The 5th International Workshop on Ubiquitous and Collaborative Computing (iUBICOM 10) on 7th September 2010

 

in conjunction with

the 24th BCS Conference on Human Computer Interaction (HCI 2010)

 

Following four successful previous iUBICOM workshops, we present the 5th iUBICOM workshop, iUBICOM 10. Our theme for this year is 'balancing technological and human factors for better design of ubiquitous computing'.

 

Ubiquitous computing throws down a number of design challenges. These systems feature multi-device architectures and complex interactions. They are often part of the environment, where they host a range of everyday activities in ways that imply new kinds of user involvement. With these sorts of systems, it is important to understand the way systems and people work in the environments which are to be augmented. The purpose of this workshop is to bring multi-disciplinary researchers together in order to discuss different models and theories that can be used to design and evaluate ubiquitous computing systems given these issues, in order to balance technological innovation with adequate consideration for the needs of users.

 

Workshop Topics

 

A particular focus of this year's workshop will be how user needs can be interpreted given new interaction models and unfamiliar technologies. We will ask how the challenge of understanding user needs around factors such as speed, transparency, efficiency and quality of service, can be met for a range of ubiquitous computing systems of varying interaction styles with different applications. Applications can include wayfinding systems, smart homes, assistive technologies, mobile games, and collaborative systems. Interaction styles include, as well as familiar forms, increasingly important approaches such as tangible and haptic interaction, gestural interaction, pro-active and 'disappearing' or 'calm' computing, and ambient computing. In order to design and develop systems which can be successfully deployed, it is necessary to take human factors into account. The question motivating this 5th iUBICOM workshop is how best this can be achieved.

 

We wish to attract a wide range of participants involved in designing ubiquitous computing systems, who can contribute to knowledge about the understanding of user needs. We would expect submissions from different practitioners and researchers working in a variety of application and domain areas. Thus, the workshop topics include, but are not limited to:

 

Workshop Steering Committee

 

Workshop Chairs

 

Publication Chairs

 

Publicity Chair

 

Programme Committee

 

 

Submission Details

 

All submitted papers will be reviewed by the programme committee of the iUBICOM 2010. Papers are limited to 15 pages in Springer's LNCS format. Position papers up to 4 pages are also welcome. For more details see http://www.springer.de/comp/lncs. All accepted papers will be published in workshop proceedings. We are arranging for publication of extended versions of selected papers in a range of international journals.

 

There will be a session at the workshop devoted to discussing funding opportunities in this area, in particular EU bids. For this reason participants from European countries interested in forming groups for future bids are encouraged to attend the workshop.

 

Submit your papers directly to Dr. Rahat Iqbal at: r.iqbal@coventry.ac.uk for review process.

 

Important Dates

 

Full paper submission deadline: 23 July, 2010 (extended)

Acceptance notification: 6 August, 2010

Paper final version due: 20 August 2010