PETRA

You are cordially welcome to PETRA 2008, the 1st ACM International Conference on PErvasive Technologies Related to Assistive Environments, July 16--19, 2008, in Athens, Greece.

Conference Theme

The PETRA Conference brings together different types of technology to address an important social and healthcare issue: as the world's population ages, there is growing interest in solutions for the in-home care of the elderly as well as for the care of people with Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and other disabilities or traumas. PETRA (which means "stone" in Greek) reflects the needs of the domestic environment, or "Oikos" as it was known in ancient Greece, but from a technological perspective. People's living environments are particularly important in an increasingly crowded and complex world where the need for inclusiveness and connectivity with the rest of the world is key. PETRA addresses the fact that, as people grow older, they will increasingly rely on technology to be able to stay in their homes.

The conference attracted paper submissions from 17 countries, which underwent a thorough reviewing process; 37 of these were accepted as full papers. 17 as short papers and 5 as posters. The Petra Technical Program includes also the 5 following workshops with additional 42 papers.

PETRA WORKSHOPS (JULY 18)

1. "Pervasive Technologies in e/m-Learning and Internet based Experiments"

2. "Gaming Design and Experience: Design for Engaging Experience and Social Interaction"

3. "Ambient Assistive Technologies for Intelligent Healthcare Services"

4. "Behaviour Tracking for Adaptive Assistive Environments"

5. "Affect-aware Human-Computer and Human-Robot Interaction"

Conference and workshop papers will appear in the PETRA Conference proceedings published by ACM. Poster papers will appear in a special section of the CD proceedings.