Spatial computing can be viewed as a new way to link spatial features in physical or virtual spaces with the specific computational actions that are taken in these points in space, on the data and active computational processes that may be located there as well as in their vicinity. Thus spatial computing implies some distance or other metric within which certain computational steps can be taken among data and processes that are within that neighborhood. Spatial computing is also intrinsically parallel, with the assumption that all computations can take place simultaneously in discrete or continuous and asynchronous time steps.

Many systems can be viewed as “spatial computers”, i.e. as collections of local computational devices distributed through a physical space, in which:
- the difficulty of moving information between any two devices is strongly dependent on the distance between them, and
- the “functional goals” of the system are generally defined in terms of the system's spatial structure.

Examples include peer-to-peer wireless networks, engineered biological cells, wireless sensor networks, robotic swarms and reconfigurable computing platforms (e.g. FPGAs), as well as natural systems like animal swarms and cells during morphogenesis.

The Computer Journal is soliciting submissions on any topic in spatial computing. Of particular interest is research that applies general spatial computing principles to particular domains and cross-cutting work that is relevant


Instructions for authors

Original and high quality contributions that have not yet been published or are not currently under review by other journals or peer-reviewed conferences are sought. The manuscripts will be accepted or rejected in line with the usual standards of The Computer Journal.

The submitted papers should be formatted according to the journal style. For more detailed information concerning the requirements for submission, please refer to the journal homepage at:

www.oxfordjournals.org/our_journals/computer_journal/for_authors/msprep_submission.html

All manuscripts and any supplementary material should be submitted through the online submission system available at http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/compj.
Authors must state that their paper is for the special issue “Spatial Computing”.


Important dates

Submission deadline: 15 December 2011
Acceptance/rejection notification: End of February 2012


Guest editors

Dr Jacob Beal (BBN Technologies)
Prof. Stefan Dulman (Delft University)
Prof. Olivier Michel (Paris Est University)
Dr. Antoine Spicher (Paris Est University)