Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham 23rd and 24th October 2012

Visit the conference social media:

http://itag.gamecity.org/
http://www.facebook.com/iTAG.conf
http://twitter.com/#!/ITAG12

Call for papers:

The aim of the conference is to bring together academics and practitioners working with interactive technologies to explore and innovate within the areas of Education, Health and Disability. We have a particular focus on the use of gaming hardware and software to implement accessible solutions, interaction design using new input/output devices and the increasing impact of ubiquitous computing on our everyday well being.
The conference provides an excellent opportunity to showcase practice and to mainstream research ideas and outcomes. It introduces a wider audience to key findings and products from research and illustrates how practice feeds back into and informs research. The conference creates a forum for two-way communication between the academic and practitioner communities and particularly welcomes user led presentations and workshops.
The programme includes presentations of papers, workshops, and an exhibition space for demonstrations and posters. This event is held in partnership with GameCity – the World’s best-loved videogame festival (http://gamecity.org/) and delegates are welcome to attend all GameCity events including the opening drinks reception.

Scope:

As guidance to participants on scope of papers and activities we state that: ‘Education’ includes both compulsory and post-compulsory education; ‘Disability’ includes physical, sensory and cognitive impairment; and the impact of interactive technologies and games on health and well-being is also a focus of this conference. An emphasis is placed on practical applications and guides to where currently available training resources and tools can be found and used. A selection of papers will be published electronically in full, so presentations will be limited to 20 minutes for the key findings, including time for questions from the floor. It is hoped (as in previous years) that the best papers will be published in a special issue of a relevant academic journal.

Previous special issues have included:

• Journal of Assistive Technologies – Volume 3 issue 2 June 2009 (ITAG 2008 selected papers)
• Computers and Education – Volume 56, issue 1 (ITAG 2009 selected papers)
• International Journal of Games Based Learning – in press (ITAG 2010 selected papers)
• Journal of Assistive Technologies – Volume 6 issue 3 in development (ITAG 2011 selected papers)

Themes and topics:

The conference encourages multidisciplinary papers and examples of themes and topics include (but don’t let this restrict you):
Games Based Learning:

• Social and collaborative aspects of games (e.g., educational aspects of Massively Multiplayer Online Games)
• The efficacy of games based learning
• Self authored content and personalisation in games
• Learning theory, pedagogy and instructional design in games
• Motivational aspects of games
• Collaboration between Science and Art for more effective learning
• Games to promote the inclusion (e.g., for offenders and people with disabilities, motivation of female gamers)

Game related Technologies:

• Using contemporary games controllers to create new opportunities in health and rehabilitation applications (e.g., applications for Wii Fit, Kinect. Move).
• Brain control interfaces to games
• Pervasiveness and mobility of games
• Location based services
• Handheld learning in the classroom

Games for Health:

• Serious games for clinical assessment (e.g. after stroke)
• Serious games for rehabilitation and treatment (e.g. of phobias, ADHA, post-traumatic stress disorders, stroke)
• ‘Modding’ for health
• Art and music rehabilitation in 3D multisensory environments
• Games for children in hospital
• Games to increase physical activity in children

Accessibility and Design:

• Open source accessibility
• Participatory design
• Design for all
• Natural user interfaces
• The representation and promotion of gender equality in games
• Alternative input modalities to games for people with disabilities (e.g., brain, haptic and audio interfaces)
• Access to interactive technologies for elderly people

Web based technologies:

• Resources for interactive learning tools and environments, e.g. Flash, podcasts, simulations, mobile games, Web 2.0 tool etc.
• The Internet as a communication medium ( e.g. for people with Asperger Syndrome).
• Browser based games and linking into social media channels Submissions

Those wishing to present papers or hold a workshop should send abstracts, to a maximum of 500 words. For those hoping to exhibit or produce a poster, a 300-word abstract is required. The deadline for submissions is Friday1st June 2012 to be sent to: karen.krelle@ntu.ac.uk

Final copies of accepted papers are required by Friday 14th September 2012.
There is a conference fee of £150 for 2 days, and £80 for 1 day registration. This price includes your invitation to the Game City opening event, lunch, and morning and afternoon refreshments.

Accommodation and Travel Links: https://www.conferencebookings.co.uk/delegate/NCBITAGEHD2010
NottinghamCityTravel Link: http://www.nctx.co.uk/

Prizes Offered:

As in previous years prizes will be awarded!

• Best Paper Award: £250
• Best Student Paper award: £250
• Best Student Poster: £150.

• The physical, cognitive, behavioural and psychological models.
• The analysis of real user needs and wants.
• The incorporation of guidelines, standards and methodologies.
• The training with real users and the relative feedback through the multisensorial platform).

The video that was produced demonstrates the usage of the platform during the measurement campaigns at various sites.

This will take place in coincidence with the VERITAS  Workshop and Special Thematic Session, organised by four EU-funded projects VICON, VERITAS, GUIDE and MyUI building the VUMS cluster VUMS (Virtual User Modelling and Simulation Cluster) at ICCHP 2012.

The variable table of the VUMS model can be accessed here.

This workshop at ICCHP 2012, organised by four EU-funded projects VICON, VERITAS, GUIDE and MyUI building the VUMS cluster VUMS (Virtual User Modelling and Simulation Cluster), presents prototypes and discusses concepts of generic interoperable user models that describe the relevant characteristics of users, who will interact with products and user interfaces. These include physical cognitive, and sensory attributes, habits, preferences and accessibility capabilities. With such a model designers can define as many user interaction profiles as needed to address the whole range of requirements from a target population. It will also help designers and developers to maximize the level of accessibility of products and services by providing a comprehensive set of Human Factors design guidelines, which could be used in virtual spaces to visualize accessibility and usability issues.

All user models depend heavily on their specific use cases. There are a number of reasons for this:

• A complete model of the user, meaning a model that includes facets according to the state of the art would be rather complex and inefficient in use for both simulation purposes and even more for implementation in a product’s user interface.
• Existing devices might not be able to handle complicated user models.
• Not all facets are needed for the specific use case. E.g. modelling some severe visual impairment is not relevant when designing a car.
• Specific requirements might require modifications in existing user models.
• Ways of measuring variables might differ among use cases.

New findings may result in changes and updates of models.

Workshop Chairs: Dr. Dimitris Tzovaras, Dr. Konstantinos Moustakas, CERTH/ITI
Background, Experiences:
Dr. Dimitrios Tzovaras is a Senior Researcher A’ (Full Professor) at CERTH/ITI. He is also a Visiting Professor at the Imperial College London. His research activity has led to the coauthoring of more than 250 papers in refereed journals and international conferences. He has been very active in the field of accessibility serving as the coordinator of the ACCESSIBLE project and the Technical Coordinator of VERITAS, while being also the Principal Investigator in AEGIS, OASIS, APSIS4ALL, ATIS4ALL, CLOUD4ALL.
Dr. Konstantinos Moustakas is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at CERTH/ITI. During the latest years, he has been the (co)author of more than 75 papers in refereed journals, edited books, and international conferences, many of them in the field of accessibility. He has been also involved in ten research projects funded by the EC and the Greek secretariat of Research and Technology, among them VERITAS, AEGIS, OASIS.

Co-Chairs: Fraunhofer FIT: Manfred Dangelmaier, Matthias Peissner, Carlos Velasco; Pradipta Biswas

Participation: open

Duration: 3 hours

Time: to be announced

Room: to be announced

Link to ICCHP workshop page: http://www.icchp.org/node/348

This STS, organised by four EU-funded projects VICON, VERITAS, GUIDE and MyUI building the VUMS cluster VUMS (Virtual User Modelling and Simulation Cluster) , calls for papers and presentations of:

• research and development work
• prototypes and products
• concepts and
• evaluation of usability and applicability

of generic interoperable user models that describe the relevant characteristics of users, who will interact with products and user interfaces. These include physical cognitive, and sensory attributes, habits, preferences and accessibility capabilities.

With such a model designers can define as many user interaction profiles as needed to address the whole range of requirements from a target population. It will also help designers and developers to maximize the level of accessibility of products and services by providing a comprehensive set of Human Factors design guidelines, which could be used in virtual spaces to visualize accessibility and usability issues. All user models depend heavily on their specific use cases. There are a number of reasons for this:

• A complete model of the user, meaning a model that includes facets according to the state of the art would be rather complex and inefficient in use for both simulation purposes and even more for implementation in a product’s user interface.
• Existing devices might not be able to handle complicated user models.
• Not all facets are needed for the specific use case. E.g. modelling some severe visual impairment is not relevant when designing a car.
• Specific requirements might require modifications in existing user models.
• Ways of measuring variables might differ among use cases.

New findings may result in changes and updates of models.

STS Chair: Fraunhofer FIT: Yehya Mohamad, Manfred Dangelmaier, Matthias Peissner, Carlos Velasco;
Pradipta Biswas

Submission: Contributions to a STS have to be submitted using the standard submission procedures of ICCHP. When submitting your contribution please make sure to select this STS under “STS/Session”.
Contributions to a STS are evaluated by the Programme Commitee of ICCHP and by the chair(s) of the STS.
Please get in contact with the STS chairs for discussing your involvement and pre-evaluation of your contribution.

Submission Deadline: February 1, 2012

Link to STS page: http://www.icchp.org/node/349