[ACT-R-users] Call for papers - 5TH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON INTELLIGENT VIRTUAL AGENTS

[Jonathan Gratch]

A Preliminary Call for Papers for:

THE 5TH INTERNATIONAL WORKING CONFERENCE ON INTELLIGENT VIRTUAL AGENTS

September 12-14, 2005 Kos, Greece
http://iva05.unipi.gr/

*** Submission Deadline: May 2, 2005

SYMPOSIUM DESCRIPTION:
------------------------------------------

Intelligent Virtual Agents (IVAs) are autonomous, graphically embodied 
agents in an interactive, 2D or 3D virtual environment. They are able 
to interact intelligently with the environment, other IVAs, and especially 
with human users. Previous IVA workshops brought together people studying 
computer graphics, animation and virtual environments on the one hand, and 
on the other hand people working in AI, NLP, cognitive modelling and A-life. 

Since the first IVA back in 1999 firm lines of research have been established 
but there is much that the graphics and AI communities have to learn from 
each other. Moreover, the domain of Intelligent Virtual Agents has become 
much more diverse and now encompasses a wide range of disciplines including 
in particular psychology (emotion modelling, non-verbal communication), 
sociology (modelling human / IVA societies), HCI (intelligent user interfaces, 
gesture/body tracking interfaces), design and arts (e.g., interactive 
installations with IVAs), and all kinds of application fields. While initial 
research often focused on the use of IVAs in virtual environments, they are 
now increasingly used across many media such as the web, wireless devices 
and interactive television. IVAs can provide appealing characters for games 
and entertainment. They can be novel user interfaces for software or guides 
in factual and e-commerce web sites. They can be tools of psychological
research. Some see them as the key to engaging educational software or 
as an exciting new way for us to communicate with each other on the web. 
The rapid advances in the field have enabled it to be applied in practice 
to these areas both in research and industrial contexts. 

The target audience for IVA'05 includes people from multiple disciplines, 
coming from academia or industry with an interest in the design, 
implementation, and evaluation of IVAs and IVA applications. We aim for a 
lively programme of timely, high-quality presentations and demonstrations 
to discuss the state of the art and future of Intelligent Virtual Agents. 

TOPICS OF INTEREST:
----------------------------------

* IVA design and modelling 
  - design criteria and methodologies 
  - nature inspired IVAs/A-life for IVAs 
  - models of affect and personality for IVAs 
  - models for IVAs with awareness of their social context 
  - modelling conversational skills and multi-modal interaction 
  - non-verbal expressiveness in IVAs - gesture, facial expression, posture 
  - media-specific design considerations, e.g., IVAs for VR, AR, web, and 
    mobile applications 
  - deployment of novel interaction modalities (e.g., vision, touch, 
    phycons etc.) 
  - IVAs with physical embodiment: lessons from and for robotics 
  - ethical considerations, e.g., what human-qualities can / should IVAs 
    have / never have 

* Conceptual architectures, e.g. for 
  - learning IVAs 
  - improvisational IVAs 
  - multi-user /multi-IVA interaction 
  - crowd simulations with IVAs 

* IVA application fields, pilot systems, and experience reports
  - education and training with IVAs 
  - psychological modelling and experimentation
  - games 
  - interactive narrative with IVAs 
  - telepresence 
  - case studies and evaluation reports on IVA pilots etc. 

* Evaluation of IVAs and IVA applications
  - evaluation methodologies / evaluation frameworks
  - reports on user studies and their outcomes
  - evaluation and data collection tools for IVAs

* Software engineering issues 
  - standards and measures to support interoperability, portability, and reuse 
  - tools and toolkits for building IVAs and IVA applications 
  - advanced 3D modelling and animation technologies for IVAs

SUBMISSION FORMAT:
-----------------------------------

We distinguish between the following categories of submissions: 
- Long papers, 6-8 pages, are reserved for reports on mature research results.
- Short papers, not exceeding four pages, are for smaller case studies or 
  ongoing but interesting and original research efforts. 
- Demo submissions, not exceeding four pages, are for authors who wish to 
  demonstrate their system.  The submission should provide a description of 
  their system, installation, or demo.
- Poster submissions should consist of either a one-page description of the 
  poster content, or a one-page sketch of the poster. 

Final versions of papers (long, short, demo/system, poster descriptions) 
will appear in the published IVA conference proceedings.  

TIMELINE:
-----------------

May  2: Deadline for submissions of contributions
May 30: Reviews complete
June 6: Authors notification
July 1: Submission of camera ready contribution for the workshop notes 

ORGANIZING COMMITTEE:
----------------------------------------

Ruth Aylett, Heriot-Watt University
e-mail: ruth at macs.hw.ac.uk

Daniel Ballin, Chief Technology Office, BT Group
e-mail: daniel.ballin at bt.com 

Jonathan Gratch, University of Southern California
e-mail: gratch at ict.usc.edu

Patrick Olivier, University of Newcastle Upon Tyne
e-mail: P.L.Olivier at ncl.ac.uk

Themis Panayiotopoulos, University of Piraeus (Local Chair)
email: themisp at unipi.gr

Thomas Rist, University of Applied Sciences Augsburg and DFKI
e-mail: tr at rz.fh-augsburg.de
 
PROGRAM COMMITTEE:
-----------------------------------------------------

Jan Allbeck
Elisabeth André
Norman Badler
Josep Blat
Joanna Bryson
Lola Cañamero
Justine Cassell
Marc Cavazza
Kerstin Dautenhahn
Angélica de Antonio
Fiorella de Rosis
Patrick Gebhard
Marco Gillies
Barbara Hayes-Roth
Randy Hill
Kristina Höök 
Katherine Isbister
Mitsuru Ishizuka
Ido Iurgel
Lewis Johnson
Martin Klesen
Stefan Kopp
John Laird
James Lester
Brian Loyall
Craig Lindley
Andrew Marriot
Stacy Marsella
Michael Mateus
Alexander Nareyek
Anton Nijholt
Gregory O'Hare
Sharon Oviatt
Ana Paiva
Catherine Pelachaud
Paolo Petta
Tony Polichroniadis
Helmut Prendinger
Matthias Rehm
Daniela Romano
Anthony Steed
Matthew Stone
Daniel Thalmann
Kris Thórisson
Demetri Terzopoulos
David Traum
Hannes Vilhjalmsson
Spyros Vosinakis
Michael Young

 
__________________________________________________________________________ 
Jonathan Gratch                              | www.ict.usc.edu/~gratch 
Project Leader, Research Assistant Professor | Phone:  (310) 448-0306 
USC Institute for Creative Technologies      | Fax:    (310) 574-5725 
13274 Fiji Way, Suite 600                    | E-mail: gratch at ict.usc.edu 
Marina del Rey, CA 90292                     | 

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