2017 IEEE VR Equitable Access to Interaction with Mobile-based Virtual and Augmented Reality Systems (EquiVAR)*
DATE
Saturday (afternoon), March 18, 2017
Organized in conjunction with the IEEE Virtual Reality 2017 – Los Angeles,
California on March 18-22, 2017, http://ieeevr.org/2017/
WORKSHOP WEBSITE
http://equivar.gameresearchlab.org
DESCRIPTION
Virtual and augmented reality technologies and their applications in
education, engineering, healthcare, and entertainment offer
potentially unprecedented benefits to society. Thus, it is important
for the research community to address social and economic imbalances
so that people from diverse backgrounds have similar opportunities
when it comes to accessing and using virtual and augmented reality.
While the current cost of stationary VR systems is, and for a while
will be, prohibitive to most of the world’s population, mobile-based
head mounted displays are the means for democratization of access to
VR and AR due to ever-increasing proliferation of mobile devices.
However, current mobile-based VR systems do not yet deliver a fluid,
immersive experience comparable to stationary VR systems. While their
quality of graphics and audio is quickly improving, one technological
barrier that is not sufficiently addressed is their interaction. While
stationary VR systems are often equipped with specialized spatial
input devices, such as hand motion and pose tracking sensors,
mobile-based HMDs provide, at best, voice input, head orientation, and
a touchpad with a button or two. Mini-keyboards, touchpads, game
controllers, and other standard input devices may be used in
mobile-based VR, but they are neither effective in 3D interaction
scenarios, nor do they provide input information necessary for
adequate representation of the user in many application domains. In
consequence, although the promise of virtual and augmented reality is
to immerse the user in artificially generated, interactive 3D
environments, mobile-based VR enables passive viewership rather than
active participation.
The goal of this workshop is to facilitate discussions that will
identify and categorize available input sources and interaction
techniques that enhance the user’s immersion through mobile-based VR
and AR, and thus positively impact equitable access to VR and AR. The
expected contributions may examine the feasibility of using sensor
data provided by low-cost, everyday devices to enable capturing of the
user’s movement, identification and reconstruct the user’s
environment, and recognition the user’s gestures, behaviors, poses,
facial expressions, gaze direction, or emotional state. The proposed
research does not need to be limited to the existing ecology of
everyday devices, but may also uncover novel, low-cost input solutions
that utilize EEG or EMG sensors, stretch bands, micro robots, audio
and video input, and intelligent clothing, among other forms of input.
We invite authors to submit position papers, preliminary designs and
research results, novel concepts, demos, prototype applications, or
case studies. Submission length may vary from 2 to 6 pages (including
references).
SUBMISSION TOPICS
The workshop calls for, but is not limited to, the following themes:
* Novel interaction techniques that enable efficient performance of
typical 3D interactions, such as navigation, travel, and object
manipulation, by utilizing sensors that are already present in
everyday devices
* Low-cost algorithms, including Machine Learning approaches, for
environment reconstruction, or recognition of gestures, facial
expressions, emotional state, and atomic activities from sensors (IMU,
EEG, EMG, microphone, camera)
* Multimodal interactions, and sensor fusion and filtering algorithms
that collect data from multiple types of sensors, or across multiple
interconnected everyday devices.
* Prototype applications and systems in any domains, including but not
limited to gaming, education, engineering, and healthcare
* Evaluation and validation methodologies that focus on ergonomics and
reduction of fatigue as well as qualitative and quantitative
characteristics of interactions with mobile-based VR and AR
Research works on the above themes that do not focus on mobile-based
VR and AR systems are not suitable for this workshop.
DEADLINES AND SUBMISSION FORMAT
Abstract submission February 3, 2017
Submission Deadline: February 5, 2017
Notification: February 12, 2017
Camera-Ready: February 20, 2017
Submission system:
http://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=equivar2017
Papers should be submitted via our EasyChair website (link above).
Submissions must be anonymous and in PDF format using the IEEE VR
template. A committee of expert reviewers in the aforementioned
domains will review all submissions. At least one author per paper
must register for the workshop as well as one day of the IEEE VR/3DUI
conference. Authors of accepted papers will be expected to give a
10-minute presentation at the workshop with an additional 5 minutes
for discussion and questions. Proceedings will be submitted for
inclusion in the IEEE Digital Library.
DISSEMINATION OF SUBMISSIONS
All workshop papers will be publicly shared on the workshop website.
Additionally, presented papers will be published in the IEEE Digital
Library.
