Supported the

First International Workshop

Expressive Interactions for Sustainability and Empowerment

October 29th - 30th 2009, London, UK

The proceedings are available online at: www.bcs.org/ewic/eise2009. A complete overview of the event can be found here.

If you would like to be kept informed of the next planned event, please email Miss Sophie Benoit: benoit(at)cs.bris.ac.uk

Introduction

The next generation of interactive technologies will be dominated by touch, gesture and other forms of movement. Collectively we refer to these as expressive interactions.

Tracking technologies are increasingly able to locate and follow people as they move through, or gesture in 3D space. Multi-touch surfaces and proximity sensing are set to be commonplace in business and leisure environments. New forms of 2D gestural interactions are emerging in different cultural settings.  The next generation pico projectors promise to turn any surface into a re-configurable interactive device. Mobile devices enable expressive interactions with public displays changing the language and nature of interaction, particularly outside Europe and the USA.

The opportunities presented by these developments go far beyond iPhone apps, Wii games and photo applications on multi-touch tables. Large numbers of people who have previously been excluded from the digital economy have the potential to be empowered. The tyranny of the western keyboard and rectangular screen can be replaced by new forms of interaction that are much more intuitive and expressive. This in turn will democratize access to a wide range of new services, cutting across language, literacy and other barriers.

The technology drivers for this change come at an opportune moment for the world as it grapples with the sustainability agenda and enabling inclusivity. Interaction design must address the social, cultural, economic and environmental impact that it is having and develop methods to ensure sustainable designs. Technologies providing ubiquitous mobile access and intuitive interactions can be harnessed to enable a more inclusive approach, empowering people who are economically, educationally or physically challenged. Thus the digital economy can be opened up to a wider world.

Workshop Aims

The overall aim of the workshop is to explore and understand the impact of new forms of expressive interaction that arise from new and emerging interactive technologies on economic, cultural and environmental sustainability. In particular, the workshop aims to

• assess the impact expressive forms of interaction based on gesture, movement and touch will have on all people and economies, and
  
• understand sustainable design at a time of rapid technological, economic, environmental and demographic change.

The program for the workshop can be found here.

Submissions

Position papers of 1000 - 2000 words were invited that address the workshop's aims and that focus on designing inclusive and sustainable expressive interactions. Example topics include:

• Building natural multi-modal interfaces for accessibility of services in rural areas

• Mechanisms of social interaction based on expressive technologies for changes in the quality of life.

• Developing specialized interfaces for facilitating assisted living.

• Studies of people using expressive technologies to enhance quality of life.

• Mobile Interaction and shared media infrastructure for inclusivity and sustainability.

• Multi-user, multi-modal, multi-touch interaction for inclusivity and sustainability.

• New paradigms, methodologies and tools for sustainable interaction design.

• Exploring new combinations of input and output devices such as handwriting, interactive surfaces, pen, touch, gesture, haptic, speech and audio, remote connection and visualization for inclusivity and sustainability.

• Cross-cultural applications of expressive interactions in everyday activities in education, health and enabling entrepreneurship.

• Enabling sustainability in rural settings through reconfigurable modalities and energy efficiency.

• Robust Interaction with uncertain data in expressive interactions.

• Power efficient interaction and expressive interactions.

• Adaptivity and intelligence in inclusive and sustainable expressive interactions.

• 'Human-in-the-loop' interaction for inclusivity and sustainability.

• Near-user development tools and environments for sustainable expressive interaction design and production.

• 'Long-tail' computing and personalization for inclusivity and sustainability.

Location

EISE was hosted by Vodafone Group Services Limited:

Fees

The registration fees were:

• Full delegate rate £150 (£130 for BCS members)
• Student rate £50 (£30 for BCS members)

Organisation

Workshop Chair

Tom McEwan, Centre for interaction Design, Edinburgh Napier University, UK

Technical Chairs

David Benyon, Centre for interaction Design, Edinburgh Napier University, UK

Sriram Subramanian, Department of Computer Science, Bristol University, UK

EISE Publication

The proceedings have been published by the British Computer Society (BCS) and have been made available though the electronic writings in computing (EWIC) system online at: www.bcs.org/ewic/eise2009