[Air-L] Workshop on “Ubiquitous games and gamification for promoting behavior change and wellbeing” @ CHItaly 2013

[Stefano De Paoli]

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Call for Papers:
Workshop on “Ubiquitous games and gamification for promoting behavior
change and wellbeing” - http://www.monicatentori.com/ubigames4health/

When: September 16
Where: Trento, Italy @ CHItaly 2013 - http://chitaly2013.disi.unitn.it/
Paper submission instructions: Papers should be submitted through EasyChair
system (https://www.easychair.org/account/signin.cgi?conf=ubigames4health),
and should follow the HCI Extended Abstract format for up to 4 pages (
http://chi2013.acm.org/authors/format/#archiveformat).
Paper submission deadline: June 30
Notification of acceptance: July 19
Camera ready: August 16

Games constitute a basic component of human experience in all cultures and
they typically involve mental and/or physical stimulation. This motivated
researchers to explore the fusion of game-based approaches and modern
technologies for maintaining and regaining both physical and mental
wellbeing. In particular, Gamification and Serious game-based approaches
have demonstrated a great potential of promoting well-being and physical
activity, and transforming the prevention, management and treatment of
diseases into a fun experience. Such relatively new concepts have opened an
interdisciplinary research avenue that focuses on the employment of
interactive technologies for stimulating a positive change in behavior.

The domain of Ubiquitous Computing plays an important role by providing
effective methods for analyzing human behavior, for assessing the level of
positive change in healthy behavior, for evaluating user experience, for
recognizing user performance in games, for connecting activities using game
elements and in general for providing the link between physical and virtual
world. Putting a user in the game context (which includes goals, rules,
challenges and interactions) while monitoring real environment and tracking
the user behavior provide a framework that offers an immense number of
opportunities for stimulating a healthy life-style as well as for the
rehabilitation of motor and cognitive functions.

The goal of this workshop is to create a collaborative platform among
experts from the game industry, healthcare, HCI, and UbiComp related
domains to see where ubiquitous games can influence the attitudes, health
and behaviors of people, and how can they be used to change human behavior
to promote wellbeing. The workshop invites academic researchers and
industry practitioners to submit contributions on innovative solutions,
concepts, hardware/software and services for maintaining or regaining
physical and mental health.
The topics of special interest include (but are not limited to):


-          Gamification for health related applications, to promote
exercise and physical activity

-          Ubiquitous games interaction experiences to promote health

-          Automatic assessment of motor functions

-          Evaluation of emotional response in ubiquitous designs

-          Serious games for wellbeing

-          Games and Virtual environments for cognitive stimulation and
rehabilitation

-          Supporting long-term home-based physical/cognitive rehabilitation

-          Ubiquitous interactive designs that promote social inclusion of
elderly and people with cognitive disabilities

-          Ubiquitous games that observe and promote health

-          Recognition of behaviors, gestures and playful interactions for
ubiquitous games

-          Technologies that promote sustainable behavior interfaces for
gamification

-          Gamification design experiences

-          Case studies of use of gamification in industry and healthcare

Technical Program Chairs:
Nadia Berthouze, UCL Interaction Centre
Stefano De Paoli, Fondazione <ahref
Michela Ferron, Fondazione Bruno Kessler
Yongqiang Lyu, Tsinghua University
Paolo Massa, Fondazione Bruno Kessler
Sergio F. Ochoa, University of Chile
Monica Tentori, CICESE