The Spaces In-between: Seamful vs. Seamless Interactions

This workshop will explore issues related to the design of ubiquitous computing environments that include multi-surface, multi-display, and multi-device infrastructure. The goal of the workshop is to explore the question of how system designers might best address the issue of gaps between the different technological components with respect to end users and their interactions in these spaces. In essence, should the 'design space' between the devices be removed to create seamless interactions, or should it be retained, exposed or even made explicit, for a more seamful interaction experience?
We plan to bring together a group of researchers who share the common vision of a multi- surface, multi-display, multi-device computing environments, but who have varying perspectives on the question of seamful vs. seamless interaction in these environments in order to identify the design trade offs and benefits of each. The workshop will include brief presentations from each participant, break out group discussions, and a brainstorming session to develop usage scenarios.

Scope of Interest Includes

Interaction Technqiues
- cross-device and intra-device management
- implicit vs. explicity interactions
- user-initiated and system-initiated actions
- input redirection and opportunistic annexing
Displays and Devices
- novel technologies
- large displays
- distributed displays
Privacy Issues
- awareness vs. anonymity
- trust
- security
Applications and Sample Scenarious
- benefits and tradeoffs

Audience

We encourage participation from researchers with a diversity of backgrounds (e.g., hardware, software, and design) but who share the common vision of multi-surface, multi-display, multi-device computing environments. We hope to have a mix of industrial and academic participants. Our current target workshop size is 15- 18 people. Due to space limitations we anticipate that only one author per position paper will be able to participate in the workshop. If space permits multiple authors may attend. We will not know our final space constraints and headcount until closer to the conference.

Workshop Format

The workshop will be highly interactive, and include brief presentations from each participant concerning their work, group break out sessions to discuss and debate the workshop themes in more details, and a brainstorming session to identify compelling usage scenarios to drive the development and evaluation of these systems. To encourage lively discussion, the workshop will be limited to 15-18 people. Position statements of accepted participants will be provided to all participants prior to the workshop in electronic form on the workshop web site.

Submissions

Interested parties should submit position statements that briefly describe their background, identify their area of expertise, and outline one or more research issue they would like to raise for discussion during the workshop, along with their initial thoughts on the three goals outlined for the workshop. Please discuss any of your previous, current or planned work that addresses these issues. The committee will select participants based on the significance and clarity of the research questions, with an eye towards diversity across disciplines.

The submission deadline has been extended by one week. Position papers are due by June 24, 2005.

Each position paper should be no more than four pages in length and should be in ACM SIGCHI format. Papers should be submitted in PDF format on or before June 24, 2005 to (inbetween@merl.com) with a subject line "Ubicomp 2005 Inbetween Workshop submission." Position papers of all accepted participants will be posted on the workshop website in August. The workshop website will also contain workshop details (including a program based on the accepted participants), and the results of the workshop.

Instructions for submitting your materials can also be found in the call.

Important Dates

Submission Deadline:
       June 24, 2005 (extended from June 17)

Acceptance Notification:
        July 25, 2005
Final Version:
        Auguest 19, 2005
Workshop:
        September 11, 2005

Sample Scenarios

Click here for sample scenarios.

Workshop Committee

Person	Organization	Email
Kathy Ryall	MERL (USA)	ryall (AT) merl.com
Ravin Balakrishnan	University of Toronto	ravin (AT) dgp.toronto.edu
Matthew Chalmers	University of Glasgow (UK)	matthew (AT) dcs.gla.ac.uk
Kumiyo Nakakoji	University of Tokyo (Japan)	kumiyo (AT) kid.rcast.u-tokyo.ac.jp
Jeff Pierce	Georgia Institute of Technology (USA)	pierce (AT) cc.gatech.edu
Chia Shen	MERL (USA)	shen (AT) merl.com
Scott Klemmer	Stanford University	srk (AT) cs.stanford.edu

Contact

Dr. Kathy Ryall
Mitsubishi Electric Research Labs
Cambridge, MA, USA, 02139
ryall (AT) merl.com
617 621 7590

This page last updated June 17, 2005
Questions? Comments? More information?
Contact: ryall (AT) merl dot com
W6: The Spaces In-Between: Seamful vs. Seamless Interactions