IFIP WG 14.3

Aims and Scope  (updated February 2007) 

1. Background

In a considerable number of member countries of IFIP, many topics of Entertainment Computing have been under research during the last decades. The disciplines have reached notable success in developing new methods, tools and standards for analysing and developing products and services based on entertainment technology.

Although there are huge entertainment industries already such as video games, toys, robots, etc., little academic interest has been paid on such questions as what is the core of entertainment, what is the technologies that would create new entertainment, and how the core technologies of entertainment can be applied to other areas such as education, health care, learning and so on. The main objective of this WG is to study these issues.  

This leads to the proposal to establish a Working Group on "Theoretical Foundation of Entertainment Computing" under TC14 of IFIP.

Aims

• For the benefit of society, to promote visibility and to increase the impact of research and development in the entertainment computing area, especially in the fields defined in the scope of this working group.
• To promote quality and relevance of academic and industrial research and development in the entertainment computing area.
• To promote ethical behavior and appropriate recommendations or guidelines for research related activities, for example, submission and selection of publications, organization of conferences, allocation of grants and awards, and evaluation of professional merits and curricula.
• To promote cooperation between researchers and with other established bodies and organizations pursuing the above aims.
• To contribute to assessing the scientific merits and practical relevance of proposed approaches for entertainment technology and applications.

Scope

• The notion of entertainment technology has evolved to include systems and applications that can be used for entertainment purposes in a wide spectrum of interactivity, education, and any other beneficial services.
• The group's interest cover formalisms, models, architectures, techniques, empirical investigations and methodologies for the purpose of designing, realizing, and assessing such entertainment technology.
• These currently include in particular:
  * new models and theories for entertainment applications;
  * new concepts and techniques, e.g. narratives, empirical effects
  * impact of new technologies on human behaviour
  * understanding, reuse and interoperation of existing applications
  * advanced user interfaces and emerging interaction styles
  * new methodologies for building entertainment applications

4. Activities

IFIP Working Group 16.3 (Theoretical Foundation of Entertainment Computing) continues discussion about how to investigate the general problems of entertainment computing products and services. In several workshops at international conferences (e.g. ICEC) and task forces that have taken place, the aim has been to explore issues and enhance the theoretical foundation.