The 2nd COGAIN Annual Conference on Communication by Gaze Interaction 

COGAIN 2006: 
Gazing into the Future
4-5 September 2006
Turin, Italy 

Overview

The conference provides a unique focus on communication by eye-gaze. It
concentrates on the use of eye-gaze primarily for users with different types
of disabilities in the context of interacting with computer applications,
environment control and mobility. The conference has a strong involvement
with disabled users and forms a vital bridge between those who develop gaze
measurement and communication systems, those who research into the
construction and use, and those who actually use, or could use, the systems.
There is a strong emphasis in the conference on a range of subjects from
technical issues to disabled user requirements and usability issues. The
conference is the second annual conference of COGAIN, a European Union funded
research Network of Excellence, which comprises 25 universities,
manufacturers and end-user organizations. 

The theme of the conference is defining the future in terms of a research
agenda for gaze-based communication. 

Format of the Conference 

The conference will be run over two days:
Day 1 (Monday  4th September, 2006): Academic Sessions
Day 2 (Tuesday 5th September, 2006): User and Industry Sessions

The academic sessions (Day 1) depart from the traditional format of paper
presentations and instead will take the form of 4 workshops. The proceedings
will be in three parts: a collection of short papers from participants
published on the conference web-site and made available at the conference; an
edited summary of the workshop sessions in the form of text and video and a
special edition of the Journal of Universal Access in the Information
Society, which will contain papers from invited participants based on their
short papers and contributions to the workshop sessions. 

Each workshop will have a theme around which the short papers will be
collected, and the session chair will present a state-of-the-art position
summary for each theme, together with a series of issues for the conference
participants to address. All participants are invited to submit a short
position paper that summarises their own work to date, and where they believe
the priorities for the future lie. The provisional set of themes is: 

    Eyetracking systems: low-cost systems, mobile systems, software,
    algorithms, calibration techniques and issues, integration with operating
    systems, standards. 

    Gaze-aware communication software: eye-typing systems, interfaces to
    common applications, end-user configuration, gaze-aware applications,
    edutainment. 

    Integration of gaze with other modalities: multimodal interaction, user
    performance and preference studies, attentive interfaces, gaze and brain
    integration. 

    Human factors and user-related issues: Requirements for various disabled
    user groups, measuring usability with disabled groups, usability issues
    with gaze-based systems, case studies of user experience with gaze
    communication, training in the use of gaze-communication. 

The user and industry sessions (Day 2) will follow a similar format to the
successful event held in Copenhagen during COGAIN 2005 Conference. The
sessions will contain presentations from users of gaze-based systems, from
representatives of end-user organizations and from industry, as well as
opportunities for end users and researchers to try out the latest systems
from the participating manufacturers. One of the most valuable aspects of
last year's meeting was the opportunity it gave the academic research
community and industry to meet, listen to, and observe users of gaze-based
systems, and to understand their priorities and needs for system design and
use. Furthermore, the session will provide manufacturers an ideal and unique
opportunity to showcase their products to a highly specialist audience of
those active and interested in gaze-based communication. Photographs of last
year's event are available at http://www.cogain.org/photos. 

Important Dates

Submission of short papers: 31st May 2006
Notification of acceptance: 30th June 2006
Workshops at Conference: 4th September 2006
Invitation to submit Journal Papers: 30th September 2006
Deadline for Submission of Journal Papers: 31st January 2007

Submission of Papers

Authors are requested to submit their short papers (c. 1000 - 1500 words)
using the COGAIN conference format (for a template and instructions, see
http://www.cogain.org/cogain2006). A condition of acceptance is that at least
one of the authors will attend the conference. Best papers will be invited to
submit full long papers for a special issue in the Universal Access in the
Information Society (UAIS) journal. The special edition editors in
consultation with the editor in chief of the journal will distribute the
papers to three reviewers who are experts in the field. 

The text should be clear enough to allow reviewers to judge the potential of
the paper's suitability for COGAIN 2006. The suitability of the paper will be
judged on the following criteria: 

* Originality
* Statements of main results obtained so far (need not be final results)
* Clear identification of future research needs
* Clarity of presentation
* Technical soundness

Authors are requested to email their paper for consideration to Howell
Istance: 
    howell.istance@cogain.org
    +44 (0)116 2506103

Conference Co-Chairs

Howell Istance (De Montfort University)
Laura Farinetti (Politecnico di Torino)

More information is available at http://www.cogain.org/cogain2006

