Papers

Papers at IMX 2021

The ACM International Conference on Interactive Media Experiences (IMX) focuses on challenges and innovations across diverse forms of media engagement and experiences. The aim is to provoke and promote discussion and the sharing of exciting ideas amongst researchers, industry practitioners and the academic community in all forms of media: VR, AR, MR, XR, 360°, live-streaming, online media content, authoring and production, as well as TV. We encourage authors to submit their novel research findings in analyzing, developing, creating, installing, evaluating, critiquing or distributing interactive media experiences. Possible topics of interest include:

• Understanding audience interests and their related interaction with content.
• Developing new content forms and formats and media/video‑centric experiences.
• Analyzing and developing underlying technologies and systems.
• Critiquing and creating production tools and workflows.
• Exploring the use and implications of AI and machine learning (e.g. in social media, media analytics, etc…).
• Developing innovative business models and marketing techniques in relation to multimedia experiences.
• Understanding wider social and cultural contexts of multimedia experiences.
• Designing and showcasing experimental media interactive art experiences.
• Exploring cultural, artistic, and creative experiences through interactive multimedia beyond entertainment (e.g. performance & opera, digital humanities, etc.).

Audience understanding

This topic focuses on advances in audience engagement with media content as a rapidly evolving activity across diverse platforms, devices, and timeframes. It welcomes contributions that seek to understand audiences using a rich variety of analytic approaches including sensing audiences, sentiment analysis, and measuring and monitoring quality of experience. Areas of interest include, but are not limited to, consumption trends and behaviors in young audiences, sharing practices and communication strategies, identifying engagement patterns across diverse genres, platforms and demographics, scheduled versus on-demand content consumption, binge viewing, and multi-platform engagement.

Immersive and interactive content and experiences

This topic is suitable for papers where the primary contribution is the introduction of novel ways of experiencing interactive media content. This includes new forms of media content (e.g. VR, AR, MR, XR, 360°, live-streaming, etc.) consumed in diverse ways including across multiple screens, platforms, and in immersive theatres. Application areas include entertainment and information including interactive and generative documentaries, transmedia storytelling, volumetric filmmaking, live performance broadcasts and object-based media productions. Papers in other application areas, such as education, healthcare, wellbeing and governance and decision-making, are also welcome.

Technologies, systems, and interfaces

This topic focuses on technologies, systems, and interfaces that improve and advance our interactions with media content online, at home, or on the move. It encourages submissions describing technical advancements in streaming systems, content synchronization for multi-platform delivery, and recommendation and companion apps. Additional areas for consideration include games engines for content delivery, location-based and context-aware applications and services and object-based media.

Production tools and workflows

This topic solicits papers describing procedural advances in the preparation, design, and development of media experiences. Areas of interest include new production processes for TV, online video, VR, AR, XR, and 360° formats. Novel tools and workflows using motion capture, volumetric capture and animation are encouraged, as are the presentations of innovative authoring and data-driven tools for interactive or multi-platform content development. In addition to papers describing technical innovations, this topic area is also interested in innovations originating from design and humanities perspectives detailing the authoring process for writing interactive content and the human-centered design methods used to realize these narratives.

AI and machine learning

This topic focuses on the use of machine learning and/or artificial intelligence techniques to capture, generate, or understand social media experiences and includes areas such as verification and verification scamming, information diffusion, monitoring media bias, misinformation and fake news, predictability of real-world events, and crowd-sourcing and collective intelligence in rich media systems.

Business models and marketing

This topic focuses on the new business, marketing, purchasing, subscription, and monetizing strategies encountered in the new media landscape of TV and online video. Areas of interest include, but are not limited to, targeted advertisements, freemium products, programmatic media buying, in-programme recommendations and purchases, exploiting consumption data, monetizing second screen experiences, and social media influencer strategies. 

Cultural and social studies

The impact of the new interactive media and TV landscape on culture and society is powerful and raises many important and challenging topics for consideration. This area welcomes papers from a wide variety of theoretical and analytical perspectives examining structured reality TV, social media manipulation and targeting, media convergence and platform monopolies, intellectual property, remix culture, fan culture, media activism and participation politics, or tactical media practices. In addition, research concerning media violence, social media addiction, or issues of bias and ethics would also be appropriate for this topic.

Disruptive concepts and video-centric art

This topic focuses on disruptive media practises that seek to challenge traditional media consumption patterns and expand spectator experiences. Authors are invited to describe the design, development of (and response to) constructed video-centric work, or speculate about future-oriented media provocations.

Experiences beyond entertainment

This topic considers cultural, artistic, and creative multimedia experiences that goes beyond the traditional multimedia entertainment scope. Technologies, interfaces, and experiences in application domains including but not limited to interactive art, digital performance & opera experiences, online learning/e-learning, musical festivals, museum exhibitions, and digital humanities. Papers in other related application areas beyond entertainment are also welcome.

IMX is an inclusive, growing, interdisciplinary community, so if you aren’t sure whether the specifics of your research are in scope then please email papers@imx2021.com and the chairs will do their best to advise you. Additionally, we are offering a mentoring programme for authors new to submitting an academic paper, those in circumstances which are particular adverse (e.g. a disability or personal circumstances which impact upon the paper preparation process), those for who English is a second language or a particularly novel submission which may require additional input.

FORMAT

All submissions should follow the ACM guidelines. There is a single submission paper format (for long and short papers in the main paper track). We invite the submission of anonymized papers from 8 to 16 pages with 150 word abstract.

Ensure you use the latest version of the templates available from the ACM.  Word authors should use the single column Word Submission Format.  LaTeX authors should use the “sigconf” style with the manuscript command to produce a single column document.  LaTeX authors can download the template as a ZIP file or use the official Overleaf template.  The ACM LaTeX template on the Overleaf platform is available to all ACM authors at https://www.overleaf.com/gallery/tagged/acm-official#.WOuOk2e1taQ. 

References do not count as part of the page limit but all other content (figures, tables, headers, etc.) are included in the total page count. Authors must also specify the key area of the submission (of the areas indicated in the conference topics) and keywords.

Authors should submit accessible papers to ensure that everyone can review and access submissions to IMX. Resources for preparing accessible submissions can be found here and help to support accessible submissions is available through contacting access@imx2021.com

The committee will take into account the selected length of papers when evaluating the value and strength of the contribution (meaning shorter submissions are also welcome).

REVIEW PROCESS

Double-blind Review

Please prepare your paper in a way that preserves the anonymity of the authors as otherwise the paper will be immediately rejected. This includes removing (rather than obscuring) authors’ names below the title, avoiding phrases such as ‘our previous work’ when referring to earlier publications, removing acknowledgement information (e.g., co-workers, institutions, and grant IDs), or providing links to websites or media platforms that may identify the authors.

Originality

Material submitted to the ACM International Conference on Interactive Media Experiences must be original. By submitting a manuscript to the conference, the authors guarantee it has not been previously published, or accepted for publication in substantially similar form. No paper containing significant overlap can be submitted to other conferences or journals during the review period. Please view the basic ACM policies; these are subjective measures left to the interpretation and judgment of the reviewers and committee members.

Selection Process

Papers are expected to significantly contribute to the field of interactive media experiences. The contribution has to be original, novel, and identify how it advances the state-of-the-art (citing the most appropriate references). The paper should be concise, coherently structured, well-written and straightforward to understand. In addition, the paper must detail the methodology used for answering the research questions, justify its appropriateness, and ensure the validity of the presented results and findings.

Content will be rigorously reviewed by members of the program committee and peer experts. Each paper will receive feedback in the form of at least three peer review reports.

The final selection will be made by the Technical Program Committee based on the review reports, rebuttal, and meta-review. The program committee reserves the right to ask authors for specific changes as a precondition to publication.

AUTHORS TAKE NOTE: The official publication date is the date the proceedings are made available in the ACM Digital Library. This date may be up to two weeks prior to the first day of the actual conference. The official publication date affects the deadline for any patent filings related to published work.

At the Conference

Authors of accepted papers must give an oral presentation of their work at the conference either in person at New York or by remote participation. Authors of accepted contributions will receive the indications of how to present their work at the virtual conference. At least one author must register to attend the conference to give this presentation.

After the Conference

Accepted paper submissions will be published in the main conference proceedings, indexed by the ACM Digital Library.