedded Technologies. The conference format facilitates critical discussion across disciplinary and national borders in the field. An overview of earlier ECSCW conferences (and proceedings) is available at http://www.ecscw.org.

Submitted papers documenting original, rich, and in-depth contributions to CSCW will follow a journal-level review process. Accepted submissions will be published in Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW): The Journal of Collaborative Computing and Work Practices, a journal with a high impact factor of 1.784.

Upon acceptance of the paper for the journal, authors are requested to present their work at the conference.

Authors are invited to submit papers to ECSCW 2019 that help further the field of computer-supported, cooperative work, addressing themes that include, but are not limited to:

• Empirical investigations of collaborative practices. Findings, guidelines, and/or studies related to communication, collaboration, and social technologies, practices, or use.
• System design. How can we support cooperative work in increasingly complex, networked settings? Hardware, architectures, infrastructures, interaction design, technical foundations, algorithms, and/or toolkits that enable the building of new social and collaborative systems and experiences.
• Methodologies and tools. Methods for investigating human practices: the nature of ethnography and the role of other innovative methods and tools in building systems or studying their use.
• Theories. Critical analysis or theory with clear relevance to study or design of collaborative settings and systems.
• Domain-specific social and collaborative applications. Including applications to digital civics, grassroots movements, healthcare, transportation, ICT4D, sustainability, education, accessibility, global collaboration, or other domains.
• Ethics and policy implications. Analysis of the implications of socio-technical systems, the values that inform them, and the algorithms that shape them.
• Crossing boundaries. Studies, prototypes, or other investigations that explore interactions across disciplines, distance, languages, generations, and cultures, to help better understand how to transcend social, temporal, and/or spatial boundaries.
• Design fictions. Discussions and extrapolations of work-practices and technologies, which make a contribution to the core topics of ECSCW. For examples of design fictions from other conferences, please see Proceedings of GROUP 2016 and GROUP 2018 in the ACM Digital Library.

Read more on Call: 17th European Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work (ECSCW 2019)…

CALL FOR PAPERS

GOODTECHS 18
4th EAI International Conference on
Smart Objects and Technologies for Social Good
Special Session on Serious Games to Improve Quality of Life
Bologna, Italy
28 – 30 November 2018
http://goodtechs.eu/

Extended submission deadline: 3rd September 2018

Gamification techniques and serious games are often used to capture and maintain user’s attention. This is particularly important when dealing with young patients or people with special needs. Patient’s collaboration is crucial for doctors to perform a good diagnosis, and to provide an efficient therapy, but it cannot always be taken for granted. Moreover, serious games are proved to be an efficient tool to incentivize people to improve their lifestyle, e.g., making more physical activity. This track will feature new insights, research, and practice on how to design, develop and use gamification and persuasive technologies to create serious games and applications to improve individuals’ Quality of Life (QoL) and behavior, with a particular focus on people with disabilities.

The track targets researchers, doctoral students, practitioners and other people interested in presenting, discussing, reflecting and networking on central themes associated with the development and use of serious games and applications to help people with special needs. Papers on both theoretical aspects and design method of gamification techniques and serious games are welcomed, which describe and evaluate novel design methods and system prototypes. In addition, the track welcomes full research and work in progress papers and educational cases.

GOODTECHS 18 will be held in Bologna, Italy, from the 28th to 30th of November 2018.

TOPICS

Suggested topics include (but are not limited to):

• Serious game design for better lifestyle promotion
• Serious games for people with disability
• Games for Education and Learning
• Gamification
• Pervasive Systems
• Assistive Technologies
• Persuasive solutions
• Methods, models and principles for gamification design
• Usability and accessibility issues
• Games for Health and Well-Being
• Serious Games for social inclusion

Read more on Call: GOODTECHS 18 Special Session on Serious Games to Improve Quality of Life…

CALL FOR PAPERS

The Journal Scientia et Fides (ISSN: 2300-7648; E-ISSN: 2353-5636)
Special Issue on Transhumanism, edited by Leandro M. Gaitán (Universidad de Navarra)

Submission deadline: March 1, 2019

During the last two decades, the transhumanist metanarrative has been generating a lot of controversy, both in academic circles and in public opinion. Its proposal of a radical transformation and even of overcoming the human condition by technological means, entails a diversity of both theoretical and practical problems. From the theoretical perspective, some problems are the potential advantages and risks of transhumanism, personal identity, new alterities (robots, cyborgs, etc.), equality and social justice in a posthuman future, human/posthuman evolution, nature and nurture in transhumanism, history of transhumanism, literature and transhumanism, death and immortality, religion and transhumanism, and the meaning of life in a posthuman world. From the practical perspective, some problems are hybridization human-machine, ethics of physical, cognitive, and moral enhancement, defense/security, AI and enhancement, sports and enhancement, and cryonics and mind uploading. The great interest aroused by transhumanism can be observed in the growing number of publications, conferences and workshops that have been dedicated to it. Following this line, Scientia et Fides welcomes submissions of articles concerning (but not limited to) the abovementioned topics.

Read more on Call: Transhumanism – Special issue of the Journal Scientia et Fides…

Call for Proposals
Special issue of Journal of Virtual Worlds Research
https://www.jvwresearch.org/index.php/component/content/article/10-cfps/92-cfp-pedagogy

Abstract submission deadline: August 20, with publication Q4-2018

Pedagogy in Virtual Worlds – Ten Year Perspective will be a special issue on pedagogy and learning in immersive environments to be led by guest editor Dr. Kenneth Y T Lim, from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

MOTIVATION AND SCOPE

2019 marks the tenth anniversary of a landmark issue of the Journal of Virtual Worlds Research, which was themed on ‘Pedagogy.’ Volume 2 Number 1 of the journal was the fruition of a vision of the late Leslie Jarmon. Dr. Jarmon was a pioneer academic in the use of virtual worlds and immersive environments for learning, and the issue at the time (2009) – was the cutting edge of academic thought on what the affordances of virtual worlds are, and how they could be leveraged for learning.

Much has changed since the heady days of the late 2000s, yet many aspects have proved enduring.

This issue aims to document both the present and emerging state-of-the-art, covering the adoption, design, enaction, scaling and translation of immersive and/or mixed-reality environments for learning, and in other contexts of education.

Topics that would be of relevance to this issue include, but are not limited to:

• The use of virtual worlds and / or immersive environments for learning
• Mixed-modality / mixed-reality learning environments
• Augmented reality in contexts of education
• Virtual reality in contexts of training and / or instruction
• Emerging research / late-breaking research on such environments with respect to learning
• Think-pieces on the future of virtual worlds / mixed-reality environments for learning
• The scaling of such interventions and their translation in to different contexts of learning

SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS Read more on Call: Pedagogy in Virtual Worlds – Ten Year Perspective issue of Journal of Virtual Worlds Research…

Call for Symposia, Workshops and Tutorials

Society for the Study of Artificial Intelligence and Simulation for Behaviour
AISB 2019: Artificial Intelligence, Imagination and Invention – A[I]3
April 16th to April 18th 2019
Falmouth, Cornwall, UK
http://aisb2019.falmouthgamesacademy.com/

Deadline: 1st of October 2018

Contact: aisb2019@easychair.org

Dear Colleagues,

We are hosting the AISB annual convention in Falmouth, UK and are looking for people/groups interested in organising symposia, workshops or tutorials as part of one of the oldest running AI conventions.

The Society for the Study of Artificial Intelligence and Simulation for Behaviour (AISB) is soliciting proposals for symposia, workshops and tutorials to be held at the AISB 2019 convention.

The longest running convention on Artificial Intelligence, AISB 2019 will be held at the Falmouth University, chaired by Tanya Krzywinska, Rob Saunders, Swen Gaudl and Edward Powley. As in the past years, AISB 2019 will provide a unique forum for presenting cutting-edge research and burning issues around all areas of AI. The theme for this year is “Artificial Intelligence, Imagination and Invention”. Read more on Call: AISB 2019: Artificial Intelligence, Imagination and Invention…

Call for Papers
Press Start special issue on Walking Simulators

Abstract/bio submission deadline: 17th September 2018

Press Start is pleased to announce an upcoming special issue of the journal (with guest editors Esther Wright and Emily Marlow), for which we invite submissions relating to the theme of ‘Walking Simulators’.

Approaches are welcomed from scholars and developers alike, tackling Walking Simulators from a variety of approaches. Broad themes to be addressed may include (but are by no means limited to):

• Definitions and explorations
• Critical reviews of individual titles
• Storytelling in Walking Simulators
• Queer approaches to making/studying
• Promotion and Marketing
• Games criticism, gate-keeping, and boundary breaking
• Representations of space, place and/or material culture
• Representations of history in Walking Simulators
• Player reception
• Practice-based approaches to game-making
• Platforms and technology

Read more on Call: Press Start special issue on Walking Simulators…

Call for Papers

DiGRA Nordic 2018
“Subversion, Transgression, and Controversy in Play”
University of Bergen, Norway
November 28-30, 2018
https://digranordic2018.w.uib.no

Submission deadline: August 26, 2018

Video games have a reputation of being rebellious, often being the target of controversies and criticism for their inclusion of excessive and speculative content, as well as for the opportunities for players to engage in subversive practices. Today video games are no longer a subcultural medium, but are addressing the mainstream as well as diverse subcultures. Also, analogue genres such as board games and role-playing games are becoming more visible for a broader audience. As games mature as a medium, there is also a growing expectation that games should be able to tackle difficult content in a meaningful way, for instance by provoking the player into reflecting upon what they have just encountered, what it means and how they feel about it in the context of play. In this conference, we are focusing on subversive play practices, the engagement with controversial topics, and the debate about games and the freedom of expression.

This call has focus on subversion, transgression, and controversy in games and play but also invites submissions on a range of topics relating to research on both digital and analogue games, including, but not limited to the following:

• Game cultures
• Player studies
• Minority gamers
• Gender and gaming
• Games and freedom of expression
• Games and representation
• Game content
• Research methods
• Game controversies
• Subversive gameplay practices
• Game design
• Game journalism
• Game production and industry studies

SUBMISSIONS AND REVIEW PROCESS: Read more on Call: DiGRA Nordic 2018 – “Subversion, Transgression, and Controversy in Play”…

Call for Papers

“Bodies of Design: Somaesthetics Perspectives on Technology”
January 24-25, 2019
Boca Raton, Florida

Abstract submission deadline: October 31, 2018

The Center for Body, Mind, and Culture of Florida Atlantic University invites paper proposals for a conference on “Bodies of Design: Somaesthetics Perspectives on Technology” that will be held January 24-25, 2019 at FAU’s Boca Raton campus. The conference’s call for papers is as follows:

Read more on Call: “Bodies of Design: Somaesthetics Perspectives on Technology” Conference…

Call for Papers

The International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies for Ageing Well and e-Health (ICT4AWE)
Heraklion, Crete – Greece
May 2-4, 2019
http://www.ict4ageingwell.org

ICT4AWE is sponsored by INSTICC – Institute for Systems and Technologies of Information, Control and Communication

Paper Submission: December 10, 2018

SCOPE

The International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies for Ageing Well and e-Health aims to be a meeting point for those that study age- and health-related quality of life and apply information and communication technologies for helping people stay healthier, more independent and active at work or in their community. ICT4AWE facilitates the exchange of information and dissemination of best practices, innovation and technical improvements in the fields of age and health care, education, psychology, social coordination and ambient assisted living. From e-Health to intelligent systems, and ICT devices, the conference is a vibrant discussion and collaboration platform for all those that work in research and development and in companies involved in promoting the quality of life and well-being of people, by providing room for research and industrial presentations, demos and project descriptions.

CONFERENCE AREAS

Each of these topic areas is expanded below but the sub-topics list is not exhaustive. Papers may address one or more of the listed sub-topics, although authors should not feel limited by them. Unlisted but related sub-topics are also acceptable, provided they fit in one of the following main topic areas:

1. AMBIENT ASSISTED LIVING
2. INDEPENDENT LIVING
3. MONITORING, ACCESSIBILITY AND HCI
4. TELEMEDICINE AND E-HEALTH

Read more on Call: The International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies for Ageing Well and e-Health (ICT4AWE)…