[Infovis] Ambient Information Systems @ Ubicomp2008

William R. Hazlewood whazlewo at indiana.edu
Mon May 19 21:57:11 CEST 2008


===================================================
CFP: Workshop: Ambient Information Systems (AIS2008)

http://ambientinformation.org/

At Ubicomp 2008 (http://ubicomp.org/ubicomp2008/)
Sunday, September 21, 2008, COEX, Seoul, South Korea

Short work-in-progress papers (up to 4 pages), Long papers (up to 10 pages)
Demonstrators, designs, and artwork

Submissions due: Jun 27th 2008 by 11:59pm PST
===================================================


   OVERVIEW

Ambient Information Systems describe a large set of applications that
publish information in a highly non-intrusive manner, following on from
Mark Weiser's concept of calm technology. This form of information
delivery has manifested in several different implementations, but the
overall theme revolves around how best to embed information into our
surroundings.

Building on the success of our last workshop at Pervasive 2007, we will
bring together researchers working in the areas of ambient displays,
peripheral displays, slow technology, glanceable displays, and calm
technology, to discuss and collaborate on developing new design
approaches for creating ambient information systems. We are calling for
paper submissions describing early-stage and mature research on Ambient
Information Systems and for demonstrators across the spectrum from
technology to art and design.


   MOTIVATION

The current research in pervasive and ubiquitous computing suggests a
future in which we are surrounded by innumerable information sources,
all competing for our attention. These information sources may manifest
as both novel devices and as devices embedded in common objects, such as
refrigerators, automobiles, toys, furniture, clothes, and even our own
bodies.

While this vision of the future has prompted great advancements in
context-aware computing, wireless connectivity, multi-sensor platforms,
smart materials, and location-tracking technologies, there is a concern
that this proliferation of technology will increasingly overwhelm us
with information. Our belief is that information should move seamlessly
between the periphery and the center of one's attention, and that good
technology is highly transparent. We see ambient information systems as
a way to support these ideas.

Some work has already been done to explore the value ambient information
systems (e.g., AmbientDevices' Stock Orb, Koert van Mensvoort's
Datafountain, Jafarinami et al.'s Breakaway, Mynatt et al.'s Audio Aura
and Digital Family Portrait, and Mankoff et al.'s Daylight Display and
BusMobile). However, ambient information systems research is fragmented,
and suffering from a lack of consensus on terminology, methodology,
plausibility, and general agreement on how to think about such
technologies. We see this workshop as an opportunity for invited
participants to explore and discuss such issues.


   OBJECTIVE

The workshop will be used as an opportunity to work as a group to
identify problems in the design, development, and evaluation of AIS and
to derive fundamental challenges of AIS research. Attendees should
develop a deeper understanding of the challenges that need to be
addressed and some potential solutions to the problems that have been
encountered by others. The group discussions throughout the workshop
will also be used to encourage new collaborations within the community.

We will publish the accepted submissions and slides on the workshop's
website upon receiving consent from the authors. The publication of
submissions to the website will not be considered official publications
and therefore will not prohibit attendees from developing their work
further and publishing it elsewhere. This will be made clear on the
website and on the online proceedings. After the workshop, the
organizers will contact relevant journals with the goal of producing a
special issue on ambient information systems containing extended
versions of the best papers from this workshop. The organizers will also
put together a document outlining the grand challenges for the field of
ambient information systems with a view to publishing either in the
special issue or as a stand-alone journal publication.


   WORKSHOP TOPICS

The workshop topics are for the most part listed as a set of questions:

   * How are ambient information systems distinct from other
     information technologies?
   * What are examples of useful heuristics, frameworks, taxonomies, or
     design principles for the implementation of ambient information?
   * Should Ambient Information Systems move beyond the traditional
     scope of vision; is there merit in Ambient Noise, Ambient Smells,
     Tactile Ambience, and Ambient Taste?
   * How much ambient information can one perceive and comprehend?
   * What, if any, are the appropriate interaction methods for these
     information devices?
   * Where should ambient systems be placed to improve their chances of
     being used, without becoming distracting or annoying?
   * What sorts of information are best conveyed by an ambient display?
   * What are the appropriate methods for evaluating ambient
     information systems, particularly those that are not necessarily
     task-based?
   * How do we describe the values of these particular technologies in
     our everyday lives?
   * How can we make use of existing technologies? (e.g. smart
     materials, wearable systems, etc.)
   * What knowledge from other domains should we apply such systems?
     (e.g. art, cognitive science, design, psychology, sociology)

We are also particularly interested to hear about ambient information
systems in the following areas:

   * Resource Consumption, e.g., power, heat, water, food, and for
     shared or personal resources)
   * Work and workload "progress" (eg., explicitly or implicitly
     gathered data, or those based on a workflow)

If you have any topics you'd like to suggest please comment on the
topics list on the website: http://ambientinformation.org/topics/


   WORKSHOP FORMAT

The workshop format will consist of a short presentation by each
participant, which should conclude with a problem statement describing a
possible grand challenge for research on ambient information systems.
These problem statements will be ordered, and the participants will
decide which are most relevant to future research on ambient information
systems. We will then break out into groups and discuss strategies for
addressing the selected topics.


   SUBMISSIONS

We invite submissions including descriptions of works in progress,
research contributions, position statements, demonstrations, demos, and
vision papers. We are looking for a wide range of submissions this year.
Papers should be whatever length is most appropriate for the presented
idea, but we ask that it be no longer than 10 pages in the ACM SIGCHI
Proceedings format (http://www.sigchi.org/chipubform/). Each submission
must conclude with a specific question regarding issues faced conducting
research in this domain.

Please send you submission in PDF format to:
submissions at ambientinformation.org <mailto:whazlewo at indiana.edu>


   DEADLINES AND DATES

Submissions due: Jun 27th 2008 by 11:59pm PST
Acceptance notifications by: Jul 25th 2007


   WORKSHOP ORGANIZERS

William R. Hazlewood (whazlewo at indiana.edu <mailto:whazlewo at indiana.edu>)
School of Informatics, Indiana University @ Bloomington

Lorcan Coyle (lorcan.coyle at ucd.ie <mailto:lorcan.coyle at ucd.ie>)
Systems Research Group, University College Dublin

Youn-kyung Lim (younlim at gmail.com <mailto:younlim at gmail.com>)
Korean Advanced Institute of Science and Technology

Zach Pousman (zach at cc.gatech.edu <mailto:zach at cc.gatech.edu>)
Georgia Institute of Technology


   INVITED PROGRAM COMMITTEE (subject to additions)

Frank Bentley, Motorola Labs, USA
Jodi Forlizzi, Carnegie Mellon University, USA
Steve Neely, University College Dublin, Ireland
Aaron Quigley, University College Dublin, Ireland
Erik Stolterman, Indiana University, USA
Martin Tomitsch, Vienna University of Technology
Andrew Vande Moere, University of Sydney, Australia


http://ambientinformation.org/








More information about the Infovis mailing list

This site is generously hosted by Macrofocus GmbH, developer of TreeMap and other fine visualization tools