The 7th International Workshop on Empathic Computing (IWEC-16)
August 22-26, 2016,
Phuket, Thailand
Technology has made strides investigating how computational models of emotions can be built. In recent years, Computer Science researchers have realized that emotion models cann ot be effectively used in real-world applications by themselves. They need to be analyzed in light of human interactions, and treated with other non-verbal cues as social signals to extract meaning from the data.

Currently, there is a need for human-centered systems, i.e. systems that are seamlessly integrated into everyday life, easy to use, multimodal, and anticipatory. These systems widen the breadth of users of computing systems, from the very young to the elderly, as well as to the physically challenged. Empathic systems are human-centered systems.

Empathic computing systems are software or physical context-aware computing systems capable of building user models and provide richer, naturalistic, system-initiated empathic responses with the objective of providing intelligent assistance and support. We view empathy as a cognitive act that involves the perception of the user's thought, affect (i.e., emotional feeling or mood), intention or goal, activity, and/or situation and a response due to this perception that is supportive of the user. An empathic computing system is ambient intelligent, i.e., it consists of seamlessly integrated ubiquitous networked sensors, microprocessors and software for it to perceive the various user behavioral patterns from multimodal inputs.

On its seventh year, IWEC-16 aims to gather researchers interested in the deployment of agents in real-world scenarios, such as tele-health and therapy systems, education (in tutoring systems) and edutainment such as games. The design of such agents' interactions with humans is an interesting study, as it will need to consider performance issues (i.e. the ability to understand input and respond in real-time), interaction design (considering factors such as culture, profile, and context, including the goal of the interaction), and usability among others. Specifically, the workshop aims to bring together a variety of researchers from Computer Science, Psychology, Education, and User Experience to help solve these complex issues. We are inviting new and unpublished papers on, but not limited to, the following topics:


Sensor Networks/Wearable Sensors for Intelligent Interfaces
Human-Robot Interactions
Emotion-aware Embodied Conversational Agents
Emotion and mood recognition
Intention Recognition/Behavior/Activity Recognition
MultimodalCommunication
Social Signal Processing
Social Agents
Data fusion in Intelligent Ambient Spaces
Multimodal Approaches for Improved Decision-making
Motivational Aids in Intelligent Education Systems
e-Health and Geriatrics Care
Machine Learning and Data mining for Empathy

Important Dates

June 03, 2016 Full Paper Submission
June 27, 2016 Notification of Acceptance
July 08, 2016 Final Manuscript Submission
July 08, 2016 Early Registration Deadline
August 22-26, 2016 Conference Dates
Submission

All submission and publication guidelines announced for the PRICAI 2016 conference will be applicable for this workshop. The authors of the papers are request to submit the paper using the submission system at http://aiat.in.th/pricai2016workshop/

Please choose "7th International Workshop on Empathic Computing (IWEC-16)."

For more information, please refer to PRICAI 2016 paper submission page at http://aiat.in.th/pricai2016workshop/.

Other information can be found at http://aiat.in.th/pricai2016/.

Abstract and Paper Submission
A number of high-quality workshop papers will be selected to publish in LNCS/LNAI series. Therefore, all papers submitted to the PRICAI 2016 Workshops must be formatted in Springer's Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence (LNAI) camera-ready style template; see the Springer's author instructions page for details. Papers (submitted and final) cannot exceed 12 pages (excluding references). Please do not include acknowledgements in submissions due to blind review. Papers must be in trouble-free, high-resolution PDF format, using Type 1 or TrueType fonts. Please only use the author-year system for your references. Please also refer to the instructions on how to prepare your paper for blind review. Electronic abstract and paper submission through the PRICAI 2016 paper submission site is required on or (preferably) before the deadline dates listed above. We cannot accept submissions by e-mail or fax. Authors will receive confirmation of receipt of their abstracts or papers, including an ID number, shortly after submission. We will contact authors again only if problems are encountered with papers.

Blind Review Instructions
Reviewing for the PRICAI Workshop papers is blind to the identities of the authors. The first page, on which the paper body begins, should include the title and abstract, but not the acknowledgments and names or affiliations of the authors. The references should include all published literature relevant to the paper, including previous works of the authors, but should not include unpublished works. When referring to one's own work, use the third person, rather than the first person. For example, say "Previously, Walsh (Walsh 2013) has shown that...," rather than "In our previous work (Walsh 2013) we have shown that...." Try to avoid including any information in the body of the paper or references that would identify the authors or their institutions. Such information may be added to the final camera-ready version for publication.

Program committee members will identify papers they are qualified to review based on the information submitted electronically (the paper's title, keywords, and abstract). Their reviewing will be done blind to the identities of the authors and their institutions.

Policy Concerning Submissions to Other Conferences or Journals
PRICAI Workshop 2016 will not accept any paper that, at the time of submission, is under review for or has already been published or accepted for publication in a journal or another conference. Authors are also required not to submit their papers elsewhere during PRICAI Workshop 2016's review period. These restrictions apply only to journals and conferences, not to workshops and similar specialized presentations with a limited audience and without archival proceedings. The restrictions also do not apply to preprints posted only on arXiv. Authors will be required to confirm that their submissions conform to these requirements at the time of submission.

Publication
Accepted papers will be allocated twelve (12) pages in the conference proceedings (with one extra page for references). Final papers found to exceed page limits and or otherwise violating the instructions to authors will not be included in the proceedings. Authors will be required to transfer copyright of their paper to Springer.

Registration

Please register directly via PRICAI 2016 conference web page.


Track Chairs

Advisory Board

Dirk Heylen
Human Media Interaction Laboratory
Computer Science, University of Twente, Amsterdam

Toyoaki Nishida
Department of Intelligence Science and Technology
Graduate School of Informatics
Kyoto University, Japan

Catherine Pelachaud
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
CNRS - Telecom Paris Tech, France

Program Committee Members

Eriko Aiba, Japan Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (Japan)
Elisabetta Bevacqua, Lab-STICC, CERV - ENIB (France)
IwanDekok, University of Twente (Netherlands)
MasashiInoue, Yamagata University (Japan)
Akihiro Kashihara, Univ. of Electro-Communications (Japan)
RadoslawNiewiadomski, Telecom Paris Tech (France)
Magalie Ochs, Telecom Paris Tech (France)
Noriko Otani, Tokyo City University (Japan)
Dennis Reidsma, University of Twente (Netherlands)
Isao Ono, Tokyo Institute of Technology (Japan)
Joseph Beck, Worcester Polytechnic Institute (USA)
Sidney D'Mello, University of Notre Dame (USA)
Ryan Baker, Columbia University (USA)
Jerome Urbain, University of Mons (Belgium)
Khiet Truong, University of Twente (Amsterdam)

ArnulfoAzcarraga, De La Salle University (Philippines)
Raymund Sison, De La Salle University (Philippines)
Nelson Marcos, De La Salle University (Philippines)
Judith Azcarraga, De La Salle University (Philippines)
Rafael Cabredo, Osaka University (Japan)
Jocelynn Cu, De La Salle University (Philippines)
Paul Salvador Inventado, Carnegie-Mellon University (USA)

Organizing Committee

Merlin Teodosia Suarez
Center for Empathic Human-Computer Interactions
De La Salle University (Philippines)

The Duy Bui
Human Machine Interaction Laboratory
Vietnam National University - Hanoi (Vietnam)

Ma. Mercedes Rodrigo
Ateneo Laboratory for the Learning Sciences
Ateneo de Manila University (Philippines)

Masayuki Numao
Department of Architecture for Intelligence
Osaka University (Japan)

Primary Contact

Merlin Teodosia Suarez
merlin.suarez@delasalle.ph

Masayuki Numao