Scope:

The rapid advances in Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) has profoundly impacted the cultural industry, among others. Cultural institutions are commonly on the forefront of technological innovations, persistently exploring compelling ways to address new audiences and introduce novel means of interaction with cultural assets, thus transforming, enriching and enhancing the perceived cultural experience. The potentials of the new tools trigger new transdisciplinary perspectives for presentation, representation, management, interpretation, personalization and effective dissemination of information concerning cultural heritage and art. The emerging technological instruments are exploited to enable enhanced access not only in 'brick-and-mortar', but also in virtual cultural exhibitions.

The recent explosion of the immersive technologies (Virtual Reality - VR and Mixed Reality - MR) offers unprecedented opportunities for learning, communication and entertainment in cultural spaces. VR/MR may play a key role in the presentation of the past and of polysemic cultural practices which can allow new sensations and meanings to arise. Among others, VR/MR technologies enable the exploration and interaction with important cultural artifacts, whilst in the physical space or immersed in a virtual environment; incorporate stimulating forms of storytelling to further entertain and engage visitors; allow the combination of exhibits physically distant from each other, or the exhibition of objects that have no physical presence and are born digital; provide valuable help for the digital preservation of heritage sites and cultural collections, research and communication for education, entertainment and tourism promotion. The affordances of immersive technologies urge cultural organizations to rethink, reimagine and perhaps reshape the very concept of museums and heritage sites.

This special issue solicits research related to Virtual and Mixed Reality in Culture and Heritage. Authors are encouraged to submit articles presenting original and innovative studies that address new challenges and implications and explore the potential of immersive technologies in museums, galleries, heritage sites and art/cultural institutions. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

- Virtual museums
- Virtual culture
- Virtual Reality
- Mixed Reality
- Augmented Reality
- Intelligent User Interfaces
- Gesture and/or speech interaction
- Interactive systems
- Human-Computer Interaction for physical or virtual exhibitions
- Internet of Things (IoT)
- Recommender systems
- Data analytics
- Mobile and pervasive games
- Serious games
- Cultural guides
- Digital storytelling
- Navigation in digital and physical cultural heritage collections
- Embodiment studies
- Presence, co-presence and social presence
- Cognitive & behavioral studies
- Neuroscience studies and digital technologies
- Crowdsourcing ad user-generated content
- Cultural tourism and smart cities

Guest Editors:

Damianos Gavalas (University of the Aegean, Greece; dgavalas@aegean.gr)
Stella Sylaiou (Hellenic Open University, Greece; sylaiou@gmail.com
Vlasios Kasapakis (University of the Aegean, Greece; v.kasapakis@aegean.gr)
Elena Dzardanova (University of the Aegean, Greece; lena@aegean.gr)

Important Dates:

Submission: July 31, 2019
1st round notification: Sept 30, 2019
Revision deadline: Nov 15, 2019
Final notification: Dec 31, 2019
Expected publication: 4nd Q 2020

Submission Guidelines:

All submissions have to be prepared, according to the 'Instructions for Authors' found in http://www.springer.com/computer/hci/journal/779. Please submit a full-length paper through the journal online submission system (http://www.editorialmanager.com/pauc/default.aspx). You should provide indication that the submission is to be allocated to this theme issue ("S.I.: Virtual and Mixed Reality in Culture and Heritage").

Papers must be original and must not be under consideration for publication in any other journal. For submissions which are based on a published conference paper, the paper submitted to this issue must contain at least 30% new material and reference the publication on which it is based. All papers will be peer reviewed.