A relevant workshop at Pervasive Computing 2006: PERMID 2006: Pervasive Mobile Interaction Devices - Mobile Devices as Pervasive User Interfaces and Interaction Devices -:

The main goal of the workshop is to develop an understanding of how mobile devices (particularly mobile phones, smartphones and PDAs) can be used as interaction devices. We will provide a forum to share information, results, and ideas on current research in this area. Furthermore we aim to develop new ideas on how mobile phones can be exploited for new forms of interaction with the environment. We will bring together researchers and practitioners who are concerned with design, development, and implementation of new applications and services using personal mobile devices as user interfaces.

Possible topics for the workshop include (but are not limited to): Interactions between mobile devices and the real world Interactive context-aware services on mobile devices Augmented, virtual and mixed reality on mobile phones and PDAs (tracking, markers, visualisation) Using mobile devices as user interfaces for terminals and vending machines Portable music players (e.g. iPod Video) and personal servers as mobile interaction devices Multimodal interaction taking mobile devices into account Usage of sensors in mobile devices (camera, microphone, GPS, etc.) for pervasive applications Interaction metaphors for pervasive applications and services Gathering, management and usage of context information User experience, user studies Applications and scenarios

February 18, 2006: Deadline for submissions of workshop papers

One of the most interesting issue the organizers want to address is the following question: "Why are pervasive interactions using mobile phones still only a research topic and what is preventing them from being realized outside of the lab? ". This statement is obviously true and should definitely be of interest. When I read things like future perfect, I cannot help feeling that some relevant innnovation are around (i.e. about how people use technologies in new way) and people should have to pay attention to what's happening!