Proceedings of the 12th ACM international conference on Ubiquitous computing

Abstract

On behalf of the entire organizing committee, it is our great pleasure to welcome you to the 12th International Conference on Ubiquitous Computing. After North America (2009) and Asia (2008), the UbiComp conference series returns again to Europe, to the vibrant port city of Copenhagen, Denmark. 2010 marks the 12th installment of a conference that truly captures the wide variety of research activities in the diverse field of ubiquitous computing, encompassing research from, e.g., Human Computer Interaction, Mobile Computing, Location and Sensing Technology, Middleware and Systems, and Programming Models and Tools. Each UbiComp conference represents a snapshot of our field, capturing the state-of-the-art in technology, the research challenges we are addressing, as well as the people that form the UbiComp community. Each year's proceedings represent an opportunity to learn about new areas and identify upcoming research opportunities, and this year is no exception. UbiComp 2010 continues the tradition of a single-track technical program that allows participants to experience the entire program in a variety of sessions, ranging from context awareness to location sharing, from home infrastructures to novel interactions, and from persuasive computing to physiological sensing. This year our international Program Committee, composed of 26 of the leading researchers in the field of ubiquitous computing, evaluated 202 submissions - 152 full papers and 50 notes. Using a multi-phase review process, initially each submission was reviewed by at least one member of the program committee and two or more external reviewers. Of the 202 submissions, 131 were evaluated by 1-3 additional PC members. After an online discussion, 9 submissions were auto-accepted and 79 submissions were chosen for further review and discussion at a 2-day PC meeting. In total, the Program Committee and 301 external reviewers spent countless hours to provided feedback to the authors through 848 reviews. After this rigorous process, a total of 39 submissions - 32 full papers and 7 notes - were accepted for publication in these proceedings, representing an overall acceptance rate of 19.3%. We are pleased to note this acceptance rate is the highest in the twelve-year history of the Ubicomp conference thus far. We feel our selective review process has resulted in a high-quality set of published papers. A sub-committee discussed and selected five of the 39 accepted papers to be recognized in these proceedings for their particular level of quality. Of these five, one stood out as the best paper of Ubicomp 2010. This year also sees a significantly expanded adjunct program, accepting 18 demos (1 also as video), 26 posters (3 also as videos), and 10 videos (including the shared ones), making a total of 50 accepted adjunct papers out of 79 submissions. For the first time, we have actively encouraged authors of accepted full papers and notes to also submit a poster, video, or demo of their work, in order to better engage the audience and stimulate face to face discussions. To properly reflect the significance of the work represented in the adjunct program, these submissions also see a much tighter integration in the main program, with video presentations interspersed with the technical presentations of the main track, and posters and demos presented during breaks and the first day's welcome reception. The workshop program has more than doubled the number of workshops, featuring a record-breaking 14 scheduled workshops that cover both traditional UbiComp topics (e.g., context awareness, health, and design) and novel developments (e.g., crowdsourcing, e-energy, and urban computing). Last but not least, Morten Kyng's keynote on "Making dreams come true -- or how to avoid a living nightmare" will offer a critical look at the promises of ubiquitous computing and present design ideas for helping people make sense of this ever increasing technological environment.