An extensive program of industry and academic research in a fervent area of human computer interaction

We are now proud to release the program of the 13th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction with Mobile Devices and Services. It covers a broad range of research, conducted both in Universities and Industry, which focuses on next generation of meaningful interaction techniques and services, as well as studies of social life with mobile devices.

The program for the 13th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction with Mobile Devices and Services is now settled, and it reflect our ambition to provide a vibrant forum for academics and practitioners to discuss the challenges and potential solutions for effective and meaningful interaction with mobile systems and services.  It covers the design, evaluation and application of techniques for all mobile and wearable computing devices and services.

The program covers topics related to the ever increasing importance of interaction with mobile devices. It includes research on next generation of touch interaction, including more extended vibro -tactile solutions, as well as research on how to improve on the possibilities for video interaction in mobile settings. A number of papers discuss interaction using projections and visualizations depending on very small so called pico-projectors. The wide importance of mobile interaction is visible in the research on interaction to support various alphabets such as handling Indian text input. The conference also focuses on understanding various contexts of use e.g. mobile services for hedonic parts of life such as shopping or fashion, or phone use among workers in China. Mobile work, security and learning are other topics of interest. To ameliorate the increasing number of selected paper, we have chosen to include more content in the program, by reducing the time for each presenter. This will give the audience a richer variety of research and demonstrations.

From Hemmert, Gollner, Löwe, Wohlauf, and Joost, "Intimate Mobiles: Grasping, Kissing and Whispering as a Means of Telecommunication in Mobile Phones", accepted for publication at MobileHCI 2011.

Mobile human-computer-interaction is one of the most fervent area in computing. The success of recent smartphones, which has boosted the use of the mobile internet, make the next generation of  meaningful and useful applications, as well as interaction models, a cardinal topic for both consumers and industry. The ever increasing importance of the area is visible in the way the interest for the conference grows every year. Notably the number of submissions of technical papers and notes increased as much as 25% as compared to the conference in 2010, out of which we have  selected a quarter to be presented in Stockholm in the end of August.

This growing interest also reflects a longstanding commitment from the research community to continue to improve on the quality of the conference. This year we have made effort to improve the quality of the reviewing process. The papers and notes chairs has broadened the group of peer reviewers, and also ensured that the meta-reviewers met in person to decide on the selection of papers. 

The conference has a tradition of being a meeting ground for industry and academic researchers, and that blend is also the hallmark of MobileHCI2011 in Stockholm. This combination is visible in the selection of technical papers, where the authors’ spans both industry research organizations and universities. It is also visible in the demos, who similarly have its origin in these two areas.

The industry in Stockholm, and especially that in the Kista area, has a strong influence on the direction of mobile technology and services. To further ensure the interaction between research and industry we have provided a new form of presentation, so called innovation pitches, through which companies are able to initiate discussion on their ideas.

The two key notes (Jeanna Kimbré and Adrian Cheok) also reflect the span between university and industry. Jeanna is Manager of Colors and Materials at Sony Ericsson’s Creative Design Centre, and she will add a new flavor to this research area by addressing the importance of aesthetics to the consumers of mobile technology. She will take us far beyond the issues of usability and long into the realms of users’ experiences.  Adrian is a star of the type of inventive research that fundamentally transforms our conceptions of relations to interacting with computers. His design examples, and research into areas such as human animal interaction and biological interfaces, are sources for inspiration for many in the field.

Oskar Juhlin and Ylva Fernaeus, program chairs Mobile HCI 2011