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Psychnology Journal (http://www.psychnology.org/)

CALL FOR PAPERS

SPECIAL ISSUE ON Mixed Realities in the Urban Environment

Urban mixed realities represent a growing and exciting area of research, 
which requires new ways of thinking about issues such as usability, 
place and presence. Urban situations are dynamic and can change rapidly, 
with a vast array of complex and exciting rhythms. They cover a whole 
spectrum of complex and chaotic happenings which span organisational and 
material configurations. These characteristics are both challenges and 
motivations for exploring mixed reality technology solutions, in 
particular with respect to finding methods to improve the ways in which 
participants can relate to the environment and to others. Mixed 
realities cover all situations in which digital objects are combined 
with physical features of the environment. Technologies include 
pervasive, ubiquitous, multimodal, and augmented reality solutions. 
Current projects explore and evaluate forms of interaction and presence 
in urban environments which use mixed reality technologies to improve or 
create new practices. This can be achieved in two ways: either by 
augmenting the engagement with others (including encounters, feelings, 
exchanges, co-experiences) or through augmenting the engagement with the 
environment (places, or things), which includes playing, understanding 
and interpreting the environment in new ways. We invite designers, 
technology developers, social scientists, psychologists and urbanists to 
submit a paper. Topic areas include but are not limited to:

- The role of the urban environment in shaping content and technologies
- Interaction issues within urban environments
- Frameworks and theories: place, presence, co-operative systems and 
cognition
- Technologies: from mobile phones to head-mounted displays
- Design and evaluation methodologies
- The role of art and performance in urban mixed realities
- Personal and societal issues related to the use and deployment of 
urban mixed reality systems
- Applications of urban mixed reality technologies: games, cultural 
heritage, emergency response training, pervasive games, social 
networking etc.

Case studies, applications, and theoretical contributions are all 
welcomed however they should all be focussed on mixed realities and the 
urban environment and be scientifically sound. The precise formatting 
guidelines and other relevant information for authors are available at 
http://www.psychnology.org/255.php. They should be sent in electronic 
form to both: articles(at)psychnology.org, and pnj(at)peachbase.org.

Manuscripts should have not been previously published nor be currently 
under consideration for publication elsewhere in the submitted form. All 
papers will be thoroughly reviewed in a double-blind process.

Important dates:
Submission Deadline 30th May 2008
Notification of Acceptance 20th June 2008
Final Copy due 15th July 2008

Guest Editors:
Rod McCall, Fraunhofer FIT, Germany
Giulio Jacucci, Helsinki Institute for Information Technology, Finland
Wolfgang Broll, Fraunhofer FIT, Germany

Dr Rod McCall is a research scientist at Fraunhofer FIT, Germany. He has 
been  studying and working in the field of mixed and virtual realities 
for over ten years and recently chaired the Urban Mixed Realities 
Workshop at CHI 2008. Current projects include IPCity and PEACH.

Dr Giulio Jacucci is a Senior Research Scientist and co-leads Ubiquitous 
Interaction, a research group at the Helsinki Institute for Information 
Technology, projects include interaction design and studies of mobile, 
mixed reality, and ubiquitous computing applications. Jacucci is docent 
at the University of Art and Design Helsinki and serves as a member of 
program and organizing committee of several conferences in the area of 
HCI and interface technologies.

Dr Wolfgang Broll is head of the Collaborative Virtual and Augmented 
Environments Department at Fraunhofer FIT, and a lecturer at RWTH 
Aachen. He holds a Diploma in Computer Science from the Darmstadt  
University of Technology and a PhD in Computer Science from the 
University of Tübingen. He has been undertaking research in the  area of 
Mixed Reality and 3D user interfaces since 1993.

*************************************************************************************************************** 

PNJ is a quadrimestral, international, peer-reviewed journal on the 
relationship between humans and technology. The term
'PsychNology' results from the merge of two words, Psychology and 
Technology, and has been chosen in order to emphasize the tight
relationship connecting the two concepts. PNJ is currently indexed 
within major scientific databases including PsycInfo and EBSCO;
it is an independent, electronic publication that grants a wide 
accessibility to its published papers.

-- 
Dr Rod McCall, Research Scientist
Collaborative, Virtual and Augmented Environments Department
Fraunhofer FIT, Sankt Augustin, Germany
http://fit.fraunhofer.de

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