Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference on Tangible, Embedded and Embodied Interaction (2012)

We are proud to present the proceedings of TEI 2012 --- the sixth international conference on tangible, embedded, and embodied interaction design. Research in this area stretches across the full spectrum of fields involved in the design of interactive systems, from software, electronics, and mechanics, to form, aesthetics, and social impact. The papers in these proceedings thereby cover a broad scope of topics including technical, philosophical, and experiential aspects, as well as thoughtful accounts of the concrete crafts involved in making tangible, embedded and embodied interactive systems. The intimate size of this single-track conference provides a unique forum for exchanging ideas and presenting innovative work through talks, interactive exhibits, demonstrations, hands-on studios, posters, art installations and performances. The first TEI conference was hosted by Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, LA, USA (2007); subsequent annual TEI conferences were at the B-IT Center in Bonn, Germany (2008), Microsoft Research in Cambridge, UK (2009), the MIT Media Lab, Cambridge, MA USA (2010), and the Madeira Interactive Technologies Institute, Funchal, Madeira, Portugal (2011). Held at the Human Media Lab at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada, this year's conference again showcases the very latest research in this subfield of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI). The call for papers attracted 135 submissions from 30 countries spanning Africa, Asia, Europe, and North America. Three program chairs worked with 40 associate program chairs to manage the review process. Each paper received at least three expert reviews, in addition to a meta-review by a member of the program committee. The program chairs then selected the top papers for presentation at the conference, while determining their presentation format. TEI has had a tradition of allowing research to be presented either as a short or a long talk, as a demo, a poster, or as a combination of those, independently of submission length. This format allowed us to maintain the community's longstanding commitment to improve the visibility of the work presented at the conference. This year, we gave all authors the opportunity to present their work as a talk, as well as showcase their work in an interactive demonstration where appropriate, providing an equal chance of being seen, explained, and discussed amongst participants during the conference. As a result of this process, 42 submissions were selected for presentation at the conference: 22 eight-page papers, 16 four-page papers, and 4 two-page papers (an acceptance rate of 31%). From these contributions, the program of the conference includes 4 short, five minutes talks, 13 short, five minutes talks + demonstration, 11 long, fifteen minutes talks and 8 long, ten minutes talks + demonstration. These proceedings contain all the accepted papers that resulted from the TEI 2012 review process. These papers are organized in eight thematic sessions. Fold unfold showcases research addressing this year's conference theme in a variety of new paper- and folding-based interaction techniques. Rock that Body covers different ways of approaching the human body with technology. Touchy Feely collects papers related to haptic and tactile interfaces. Intangibles focuses on more theoretical and philosophical perspectives. Come Out and Play covers aspects of interactive and tangible play. Can't Touch This explores touchless interaction techniques, such as gesture-based systems, or even invisible interactions, via radio. School's Out includes papers relating to education and training. Finally, One Step Beyond showcases a broad variety of interaction techniques that are new to TEI and to the interaction design community at large. In addition to research papers, the conference hosts several other forms of presentations. The Graduate Student Consortium accepted twelve graduate students to discuss their research amongst each other and with a panel of experienced TEI researchers, in an informal and interactive setting (30% acceptance rate). TEI 2012 also includes the Art Explorations, a juried track of thirteen innovative tangible interactive art and performance pieces (23% acceptance rate); Work-in-Progress papers, a juried selection of ongoing late breaking results presented as posters (53% acceptance rate); and Studios, hands-on events that offer novel practical experiences to conference attendees with diverse skills and backgrounds. Finally, the Design Challenge features a student competition of designs demonstrated at the conference. The submissions in each category this year were specially interesting, diverse, and of high quality. From the titles of the papers, art pieces, and studios, one notices immediately the diversity of interests that engage the TEI community, ranging from toolkits to tabletops, gestures to games and from programming to paper. What brings it all together is a commitment to the synthesis of technology, physicality, design, and ultimately, people.