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The Fourth International Workshop on Mobile Entity Localization and Tracking (MELT 2011)
co-located with The Eighth International Conference on Ubiquitous Intelligence and Computing (UIC 2011)
September 2-4, 2011, Banff, Canada

Workshop Website: https://sites.google.com/site/meltworks/

Important Dates:

Abstract submission deadline : May 21, 2011
Paper submission deadline : May 28, 2011, 23:59 PST
Author notification : June 15, 2011
Camera ready submission : July 1, 2011
Workshop date : September 2, 2011

Workshop Scope:
Location-awareness is one of the important features to ubiquitous intelligence. Location systems have shifted from traditional dedicated infrastructure-based systems to systems based on existing infrastructure/opportunistic sensing systems. Today, we are surrounded by a wealth of devices (such as smart phones and other mobile platforms) enriched with sensing, computing and communication capabilities that are seamlessly integrated in our daily lives. Also, in the last few years there have been dramatic improvements in the capabilities of 3D cameras, laser range finders which can provide high resolution visual and depth information at low cost (for instance, Microsoft Kinect platform). Location-awareness anywhere anytime is no longer a fiction, but a reality, and its plethora of applications are ranging from emergency responses to social networking and gaming. Different communities (such as sensor network, ubiquitous computing, robotic navigation community) have made substantial progress in providing techniques for mapping, localization, tracking and navigation of mobile entities. Many conferences in these communities have sessions on these topics. However, up till now, there has been very little synergy on various techniques in different communities. The goal of this workshop is to bring together some of the leading researchers from both the academic (from different domains) and industrial research communities to discuss key challenges and opportunities for research, emerging application areas, to evaluate various approaches, to bridge the gap between theory and applications, and to envision new research opportunities in MELT.

After three successful workshops on this topic (MELT 2008, 2009, and 2010), this workshop will continue to provide a forum for state of the art technologies in localization and tracking. The focus this year will be localization, mapping and location-based services with mobile devices or platforms. The one-day workshop will have a combination of invited talks/panels, technical presentations and discussions.

The workshop specifically solicits five areas, including but not limited to the following topics:

Algorithms: Heterogeneous sensor data fusion for mapping and localization, probabilistic and statistical inferences, optimization, signal processing, and machine learning techniques for MELT problems, analysis of trade-offs of performance metrics (e.g. accuracy vs. time and cost), collaborative localization and mapping techniques, ad-hoc or opportunistic localization and mapping, efficient fingerprinting techniques, location data mining and predication, location data acquisition and interpretation, energy efficient location and tracking methods;

Representations: Indoor map representations, local and global maps and locations, geographical vs. topological maps, map annotations, point of interest graphs, dynamic maps with real-time information, map markup languages or standardization;

Systems: Localization systems on smart phones or mobile platforms, integrated with heterogeneous sensors (radio signal strength, inertial sensing, compass, odometry, etc.), efficient and accurate mapping systems using 2D or 3D cameras, active lighting or laser range finders and other novel systems;

User Interfaces: Effective interface for entering and presenting maps and locations, notes or annotations for point of interests, innovative mechanisms for representing topological relations or maps with partial geographic information;

Applications: Emergence personal localization, vehicular tracking in GPS-less areas, sports and entertainments, fleet management; asset, yard or inventory tracking, location-based activity management.

Paper Submission Details:
The workshop seeks papers on preliminary technique results, novel application concepts, software and hardware research toolkits, statements of open challenging problems, and innovative algorithms. Papers will be reviewed by the program committee; and selected papers will be grouped, presented and discussed at the workshop. All paper submissions will be handled electronically. Authors should prepare a Portable Document Format (PDF) version of their full paper in two-column IEEE conference format. Papers must be no longer than 6 pages. Shorter papers are also welcome to be included as poster submission. Papers must be submitted electronically through the MELT2011 paper submission system http://cse.stfx.ca/~melt2011/sub/ . Accepted papers will be published by IEEE Computer Society Press (Indexed by EI).

Organizers
General Co-Chairs
Kavitha Muthukrishnan / Delft University of Technology
Ying Zhang / Palo Alto Research Center


Publications Chair
Lukas Kencl / Czech Technical University in Prague

Web and Publicity Chair
Mark L. Chang / Olin College of Engineering


Industry Sponsorship & Finance Co-Chairs
Saumitra Das / Qualcomm
Richard Fuller / Broadcom

Program Committee

Isaac Amundson (Medtronic Inc., USA)
Philipp Bolliger (ETHZ, Switzerland)
Mark Chang (Olin College of Engineering, USA)
Maurice Chu (Palo Alto Research Center, USA)
Saumitra Das (Qualcomm, USA)
Richard Fuller (Broadcom, USA)
Robert Harle (Cambridge University, UK)
Christian Hoene (University of Tuebingen, Germany)
Lukas Kencl (Czech Technical University in Prague, Czech Republic)
Martin Klepal (Cork Institute of Technology, Ireland)
Heidi Kussniemi (Finnish Geodetic Institute, Finland)
Mikkel Baun Kjærgaard (Aarhus University, Denmark)
Xenofon Koutsoukos (Vanderbilt University, USA)
HyungJune Lee (Broadcom, USA)
Juan Liu (Palo Alto Research Center, USA)
Kavitha Muthukrishnan (Delft University of Technology, Netherlands)
Kurt Partridge (Pala Alto Research Center, USA)
Bodhi Priyantha (Microsoft Research, USA)
Ronald Raulefs (German Aerospace Center, Germany)
Vincent Tam (The University of Hongkong, China)
Changhua Wu (Amazon, USA)
Joy Y. Zhang (CMU West, USA)
Ying Zhang (Palo Alto Research Center, USA)
Ziguo Zhong (University of Nebraska - Lincoln)