~~~~~~~ BRITISH HCI GROUP NEWS SERVICE ~~~~~~~~~~~
~~         http://www.bcs-hci.org.uk/           ~~
~~ All news to: [log in to unmask]  ~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~ NOTE: Please reply to article's originator,  ~~
~~ not the News Service                         ~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

CALL FOR PARTICIPATION
Designing and Evaluating Virtual Reality Systems
WORKSHOP 22-23 January 2004, University of Nottingham, UK.

In the past decade Virtual Reality technology development and evaluation
have made substantial progress. The special characteristics and needs of
Virtual Environments (VEs), such as the 3D nature and related demands on
interaction devices, the high expectations of the intuitiveness of the VE
interaction paradigm, the freedom-to-roam inside VEs, the walk-up-and-use
scenario for VR setups, the needed support and evaluation of collaboration
between users, both inside and outside the VE, the scalability issues for
large-scale networked VEs, being able to do new things in VR that were not
possible until now, VR-induced sickness and other side- and after- effects,
etc., have demanded new approaches, a rethink and sometimes redesign of HCI
and CSCW methods. Because of the many technological, psychological, and
interaction aspects to be considered there is still no complete
understanding, or a complete guidelines-document for the design and
evaluation of VEs. However, the process of designing and evaluating VEs is
much better understood these days. 

In January 2004, we will be holding a two-day workshop with the aim of
bringing together multi disciplinary VE researchers and developers from
academia and industry, to exchange ideas and further the definition and
specification of guidelines for VE design and evaluation. The two days will
contain a combination of invited speakers, panel sessions and facilitated,
topic-based small group discussions. All participants will be encouraged to
present their work through poster presentations, accompanied by short papers
to be included in the workshop proceedings. The expected outcomes of the
workshop are the workshop proceedings, a detailed description of 'best
practice' for the development and evaluation of VEs, practical examples from
the work of the workshop participants, a summary of insights generated from
the workshop discussions, including a list of typical problems and solutions
for interdisciplinary collaboration, design and evaluation for VR systems.
All workshop participants are invited to contribute to a special issue of
Presence, which will be produced from selected articles from the workshop
proceedings and the outcomes of the workshop discussions.

The workshop will take place in the Mixed Reality Laboratory of the
University of Nottingham, on the new Jubilee Campus, Nottingham, situated in
the heart of the United Kingdom. The nearest airport is East Midlands. It
takes about 30 minutes by taxi (taxi fair about £20) to get to the
University. Alternatively, there is a direct train service from London
(train ticket about £40), which gets into Nottingham in just under 2 hours,
with a ten minute taxi journey (taxi fair about £5) to the University.
Further travel details and hotel information below.

The workshop will cost £150. 


Submission Guidelines:

Submission of 4-page extended abstracts: 22nd of September 2003.
Please note: The abstract should be rendered anonymous; author names and
contact details should be listed in the accompanying email text only.

Notification of acceptance: 28th of November 2003.

Submission of final papers and posters: 23rd of December 2003.

Poster presentations and group discussions at workshop: 22-23rd of January
2004.

Submit to: [log in to unmask]


After the Workshop:

Deadlines for Special Issue of Journal 'Presence, Teleoperators and Virtual
Environments': 

Revised and extended journal paper submissions: 23rd of April 2004.

Notification of acceptance: 23rd of July 2004 (approximately).

Final rewrites of accepted papers: 23rd of September 2004.

Publication of special issue: February 2005 (earliest).


Workshop Organizers:

Sue Cobb, VIRART, University of Nottingham, United Kingdom.
Mirabelle D'Cruz, VIRART, University of Nottingham, United Kingdom.
Richard Eastgate, VIRART, University of Nottingham, United Kingdom.
Sarah Nichols, VIRART, University of Nottingham, United Kingdom.
Jolanda Tromp, VIRART, University of Nottingham, United Kingdom.

Virtual Reality Applications Research Team (VIRART),
Institute of Occupational Ergonomics (IOE),
School of Mechanical, Materials, Manufacturing Engineering, and Management,
University Park, Nottingham, United Kingdom.


Programme Committee:

Angelos Amditis, National technical University of Athens, Greece.
Roy Allison, York University, Canada.
Elizabeth Churchill, FX Palo Alto Laboratory, United States.
Mirabelle D'Cruz, University of Nottingham, United Kingdom.
Wijnand IJsselsteijn, Technical University Eindhoven, The Netherlands.
Kai-Mikael Jää-Aro, Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden.
Hilko Hofman, Frauenhofer Institute for Industrial Engineering, Germany.
Elsebeth Korsgaard Sorensen, Aalborg University, Denmark.
Sarah Nichols, University of Nottingham, United Kingdom.
Igor Pandzic, University of Zagreb, Croatia. 
Steve Pettifer, University of Manchester, United Kingdom.
Roy Ruddle, University of Leeds, United Kingdom.
Damian Schofield, University of Nottingham, United kingdom. 
Ralph Schroeder, Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden. 
Kay Stanney, University of Central Florida, United States. 
Oliver Stefani, Frauenhofer Institute for Industrial Engineering, Germany.
Anthony Steed, University College London, United Kingdom.
Shamus Smith, University of York, United Kingdom.
John Wilson, University of Nottingham, United Kingdom.
Jolanda Tromp, VIRART, University of Nottingham, United Kingdom.


Workshop Sponsors:

Part-sponsored by 'Virtual Environments for Workplaces of the Future' 
(VIEW of the Future, EU Funded -project No. IST-2000-26089) 
http://www.iao.fhg.de/


Useful Links:

International Travel Directions and Hotel Information:
http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/international/prospective/travel.phtml

How to get to the Workshop Venue:
http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/campuses/jubilee/directions.phtml?menu=direction
s·=directions

The UK train online bookings: 
http://www.thetrainline.com

Virtual Reality Applications Research Team, (VIRART), Main Campus,
University of Nottingham: Homepages.
http://www.virart.nottingham.ac.uk

Mixed Realities Laboratory (MRL), Jubilee Campus, University of Nottingham:
Homepages.
http://www.mrl.nott.ac.uk

Jubilee Campus: (Description of the buildings and grounds by the
architects.)
http://www.archleague.org/tenshadesofgreen/university.html


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~ To receive HCI news, send the message:       ~~
~~ "JOIN BCS-HCI your_firstname your_lastname"  ~~
~~ to [log in to unmask]                 ~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 
~~ Newsarchives:                                ~~
~~ http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/bcs-hci.html ~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~ To join the British HCI Group, contact       ~~
~~ [log in to unmask]                               ~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~