IEEE Virtual Reality 2020 3DUI Contest - Call for Participation

IEEE VR 2020: IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces
March 22nd - 26th, 2020
http://ieeevr.org/2020

Important Announcement

Please note that we changed the initial submission format from EasyChair to email. Therefore, please submit your contest registration via e-mail to contest2020@ieeevr.org.

Important Dates

• December 1, 2019: Contest registration
• January 5, 2020: Submission of two-page abstract and video
• January 15, 2020: Notification of which entries are accepted
• January 20, 2020: Notification of which entries are accepted
• January 31, 2020: Camera ready version

Overview

This year, the IEEE VR 2020 will hold the 11th annual 3DUI Contest. It is open to anyone interested in 3D User Interfaces (3DUIs) and Virtual Reality, from researchers to students, enthusiasts, and professionals. The purpose of the contest is to stimulate innovative and creative solutions to challenging 3DUI problems. The theme of this year is “Embodiment for the Difference”. You have to create an environment that will allow people to feel the issues that people with differences(e.g, physical disabilities, mental disabilities, social disorders, or impairments) could feel.

We expect the following functionality:

• A user should be able to experience the difficulties of being a person with disabilities through your 3D user interface, therefore the user can potentially increase empathy and awareness toward the differences you are simulating.

• Examples of disabilities are being blind or playing a two hand instrument with just one hand. Your interface makes clear what your avatar could do and what his/her disability is, and how aid is provided.

• Interaction and feedback metaphors should act as mechanics to support this experience.
• Your avatar should show differences with other avatars/agents in your scenario. Any observer of the experience should notice the differences.
• The experience could be played standalone, or connected to an event. In the case of the standalone experience, you should provide credible NPCs (non player characters/virtual agents). We expect to have several conference demonstration events during the conference. An event should not last more than 15 minutes.
• Optionally, you could have some kind of collaborative task, where avatars (and/or agents) with more capabilities should help the ones with less capabilities.
• Optionally, you could provide a downloadable version of your demo, for IEEE VR attendants.
• Optionally, you can embed your interactions inside an online game/simulation, which could make them more interesting to juries.

Selected contestants will be required to provide a live demonstration of their solutions onsite. For the demonstration track, contestants must bring their own mixed reality hardware (VR, AR, or anything in between), but can choose to use any type of hardware. A grand winner will be selected by juries at the conference.

Eligibility

The 3DUI Contest is open to anyone interested in 3DUIs—researchers, students, hobbyists, professionals, or anyone else. Requirements for the selection and presentation are specified below.

Rules

The submitted solutions have to fulfill the following rules to be considered for acceptance and presentation during IEEE VR 2020:

• Submissions have to present a 3DUI solution for the above features
  • The submitted material should show the 3DUI that makes the limitations of people clear (e.g., through the avatar)
  • More tasks or unlisted tasks are encouraged. It will be considered in the evaluation phase.
• The developed 3DUI should
  • … be innovative,
  • … provide high usability,
  • … be aesthetically pleasing, and
  • … be enjoyable and thought-provoking.

Teams

Teams of up to ten people may submit solutions.

Paper

Teams must submit a short paper of two pages, with a description of the solution, details about software developed, a brief description of the closest related work and how your system is novel, and a description of how you iterated upon the design.

If your submission is accepted, this paper will be included in the IEEE VR Conference proceedings as two-page extended abstract describing the contest solution, and therefore must be formatted using the IEEE Computer Society format as specified for VR conference poster papers.

Video

Teams will also submit a video that presents the solution to the public, including an explanation of the equipment, software, and interaction techniques used to solve the problem. Additionally, the video should include representative footage of example users as they perform the task. If your submission is accepted, the video will be made publicly available. Videos should have a length of 60-90 seconds and should include the title along with the names and affiliations of the contestants. The submitted file should be a high quality compressed video with a size of no more than 50 MB. We will accept h.264 encoded videos (.mp4).

Demonstration

If your submission is accepted, you will participate in a live demo session at the conference, where you will showcase your work to the IEEE VR community and have a chance to win awards. Since this year’s contest will be judged live at IEEE VR, we will invite various judges from the community to judge your solution. The judging criteria are novelty, provoked empathy, and aesthetics. We will further offer on-site judging for all conference attendees. Contestants are asked to bring their own equipment for demoing their individual solutions during the 3DUI session as part of IEEE VR.

The final score will be the combination of the expert judges’ score (70%) plus the audience scores (30%). A winning team with the highest score will be awarded.

Contest Registration - due December 1, 2019

Teams should register for the contest by December 1, 2019 via email to the following address: contest2020@ieeevr.org

Submission of Two-Page Abstract and Video - due Jan. 5, 2020

Please use the https://new.precisionconference.com/vr system for your submission. Inside the Submissions tab, You can select the VR Society, IEEE VR 2020 Conference, and the IEEE VR 2020 Contest Track. When you press Go, a submission form will be created for you. Fill all the required fields before the deadline.

Contact

You can contact us at contest2020@ieeevr.org if you have any further questions.

Contact Chairs

• Pablo Figueroa, Universidad de Los Andes, Colombia
• Daniel Roth, University of Würzburg, Germany
• Chao Mei, Kennesaw State University, USA