Call for Papers: Life and Work at Home
Andrew L. Kun, Gabriela Marcu, Marios Constantinides


Title and abstracts due: 27 January 2024
Full Manuscripts due: 10 February 2024 (https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/pc-cs)
Publication: July 2024


Pervasive computing devices have become more common in our homes. These devices entertain us, support our wellbeing, and facilitate our work and study. They also demand our attention, they can make it difficult to maintain a sensible work-life balance, they allow others to collect information about us, and they can increase our carbon footprint.

The way we utilize pervasive computing in our homes has changed during the Covid-19 pandemic. So has the intensity of utilization. During the pandemic, many people stayed at home much more than in prior times, and this resulted in adding devices to their homes both to support personal goals, such as entertainment and comfort, as well as to support work or studying, including for children. It also resulted in people spending more time using these devices than in the past. And while the pandemic, and our response to it, has transformed, many changes in our homes that were first introduced during the pandemic remain with us, including new electronic devices, reliance on deliveries of goods, and of course increased hours of working from home. Given all this, how can pervasive computing in our homes support us in our personal and professional roles? How can it do so while preserving our privacy, upholding ethical standards, and allowing us to reduce our carbon footprint? And how do we chart a path to the future of pervasive computing in the home?

Relevant topics of this special issue include but are not limited to the following:

● Controlling the home: connecting and controlling devices in the home to support comfort and a range of activities.
● Entertainment: using devices to consume content and play, alone as well as in co-located or remote groups.
● Health and wellbeing: supporting everyday activities that promote physical and mental health, including family life, social interactions, caregiving, and health behaviors.
● Tools for pervasive computing for the home: networking, augmented reality, virtual reality, wearable devices, and human-robot collaboration.
● Inclusion and accessibility: technology that is built by, with, and for those who have historically had inequitable access.
● Security and privacy: protecting the pervasive-computing home infrastructure from malicious actors and maintaining privacy while providing personalized support for work and well-being.
● Responsible pervasive computing: investigating issues of responsible and ethical use of pervasive devices including topics of fairness, explainability, and transparency.
● Regulating pervasive devices: implications of regulatory frameworks for pervasive devices.
● Novel applications of pervasive computing in the home.


Submission Guidelines:

The guest editors invite original and high-quality submissions addressing all aspects of this field, as long as the connection to pervasive computing and/or the Internet of Things is clear and central to the paper. Review or summary articles — for example critical evaluations of the state of the art, or an insightful analysis of established and upcoming technologies — may be accepted if they demonstrate academic rigor and relevance.

Articles submitted to IEEE Pervasive Computing should not exceed 6,000 words, including all text, the abstract, keywords, bibliography, biographies, and table text. The word count must include 250 words for each table and figure. References should be limited to at most 20 citations (40 for survey papers). Authors are encouraged, but not required, to use a template (for submission (accepted articles will ultimately be typeset by magazine staff for publication).

Note that the magazine always welcomes submissions into its regular queue that cover the role of computing in the physical world – as characterized by visions such as the Internet of Things and Ubiquitous Computing. Topics of interest are, e.g., hardware design, sensor networks, mobile systems, human-computer interaction, industrial design, machine learning, data science, but also societal issues including privacy and ethics. Simply select the “Regular” option when submitting at the submission site (submissions are possible at any time; no need for prior abstract by email).




Special Issue Guest Editors:

Andrew L. Kun, University of New Hampshire
Gabriela Marcu, University of Michigan
Marios Constantinides, Nokia Bell Labs