[iva] VHCIE @ IEEE VR 2025: Call for Papers

[Bönsch, Andrea]

Call for Papers: Workshop on Virtual Humans and Crowds in Immersive
Environments @ IEEE VR 2025


We are thrilled to announce that the 9th edition of the workshop on Virtual
Humans and Crowds in Immersive Environments (VHCIE) will take place during
the 32nd IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces, held
from March 8-12, 2025 in Saint-Malo, France (https://ieeevr.org/2025/).
VHCIE is a half-day onsite workshop, focused on exploring advancements in
creating believable virtual humans and crowds within immersive virtual
environments (IVEs). For more details, please visit
http://files.inria.fr/vhcie/2025.


Today, various tools, including algorithms and systems, enable the creation
and design of believable virtual humans and crowds in IVEs. Sophisticated
crowd simulations can efficiently populate city-sized environments with
thousands of realistic virtual characters, called virtual agents,
interacting with each other and with users. A wide range of applications and
scenarios can be envisioned, ranging from virtual tour guides to the
creation of virtual platforms for training professionals or studying human
behavior, or even the reproduction of a concert. However, several challenges
remain, particularly regarding the multimodal representation of interactions
(such as haptic feedback for physical collisions, sound integration, etc.),
the responsiveness of virtual humans at both verbal and non-verbal
communication levels, and understanding the individual and situational
factors affecting social interactions in populated environments. In
addition, accessibility in virtual environments is an increased area of
focus within the VR community. Ensuring that these social interactions are
accessible to users of all abilities is essential. This includes addressing
challenges like enhancing user interfaces for diverse needs, creating more
inclusive social virtual spaces, and developing tools that support a wider
range of physical and cognitive abilities, making virtual reality a more
universally accessible medium for all.

 

In this context, the goal of the VHCIE workshop is to foster discussions on
the latest research related to these issues in a cross-community approach.
Thus, we invite research contributions not only from the VR community but
also from fields that contribute to understanding human behavior during
social interactions - especially work with potential applications in VR or
those exploring how to transition to VR. We encourage discussions and
feedback from our community to help facilitate this process. We also warmly
welcome contributions from the intelligent virtual agents (IVA) community,
with which we aim to strengthen our connection due to significant overlaps
and potential collaboration. This focus is reflected in our topics,
committee structure, IPC, and invited keynote. Finally, we explicitly
welcome work-in-progress and student projects.



We encourage submissions of research papers, technical notes, position
papers, and work-in-progress research on the following topics including but
not limited to:

*	Virtual Humans (VH)
*	Virtual Crowds (VC)
*	Immersive populated spaces
*	Interaction with VH & VC
*	Multimodal rendering of VH & VC
*	Virtual Reality applications to VH & VC, including accessibility
topics


Important Dates

*	December 20th, 2024: Scientific Paper submission
*	January 9th, 2025: Notification of Scientific Paper acceptance
*	January 16th, 2025:  Camera-ready material to be published in IEEE
Xplore
*	February 7th, 2025: Late Breaking Report submission
*	February 14th, 2025: Notification of Late Breaking Report acceptance
*	February 21st, 2025: Camera-ready material to be published on our
website
*	March 8th or 9th, 2025: Half-day onsite workshop

Each deadline is 23:59:59 AoE (Anywhere on Earth) == GMT/UTC-12:00 on the
stated day, irrespective of the submitter’s location.

Format and Submission Guidelines

The workshop will include: 

*	A Keynote by Catherine Pelachaud, an IVA expert on effective
communication of embodied conversational agents through non-verbal cues  
*	Two scientific paper sessions 
*	A poster and demo session with time for informal discussions and
networking. 


Scientific Papers must be written in English and they need to be anonymized.
Submissions must be submitted as PDF and adhere to the IEEE Computer Society
VGTC format (https://tc.computer.org/vgtc/publications/conference/). We
follow a double-blind review process, where a committee of expert reviewers
evaluates all submissions made through the particular workshop track
available at the online submission site (PCS,
https://new.precisionconference.com/submissions), and provides constructive
feedback. Accepted scientific papers will be included in the Abstracts and
Workshop Proceedings of IEEE VR 2025 and archived in the IEEE Digital
Library. We welcome the following submissions (page limits include
references): 

*	Research papers: 4-6 pages
*	Technical notes: 2-4 pages
*	Position papers: 2-4 pages
*	Work-in-progress research including student projects: 1-4 pages


Additionally, we invite Late Breaking Reports (0.5 to 4 page), which will
NOT be published in the IEEE Xplore Library. These reports will also be
managed via PCS but reviewed through a single-blind process by the workshop
organizers. Late Breaking Reports have separate submission timelines closer
to the workshop and do not require anonymization.

 

Both Scientific Papers and Late Breaking Reports will be presented during a
dedicated scientific plenary oral session. Supplemental materials, such as
videos or images, can be uploaded to the submission site but are not
mandatory. Furthermore, authors of accepted submissions are encouraged to
present a demo or poster at the workshop in addition to their oral
presentation for further feedback from attendees. Please indicate your
interest in this during your initial submission in PCS for our planning
purposes. After acceptance, we will request technical requirements for your
presentation.

 

Contact

For more information, please contact the Workshop Organizers

*	Andrea Bönsch, RWTH Aachen University, Germany
*	Mathieu Chollet, University of Glasgow, United Kingdom
*	Anne-Hélène Olivier, University of Rennes, France
*	Julien Pettré, Inria Rennes, France

supported by student volunteer Jordan Martin (Inria Rennes, France) at
vhcie.vr at gmail.com <mailto:vhcie.vr at gmail.com> 



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