Call for papers for Special Issue of Interacting with Computers on

Presence and Interaction

Editors: John Waterworth(1), Eva Lindh Waterworth(1), Fabrizia Mantovani(2) & Giuseppe Riva(3)

1 Department of Informatics, Umeå University, SE-901 87, Umeå, Sweden
2 CESCOM, University of Milan-Bicocca, Milan, Italy
3 ICE-NET Lab., Universit  Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan, Italy

Call Description

The user experience of information technology is profoundly affected by the extent to which we experience ourselves to be really present in the mediated world that the technology makes available to us. This feeling of presence, which can be operationally defined as the perceptual illusion of non-mediation, is a crucial aspect of many recent and developing interactive technologies.

In the same way that the natural, unmediated sense of presence is grounded in perception, and natural perception is coupled with action and the body, so the experience of presence in a technologically-mediated environment is to some extent a function of the possibilities for interaction. Unlike in the real world, the extent to which presence is experienced in an interactive context can be manipulated by design, in almost unlimited ways.

In an increasingly broad range of application domains, interactive presence is becoming a key aspect of user experience design. This special issue examines the relationship between the sense of presence and interaction in computer-mediated environments designed for a wide variety of purposes including, but not limited to:

• Interaction with digital others (avatars, robots)
• Interactive entertainment (games, the arts)
• As an experiential tool (psychotherapy, education)
• Motor activity (physiotherapy, sports training)

We particularly welcome contributions that use one or more of these application domains to elucidate theoretical and/or methodological aspects of designing for degrees of experienced presence through interaction.

Submission details

Please submit a 300-500 word abstract to John Waterworth ([email protected]) and Giuseppe Riva ([email protected]) no later than 30th June 2011. Please include full contact information and a biographical note (up to 75 words) on each of the authors.

Important Dates

30th June 2011: Deadline for abstract submission
31th July 2011: Announcement of results and full paper invitations
30th September 2011: Submission of full papers
31th December 2011: Response to authors
3rd February 2012: Final submission

Subscribe to ISPR Presence News

The International Society for Presence Research (ISPR) is a not-for-profit organization that supports academic research related to the concept of (tele)presence. ISPR Preseence News is available via RSS feed, various e-mail formats and/or Twitter. For more information please visit us at http://ispr.info