Affect-VR: 1st International Workshop on Affect-Aware Virtual Reality for Therapeutic Intervention and Training

In recent years, Virtual Reality (VR) applications have gained significant traction and have found their way into everyday life applications. Virtual Reality brings together computer-generated images, programming, user experience design, game design, 360-video to create a fully immersive experience in a virtual world. Improvements in hardware performance and innovations in software tools and consumer products, such as mobile devices, headsets, and interaction devices, have propelled the use of immersive technologies outside of research labs and into the hands of end-users. However, most VR-based applications are currently mostly limited to the gaming and entertainment industry. There is a vast potential for VR as an assistive technology with applications in cognitive and physical development, education and training, mental and physical health, fitness, and human-computer interaction in general. Integration of Virtual Reality and Affective Computing research has the potential to create a seamless two-way user experience. The user receives a rich, stimulating experience while the environment collects and analyzes signals generated by the user in the form of physical and cognitive responses.

Topics

This workshop invites novel work that will advance the understanding, effects, and potential of Virtual Reality applications as assistive technologies. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

• VR and health applications.
• VR in education and training.
• VR for cognitive and physical development/rehabilitation.
• VR in occupational safety and health.
• Hardware and software solutions for VR and Human-Computer Interaction.
• Mental and physiological effects and implications of VR applications.
• User perception, emotion, and physiological states in the virtual world.
• Design methods and strategies for VR applications.
• Software and hardware innovations for improved VR user experience.
• VR and social interaction.
• VR for Public Safety.
• Security and Privacy Concerns in the use of VR.

Goals

The workshop aims to attract academic researchers and industry specialists involved in research related to Virtual and/or Augmented Reality and their related assistive applications. The participants will have the opportunity to present their research and discuss with fellow researchers the state-of-the-art solutions. Novel and innovative contributions related to the topics of the workshop mentions above are welcomed.

Organizers

• Vangelis Metsis
  Texas State University, San Marcos, TX, USA- vmetsis@txstate.edu
• Kenneth Scott Smith
  Texas State University, San Marcos, TX, USA- ks58149@txstate.edu
• Georgios Koutitas
  Texas State University, San Marcos, TX, USA- george.koutitas@txstate.edu

Publication

ACM will be the publisher of the proceedings of PETRA conference and workshops. The proceedings will be a volume in the ACM International Conference Proceedings Series in the ACM Digital Library.
Authors must follow the same formatting guidelines as employed for the main conference paper submissions. Refer to the guidelines here. You can submit your paper using the main conference submission system by selecting the option Workshop Paper from the dropdown menu. To submit a paper, please visit the submission system.

Deadlines & Other Workshops

The list of workshops and deadines are available at the main workshops page. All workshops have the same deadlines.