The workshop will be organized as a 3-hour-long half-day workshop and takes place online. We will kick off the workshop with an exciting keynote, followed by various presentations of research, application, system, and project papers that were previously selected in a double-blind review process by the workshop's program committee. The workshop will conclude with a panel discussion where attendees can engage in conversation with invited experts from research and industry. We invite authors to submit papers that are in spirit with the announcement and the topics described on the submission page.
All deadlines are 23:59 GMT/UTC time.
January 13, 2022: Paper submissions due
January 20, 2022: Notification of results
January 27, 2022: Camera-ready submission for inclusion in the IEEE Digital Library
Submissions that have not been accepted to IEEE VR 2022 Journal or Conference Track will be considered for presentation to the SIVA workshop. Authors of such submissions should submit an amended version of their original paper in response to the reviews in a PDF file together with the received reviews.
The convergence of different research areas such as artificial intelligence, Internet of Things, and virtual / augmented reality has given rise to intelligent virtual agents (IVAs) that have natural language processing capabilities, knowledge of and control over the user's (smart home) environment, and a human-like appearance (see, for example, Soul Machines' Digital People, Magic Leap's Mica, and Epic's MetaHuman). Driven by these recent advances, IVAs are not only making their way into our homes in the form of personal, voice-based assistants, but are also entering our businesses (e.g., as facilitators in virtual meetings), our healthcare system (e.g., for supporting traditional therapies), and, in long-term visions, a metaverse that spans diverse areas of society. To become a ubiquitous, accepted, and trusted part of our lives, IVAs must progressively evolve from predominantly functional to social entities, represented in anthropomorphic form and requiring natural verbal and non-verbal communication skills. Therefore, human-centered and social aspects need to become a focus of research.
This workshop aims at exploring different aspects of interaction with and perception of IVAs, particularly when they are intended to build a social relationship with users over time. The workshop will bring together researchers, developers, and industry partners to discuss potentials as well as challenges associated with social IVAs from a multidisciplinary perspective.