People are increasingly interacting with computerized agents. Examples include autonomous and tele-presence robots in homes, healthcare, or search and rescue, virtual characters in the expanding gaming industry or for serious games, and agents representing other people through on-line social and interactive meeting places. Although these broad areas have their own unique research challenges, there is a clear commonality to be addressed in the investigation of how people interact with agents, whether they have physical or virtual embodiments, or represent remote people or an AI algorithm; this commonality requires explicit consideration.

The Ninth International Conference on Human-Agent Interaction (HAI 2021, in cooperation with ACM SIGCHI) aims to be the premier interdisciplinary venue for discussing and disseminating state-of-the-art research and results that have implications across conventional interaction boundaries including robots, software agents and digitally-mediated human-human communication. HAI will gather researchers from fields spanning engineering, computer science, psychology and sociology, and will cover diverse topics, including: human-robot interaction, affective computing, computer-supported collaborative work, gaming and serious games, artificial intelligence, and more.

The theme for HAI 2021 will be “Distributed Together, Making Connections”. Due to the pandemic, we have been forced to disperse physically. As a result, online video conferencing and communication through social networking services are becoming more popular, with some drawbacks. Agents and avatar systems that mediate and extend human society may help us to overcome this isolation. Such systems could contribute by helping us to make connections while we are apart from each other. While all submissions related to HAI are welcome, you are especially encouraged to submit papers in line with the theme for HAI 2021. The HAI conference seeks contributions from a broad range of disciplines such as engineering, computer science, psychology, sociology, cognitive science, business, marking and design. We hope to be a venue to connect these diverse areas, even though the conference will be online.

Topics include, but are not limited to:
• studies of Human-Agent Interaction, with quantitative/qualitative results;
• theoretical models;
• technological advances;
• experimental methods;
• impacts of embodiment;
• character and avatar design; and
• agents in social networks.
• agents in business and marking
• experience design

(( Important Dates ))

* Paper Submissions
- Deadlines for Submissions: June 21, 2021
- Paper Length: up to 14 pages (ACM format [one-column], except references), length should match contribution
- Notification of Paper Acceptance: August 2, 2021

* Poster Submissions
- Deadlines for Submissions: August 6, 2021
- Paper Length: up to 8 pages (except references)
- Notification of Poster Acceptance: August 16, 2021

- Camera-ready Copies of all (paper and poster) Accepted Papers: August 30
- HAI 2021 Conference: November 9-11th, 2021

(( Submission and Reviewing ))
HAI 2021 will accept ONLY online submissions of PDF files (no MS Word, Latex, etc.). All submissions will be reviewed by three reviewers and will receive a meta review for quality assurance. The paper will be evaluated on the basis of research originality, excellence, and significance, and relevance to HAI. We also invite position papers, preliminary (but high impact) studies, and concept papers.

All papers need to be in the ACM SIGCHI format (https://www.acm.org/publications/taps/word-template-workflow). Please visit the submission page at the HAI 2021 Web site to prepare and submit your papers. All accepted papers will be archived in the ACM Digital Library.

General Chairs
Kohei Ogawa, Nagoya University
Tomoko Yonezawa, Kansai University
Gale M. Lucas, USC Institute for Creative Technologies

Program Chairs
Hirotaka Osawa, University of Tsukuba
Wafa Johal, University of New South Wales
Masahiro Shiomi, Advanced Research Institute

All other information is online
http://hai-conference.net/hai2021/

For inquiries, please contact hai2021@hai-conference.net