Special Issue of IJHCS
Distributed and Disappearing User Interfaces in Ubiquitous Computing

Albrecht Schmidt (albrecht@comp.lancs.ac.uk)

Computing Department
Lancaster University, UK

Call in PDF -  Focus - Guest Editors - List of Topics - Important Dates - Submission Details - Publication - Contact Details

Distributed and Disappearing User Interfaces in Ubiquitous Computing

As computer interfaces merge with our environments and virtually become invisible, new concepts for human-computer interaction have to be developed. Instead of a single screen-based user interface (UI), humans will interact with a multitude of devices that are distributed and interconnected, and thus the design space for these UIs becomes much larger than with conventional computers.

With this special issue we aim to give an overview of current research in this area. We are especially interested in how distributed and disappearing UIs in ubiquitous computing can be designed and created, and also the impact they will have on people's everyday lives.

This special issue will appear in an upcoming issue (May or June 2002) of the International Journal of Human Computer Studies (IJHCS), a well known scientific journal published by the academic press (http://repgrid.com/IJHCS/ & http://www.academicpress.com/ijhcs )

The idea to compile a special issue on "Distributed and Disappearing User Interfaces in Ubiquitous Computing" originated from a workshop with the same title that we organized at CHI2001 (see http://www.teco.edu/chi2001ws/). This call however is open and not restricted to the participants of the workshop!
 

Special Issue of IJHCS

The special issue will focus on

• reliably gathering, modeling, and using of situational context
• appropriately choosing among available output options
• attracting someone's attention without disturbing others
• addressing conflicting user goals in multi-user scenarios
• understanding, describing, and modeling widgets in such systems
• handling misunderstandings and system breakdowns

We will also address privacy, design, aesthetics and expressions, trying to grasp the possible social impact of such systems.
We hope to attract submissions from researchers and practitioners who are concerned with design, development, and implementation of novel interfaces for mobile devices and environment-based appliances, as well as social issues emerging from their use.

Focus

Non exclusive list of topics

• What ways of distributing the output from a system are meaningful? How should one choose from different output devices available, such as embedded screens and audio output, personal mobile displays and
  notification systems, ambient pixel or non-pixel displays?
• How does the situational context (e.g. the whereabouts of the user, social situation, relation between people) influence the distribution and allocation of input and output resources?
• What useful ways exist to describe and model input and output widgets in such systems?
• How will upcoming technologies that offer short-range inter-device communication (e.g. Bluetooth) influence the development of distributed interfaces?
• What technologies exist to reliably capture situational context? How do we extract information that can be used to make interfaces invisible? And what methods can we use to describe such information?
• Are there methods to model alternative inputs, considering distributed interfaces and also information provided by situational context?
• How do we deal with conflicting user goals?
• How do we deal with shared (public) input and output?
• Who "owns" or controls the local 'ether' in shared environments? What about "access rights" to shared resources in public places, trains, buses, etc?
• How do we attract one user's attention, without disturbing other co-located people?
• Privacy issues - what if the environment records everything we do? Who has access to that?
• How to deal with design, aesthetics and expressions
• Anticipated social impact, major changes in ordinary peoples' way of life (e.g. mobile phones and the Web)
• The pace of interaction (Slow Technology)
   

IMPORTANT DATES
31. December  2001: Deadline for submission of papers.
25. February 2002: Notification of authors
22. March 2002: Deadline camera ready (accepted papers only)
May or June 2002: Publication

We encourage submissions from researchers and practitioners in academia, industry, government, and consulting. Students, researchers and practitioners are invited to submit papers between 5000 and 8000 words describing original, novel, and inspirational work. The submissions will be review by an international group of researchers and practitioners. Submissions should be sent by email to Peter Ljungstrand (peter.ljungstrand@interactiveinstitute.se) either in Postscript, Adobe PDF or Microsoft Word (the later two containing no macros).
 

The special issue “Distributed and Disappearing User Interfaces in Ubiquitous Computing” is scheduled to appear in May or June 2002.

For questions and further information, please contact

Contact Details

Computing Department
Engineering Building, Room A13
Lancaster University
Lancaster, UK
LA1 4YR

Tel: +44 (0) 1524 593786
Fax: +44 (0) 1524 593608

E-Mail: albrecht@comp.lancs.ac.uk
Web: http://www.comp.lancs.ac.uk/~albrecht/