CSCI

6609 Ubiquitous Computing

Literature Review
Overview
Each student will conduct an independent literature review on a ubiquitous
computing topic of interest. The literature review will serve as background research
for the graduate seminar presented later in the course. A total of five full-length
conference papers or journal articles should be selected for the literature review
(others may be reviewed in preparation for the graduate seminar but should not be
included in this assignment).

Potential topics for literature review:
- immersive visualization
- distributed cognition applied to ubicomp
- public interactive art
- mobile annotation
- tangible interfaces
- navigation and spatial sense making
- mixed reality for cultural heritage
- interfaces for configuring, programming, and/or debugging smart
environments
- proxemic interaction
Other topics are possible: contact the instructor to discuss any proposed topic.

List of sources:
Conferences (in very rough order of relevance):
Many of these conference are sponsored by SIGCHI (https://sigchi.org/conferences/
upcoming-conferences/)
• Ubicomp
• Pervasive Computing (now merged with Ubicomp)
• ISWC (wearable computing, not semantic web -- now co-located with
Ubicomp)
• TEI (Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction)
• SUI (Spatial User Interaction)
• Mobile HCI
• MobiSys
• CHI (Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems)
• PerDis (Pervasive Displays)
• UIST (User Interface Software & Technology)
• ISS (Interactive Surfaces & Spaces)
• CSCW (Computer-Supported Cooperative Work)
• ISMAR (Intl. Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality)
• DIS (Designing Interactive Systems)

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• UMAP (User Modelling and Personalization)

Creativity & Cognition
• ICMI (Intl. Conf. Multimodal Interfaces)
• EICS (Engineering Interactive Computing Systems)
• IMX (Interactive Media eXperiences)

Journals (in rough order of relevance):
• PUC (Personal and Ubiquitous Computing)
• IEEE Pervasive Computing
• PMC (Pervasive and Mobile Computing)
• IJMHCI (Intl. Journal on Mobile HCI)
• Frontiers in Mobile and Ubiquitous Computing
• ToCHI (ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction)
• IJHCS (Intl. Journal of Human-Computer Studies)
• IJHCI (Intl. Journal of Human-Computer Interaction)
• HCI (Human-Computer Interaction)
• BIT (Behaviour and Information Technology)
• CSCW (Computer-Supported Cooperative Work)

Guidelines:
All papers you select should be reasonably well-cited (>20 citations) and highly
relevant to your topic, or very recent (published after 2018) and highly relevant to
your topic.

At least 4 of your lit review papers must be from these sources. If you include a
paper from another source, it must be reasonably well-cited (>20 citations) and
highly relevant to your topic.

Your selected set of 5 papers should be focused on a single theme within your
research topic, such that your literature review covers a single theme and is not
disjointed. Themes can be broadly or narrowly focused. Thematic consistency could
mean that the papers consider the same applied domain, have similar research
questions, or use similar research methodologies.

A good algorithm to follow for finding papers (let’s call it “depth-first snowball
sample”):
1. start with a search for topic keywords on the ACM DL or Google Scholar
2. scroll through results and select items published in one of the listed
conferences or journals and meeting either the well-cited or recency
criteria
3. for each of these, review the abstract to assess the paper’s relevance
4. for each relevant paper:
a. add it to your set of relevant papers

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b. if you have a set of 5 (or more) relevant and thematically consistent

papers, you can STOP. Else select the references list provided in a tab
in the ACM DL page for the paper.
c. Repeat steps 1-4 for this list.
d. select the cited by list provided in a tab in the ACM DL page for the
paper. Repeat steps 1-4 for this list

Marking scheme
Submission is marked /40
1. Writing/composition (10 marks):
a. 2500-3000 words: /1
b. logical organization (subheadings if needed, introductory sentences
and single topic in paragraphs): /5
c. grammar and spelling: /4
2. Summary and reflection (20 marks, 4 marks per academic reference).
a. Main ideas, methods, and findings are summarized (10):
i. hypotheses/questions are outlined: /2.5
ii. methodology is described: /2.5
iii. results and conclusions are summarized: /5
b. Value assessment (10):
i. relevance to own project/research/interests: /2.5
ii. contribution of the work to ubicomp: /5
iii. flaws in the paper’s argument, methodology limitations, or
other limitations: /2.5
3. Selected papers (10 marks):
a. Topical relevance (essential studies and/or new research, appropriate
sources, full papers): /4
b. Thematic consistency (5 papers share an identifiable theme, this
theme is identified in the writeup): /4
c. ACM-style reference format used: /2