http://immersiveanalytics.net

• Benjamin Bach, University of Edinburgh, UK / Harvard University, MA (main contact)
• Maxime Cordeil, Monash University, VIC
• Tim Dwyer, Monash University, VIC
• Bongshin Lee, Microsoft Research
• Bahador Saket, Georgia Tech
• Alex Endert, Georgia Tech
• Christopher Collins, University of Ontario Institute of Technology
• Sheelagh Carpendale, University of Calgary

Immersive Analytics is a new multidisciplinary initiative to explore future interaction technologies for data analytics. Immersive Analytics aims to bring together researchers in Information Visualisation, Visual Analytics, Virtual and Augmented Reality and Natural User Interfaces. Call for papers Due to the recent advances in immersive technologies (VR, AR, large displays, tangible surfaces, etc.), we see new opportunities to using these technologies to analyse and explore data. Visual analytics is concerned with analytical reasoning facilitated by interactive visual interfaces. This definition is agnostic of the actual interface devices employed by visual analysis systems. Nevertheless, the affordances of the display and input devices used for analyzing data strongly affect the experience of the users of such systems, and so, their degree of engagement and productivity. However, a systematic approach to developing visual analytic tools that move beyond the desktop is yet lacking. In this call, we are looking for innovative research, design, and view-points, mature or work-in-progress, that fall into or are related to the following topics: Real-world VA/AR, Collaboration, Hybrid 2D/3D, Affordances for Immersion, Changing Technologies, Application Areas, Platforms and Toolkits. We call this new research thrust ``Immersive Analytics", a topic that will explore the applicability and development of emerging user-interface technologies for creating more engaging experiences and seamless work-flows for data analysis applications. More info here.

#immersive2017 Tweets

Accepted Papers

pending

Submission Info

The type of contributions can include, but is not limited to, the following:

• Descriptions of novel techniques.
• Systems supporting specific scenarios or workflows and variety of of visualizations and interaction techniques.
• Toolkits provide solutions for specific aspects in developing analysis systems for immersive environments or provide better integration.
• Studies and evaluations of all types both for gathering feedback on techniques and other aspects in immersive environments, such as context, tasks, devices challenges and interaction modalities, etc.
• Surveys of existing techniques, implementations, devices, modalities, for immersive visualization.
• Theory and models both new and adaptations of existing models to the immersive context.
• Positions and Reflections are encouraged to create a critical discourse on novel visualization and interaction technologies

Submissions can be of any length from 2 to 4 pages in standard IEEE TVCG format (conference), in proportion to the contribution: work-in-progress, latest breaking news, or mature research.

Paper Submission deadline:	July 21, 2017
Paper format:	IEEE TVCG<, conference/a>
Submission length:	2 - 4 pages (including references)
Submission website:	TBD
Review Process:	3 peer reviews each. Single-blind mandatory, double-blind optional.
Publication Format:	Planned Special Issue in IEEE Computer Graphical and Applications with extended versions of the submitted papers.
Presentation:	~10 minutes at Workshop (depending on paper length).
Registration:	Participants must be registered at for the specific day at the VIS conference.
Final reviews:	~August 16, 2017

Schedule

9:00	Introduction into Immersive Analytics and overview of the workshop structure
9:10	Keynote
10:10am	Coffee Break
11:30am	Invited paper talks
12:10pm	Lunch
2:00pm	Topic Discussion
2:30pm	Group Discussion
3:40pm	Coffee Break
4:15pm	Group Reports
5:00pm	Community Building
5:50pm	Closing remarks

Topics (Detail)

Changing Technologies and Scenarios: What are the lessons that we can learn from previous research into the use of 3D visualization for information visualization? Do the new technologies invalidate the current wisdom that it is better to use 2D visualization for abstract data since the designer of the visualization has complete freedom to map data to an occlusion-free 2D display? How do we perceive, interact, collaborate, annotate, communicate with visualizations in the forthcoming decades?

Hybrid2D/3D: Traditionally, 3D visualizations have been used in the physical sciences, engineering, and design while 2D visualizations have been used to display statistical and abstract data in information visualizations. Increasingly there is a need to combine both sorts of visualization in holistic visualizations. For instance, in the life sciences different aspects of a cell are displayed using 2- and 3D images, 2D network data and the various omics. Can these new technologies support more holistic visualizations of such data incorporating 3D spatial information as well as abstract data?

Affordances for Immersion: What are the “tricks” and affordances such as high-resolution displays, sound, touch, novel hard- ware and responsive interaction that change the user perception from an allocentric view of the data to a more egocentric and immersive view of the data?

Collaboration: Much research has been devoted to computer- assisted collaboration both synchronous and asynchronous, local and remote. In contrast, only few research and formal user studies have investigated collaborative visualization of abstract data in immersive environments. The new devices and environments potentially support new models for collaboration as shown in Figure 1. Collaborative Immersive Analytics can be supported, for example, by CAVE-style environments, the use of Virtual Reality HMDs, or Mixed Reality HMDs. This heterogeneity of technology involves a lot of variation on the type of collaboration and raise important research questions. How do these different environments scale with increasing number of participants? What paradigms are potentially enabled by these new interaction modalities? Can new technology bring distant collaborators closer together?

Physical and Tangible Visualization: Being part of the real world for a long time, physicalizations and dynamic visualizations have become interactive through electronics, tactility, and fabrication mechanisms. How do data physicalizations integrate into immersive scenarios and with other immersive technologies?

Interaction Techniques: Which interaction and interface design advances are needed to foster a heightened sense of immersion? The interaction techniques incorporated in existing desktop-based visualization tools introduce interface elements such as menus and widgets that act as mediators between users and the visual representation. However, due to recent advances in immersive technologies, we envision the need for new interaction techniques and designs that support direct user involvement with visualization elements rather than communication through an intermediary. This ranges from the use of novel technologies to create these interactions, to augmenting existing UI designs to foster more engaging user experiences with traditional hardware.

Real-World VA and Applications: What are the most fertile application areas for visualization? For example, these could be in life-sciences, climate science, disaster and emergency management, astronomy, personal visualization, archeology, Air Traffic Control and Management, and many more. What questions do technologies like AR raise for visualization? Traditional information visualization supports open-ended exploration based on Shneiderman's information mantra: overview first, zoom and filter, then details on demand. In our view a different model is required for analytical applications grounded in the physical world. In this case objects in the physical environment provide the immediate and primary focus and so the natural model is to provide detailed information about these objects and only provide contextual information on demand.

PC Members

• Anastasia Bezerianos, University Paris-Sud / CNRS / Inria, France
• Doug A. Bowman, Virginia Tech, USA
• Wolfgang Bueschen, Dresden University of Technology, Germany
• Jian Chen, University of Maryland Baltimore, USA
• Steven Drucker, Microsoft Research, USA
• Carla Freitas, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil
• Nathalie Henry Riche, Microsoft Research, USA
• Christophe Hurter, ENAC, France
• Karsten Klein, Konstanz University, Germany
• Kim Marriott, Monash University, Australia
• Emmanuel Pietriga, Inria, France
• Eric Ragan, Texas A and M University, USA
• Gerik Scheuermann, University of Leipzig, Germany
• Falk Schreiber, Konstanz University, Germany
• Ronell Sicat, Harvard University, USA
• John Stasko, Georgia Tech, USA
• Wolfgang Stuerzlinger, Simon Fraser University, Canada
• Aurelien Tabard, University Claude Bernard, France
• Bruce Thomas, University of South Australia, Australia
• Aaron Quigley, University of Saint Andrews, UK