CALL FOR PAPERS
International Journal of Human-Computer Studies
                                                  
Special Issue on
User Centered Design and Implementation of Virtual Environments
                                                  
Guest Editors:
Michael Harrison and Shamus Smith, University of York, UK

(The call is also available at
 http://www.cs.york.ac.uk/~shamus/specialissue.html)

Much of the work concerned with virtual environments (VEs)
has addressed the development of new rendering technologies
or interaction techniques. As VE technology matures and becomes
adopted in a wider range of applications there is, however, a
need to better understand how this technology can be accommodated
in software engineering practice.

This process is being enabled in part by the development of "generic"
virtual environment toolkits such as dVise and SuperScape. It is
difficult to find reports that detail the process used to develop
virtual environments, but given the maturity of the technology it
would seem reasonable to suggest that prototyping and exploratory
development play a significant role. However, if or when the
technology of virtual environments becomes adopted in mainstream
software systems and products, exploratory approaches become rather
less attractive. Software developers must be concerned with making
use of the most appropriate technology in a way that meets the
requirements of the client, including quality criteria such as
usability, robustness, maintainability, error-tolerance, etc.

Our concern is not so much with the physical devices such as headsets
and data gloves that have come to characterise VEs, but rather with
addressing the highly interactive and dynamic nature of user-system
interaction that this technology supports.

The aim of this special issue is to bring together ideas and
innovations describing techniques that will help virtual environment
application designers construct solutions that are appropriate to
users' tasks and requirements, irrespective of whether they use
high-end immersive technology or PC-based VE systems.

The degree of interest in this area was highlighted by the level of
interest shown in a recent workshop held in York.
(http://www.cs.york.ac.uk/~shamus/ve-call.html)

Submissions are sought in areas including (but not limited to):

* modelling and design of virtual environments
* toolkit design for effective interaction
* problems and issues involved in moving from virtual environment
  design to implementation
* approaches taken, and proposals for future research

Authors are encouraged to contact guest editors to discuss the
suitability of their topics to the special issue.

Important Dates
---------------

January 14, 2000 Full papers due
March 1, 2000 Notification of acceptance
May 1, 2000 Final revisions due

Perspective authors are encouraged to email guest editors to
express their intention to submit a paper for this special issue.

Submission
----------

Papers should be submitted in the IJHCS format, and will be reviewed
by a review panel according to the usual standards of IJHCS. Authors
of submitted papers may be invited to take part in the review process.

Details of the IJHCS format can be found in the journal, and are
available from http://www.academicpress.com/ijhcs. Authors should
submit six hard copies of their paper, or an electronic copy
(preferably in RTF, Postscript or PDF formats) by email, with full
contact details, to the address below.

Shamus Smith
IJHCS Special Issue
Department of Computer Science
University of York
York, YO10 5DD, UK.

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--
Dr Shamus Smith Department of Computer Science
                                   The University of York
fax: +44 1904 432 767 Heslington, York, YO10 5DD
tel: +44 1904 433 376 United Kingdom

email: [log in to unmask]
www: http://www.cs.york.ac.uk/~shamus/index.html



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