Call for submissions

• General information
• Papers • Extended abstracts
• Formatting and submission
• Final submission

General information 

The Haptics Symposium (HAPTICS) is a premier forum for innovations in technology and applications related to the human sense of touch, and to advances in our understanding of haptic (touch) perception. Sponsored by IEEE's Robotics and Automation Society and its Technical Committee on Haptics, HAPTICS brings together psychophysicists, engineers and designers, and crosses boundaries between the disciplines of robotic control and device design, psychology, human-computer interaction and the emerging areas of touch and mobile computing. Its single track format and comfortable but vibrant surroundings make this symposium an ideal opportunity to network and learn.

The 2012 Haptics Symposium solicits contributions in four categories, designed to meet the publication and sharing needs of our diverse community:

1. Papers: September 19, 2011 (23:00 PDT)
2. Extended abstracts: September 19, 2011 (23:00 PDT)
3. Hands-on demonstrations
4. Commercial exhibits

Proposals for tutorials and workshops should be sent to the chairs [at] hapticssymposium [dot] org (subject: HAPTICS%20tutorials%20and%20workshops%20inquiry) (conference chairs) by October 27, 2011 (earlier communication is strongly encouraged).

Accepted Papers and Extended Abstracts will be published in the HAPTICS 2012 Conference Proceedings, and will be be available via IEEE XPlore. Accepted demo abstracts and tutorial/workshop abstracts will be made available to the conference attendees in the electronic proceedings.

Novel Content Requirement: Both Papers and Extended Abstracts should describe new content that has not been previously published in archival form, nor presented at another conference. This is not intended as a bar to subsequent publication of this material.

Papers

Paper submissions are sought that fully describe original, relevant unpublished work. Authors of accepted papers are also encouraged to submit a demonstration.

Paper length (new in 2012): Papers must be at least 4 full pages, and a maximum of 8 pages. Reviewers will be instructed to weigh the contribution of a paper relative to its length. Papers should be succinct, but thorough in presenting the work; thus, a smaller contribution should be described in fewer pages (e.g. 4), and an 8 page paper should have a very substantial contribution.  Shorter, more focused papers are encouraged; all will be subjected to the same review, with criteria of contribution, appropriate length, and appropriateness for oral versus poster presentation ranked by reviewers. Papers whose length is incommensurate with their contribution will be reviewed less favorably, and are less likely to be given podium presentation.

For example, an 8-page paper might describe an extensive study or complex technical design or algorithm which is of considerable interest to the HAPTICS audience, with enough detail to allow replication and to clearly convey the work's rationale and support conclusions drawn. A 4-page paper will describe e.g. a less extensive or high-impact study, a prototype application that has not been thoroughly validated experimentally, or initial technical implementations - thus requiring less space, but still providing replicable detail, and with rationale and conclusions supported.

Video: The submission of supplementary videos is encouraged. However, videos should be no more than five minutes in length, and the limit for all uploads (paper+video) is 40MB in size.

Review: Rigorous reviewing is a HAPTICS hallmark. Each paper will be reviewed by one PC member and at least three external experts.

Long/Short Oral versus Poster Presentation: All accepted papers will be considered for long or short oral presentation slots; authors may indicate their preference. Reviewers will recommend presentation format, and a final decision will be based on the paper's quality and impact. Shorter papers designated for oral presentation will generally receive short presentation slots. Papers not chosen for oral presentation will be presented as posters. 

Proceedings: All papers will appear in the IEEE XPlore regardless of presentation format.  Orally presented papers will be labelled as such, and an acceptance rate for oral presentation will be reported.

Extended abstracts

Submissions of 3-4 full pages that summarize larger but original, unpublished contributions intended for and meriting more expansive journal publication, as required by the publication culture of some components of our multidisciplinary audience, are appropriate as Extended Abstracts. An Extended Abstract will outline a course of research rather than provide its full details to the standard of replicability. It must motivate and provide clear evidence for a considerably more substantial and complex contribution than that expected for a 4-page Haptics Symposium Paper (see preceding category).

The key difference between a 4-page Paper and an Extended Abstract is that the latter is expected to employ a degree of summarization. While held to a lower requirement for detail, it will be held to a higher standard of impact and interest to our audience than a Paper of the same length, particularly in consideration for oral presentation.

Oral versus poster presentation: All accepted Extended Abstracts will be considered for short oral presentation slots, on a similar basis as Papers; authors may indicate their preference. Abstracts not chosen for oral presentation will be presented as posters. The intent of this policy is to safeguard the diversity of our conference by attracting exciting and cutting-edge representation in our oral sessions from members of our audience who have difficulties with conference-publication conventions.

Proceedings: Accepted Extended Abstracts will appear in the Extended Abstracts section of the HAPTICS Proceedings. This should constitute the first appearance of the work summarized in an accepted Abstract, and a similar abstract summary should not appear elsewhere. Oral presentation will be indicated and its acceptance rate reported.

Formatting and submission

Paper format: HAPTICS uses the IEEE VGTC conference paper format for both full papers and extended abstracts.  

Formatting for review: We use a single-blind review process for full papers and extended abstracts, meaning the reviewers remain anonymous to the authors but not vice versa. Submissions should therefore not be anonymized. 

Submission: Full papers and extended abstract should be submitted using the web-based PCS system.

Final submission of accepted papers: The primary author of each accepted paper and extended abstract will receive an Author Kit with detailed instructions on how to format and electronically submit a final, publication-ready version of the paper.

Accompanying video submissions

Videos optionally accompanying Paper and Extended Abstract submissions should be submitted through the same system as the papers. Although Papers and Extended Abstracts must stand on their own, submitted videos will be sent to reviewers as supporting material. Authors of accepted papers will have the opportunity to prepare a more polished final video presentation for inclusion in the electronic proceedings and as supplemental material in the IEEE XPlore.

When submitting your video for review, please encode your video in a format that works across as many platforms as possible without the installation of additional codecs (i.e., it is best if your video will play on standard versions of Windows Media Player and/or Quicktime player). Please note that the total aggregate size for a submission cannot exceed 40 MBytes (including all documents and additional material).

Full video submission instructions will be posted when the submission system is open.

Final submission

All accepted papers and extended abstracts will appear in full proceedings, which will be distributed on USB at the conference and published on-line in IEEE Xplore. In addition, a printed conference digest that shows short abstracts and images will also be distributed.

The authors of accepted papers and extended abstracts are requsted to prepare:
1) a final version of your paper (pdf and accompanying video if available) for the online proceedings;
2) an abstract (100 words) and an image (square aspect ratio, minimum 900x900 pixels) for the conference digest.

Due date: December 19, 2011

For further information and file uploading, see http://www.cs.sfu.ca/~vis/Track/haptics.html.