Radar-based interaction (RBI) represents the fusion between radar technology and human-computer interaction, suggesting a novel approach to interact with applications, but also inducing new engineering challenges to the development life cycle. Radars, historically employed in various fields such as aviation, target localization and ground imaging , and more recently in car and pedestrian detection, have found new applications where users can interact with computer systems without the need for physical contact or visible light. Indeed, the key advantages of RBI lie in its versatility and adaptability to diverse or adverse contexts of use. Unlike computer vision-based systems that may be affected by lighting conditions or physical obstructions, RBI operates in various lighting conditions, does not suffer from scene occlusion, and can penetrate surfaces, making it suitable for both indoor and outdoor interactive applications, such as wall pipe leak, and falling body detection.
Unlike conventional methods that rely on input devices like keyboards, mice, or touch screens, RBI operates by detecting and interpreting the reflected radio waves emitted by the human body or its gestures, mainly hand gestures. By leveraging radar’s ability to precisely capture position, motion, and even physiological parameters at a distance, this approach enables users to interact using gesture input, which then requires discovering new gestures and novel approaches to recognize them and integrate them into applications. For example, gesture recognition with millimetre-wave (mmWave) radars has gained significant interest among researchers and practitioners due to its numerous advantages, including resilience to environmental factors such as lighting and weather conditions, low power consumption, compact form factor, and the ability to detect gestures through materials. This capability is valuable for real-time applications, such as controlling systems in vehicles or sensing gestures when the sensor is embedded within an object.
This workshop aims towards the fundamental principles, technological advancements, and applications of RBI, compare them, and generate new ideas. It sets to explore how radar sensing is harnessed to capture gestures, track movements, and infer intent. While user experience considerations of privacy, accuracy, and user acceptance for RBI are crucial factors, this workshop focuses but is not limited to the following topics:
- Case studies and new datasets for RBI: what kind of case studies could we report to share experience and which datasets could be used for testing, comparative testing, and benchmarking.
- Fundamentals of radar technology: what are the appropriate models, methods, and techniques to capture radar waves and their raw data to convert them into high-level, meaningful information for RBI?
- Signal processing for RBI : what are the techniques for analyzing, modifying, filtering, curating, and synthesizing wave signals from various radars?
- Radars for RBI : which radar sensors, either custom-made or commodity, can be effectively and efficiently used for capturing waves and in which contexts of use?
- Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Deep Learning for RBI: which algorithms can be used to handle high-level data and to interpret them into meaningful information useful for deducing interaction?
- Applications of RBI in various domains of human activity: what are the favorite domains of application where radars are justified, which are the most favorable conditions such as when lighting and privacy are concerned; which are the least favorable conditions such as when the temperature and pressure vary?
- Engineering considerations to facilitate the design and the development of RBI : which software architectures and software artifacts can be effectively used to facilitate the development life cycle of radar-based user interfaces and their interactive applications?
- Gesture sets and user experience: since gestures resulting from RBI may be substantially different than traditional gestures recognized by other systems, any study revealing what gestures are relevant, ergonomic for the user and radar friendly is also of our interest. More specifically we are interested in gesture elicitation studies, uncovering how effective are radars for micro, and macro gesture detection? What are the limits of gesture scale (i.e. the minimal amount of movement that still allows for accurate classification)? What makes gestures distinguishable from one another, and what kind of methods and tools could be used to help designers and practitioners when choosing gesture sets?
- RBI in challenging situations: How to do RBI in multi user situations, sensing though various materials (e.g., interacting with a mobile phone while in your pocket or a leather bag) and beyond walls, dealing with multiple user situation, etc.
Important dates:
- Submission deadline: May 10th, 2024, Anywhere on Earth (AoE).
- Notification of acceptance: May 31st, 2024.
- Deadline for registration to the workshop: June 7th, 2024.
- Final program for workshop: June 15th, 2024.
- Workshop (full-day): June 25th, 2024.
- Chapter proposal for RBI book: June 30th, 2024. At that time, the authors should provide a provisional title of their chapter, a list of authors, and an abstract. These contents will be used to submit a book proposal to Springer HCI series.
- Submission of book proposal to Springer HCI series: July 7th, 2024.
- Notification of acceptance (tentative): August 1st, 2024.
- Post-workshop chapter submission: August 23rd, 2024.
- Submission of book to production (tentative): September 2024.
- Publication of the RBI book (tentative): October 2024.