Haptics Symposium
Presentation Guidelines
Oral Presentations - Posters - Hands-on Demonstrations - Teaser Presentations
The IEEE Haptics Symposium brings together researchers, practitioners, and students from all areas of haptics. To facilitate the lively exchange of ideas, the conference program includes four different presentation types (oral presentations, posters, hands-on demonstrations, and teaser presentations), plus commercial exhibits. This conference is known for its high quality presentations, and we hope to further improve this reputation.
When preparing your contributions for the conference, please carefully follow the guidelines below. Contact Katherine J. Kuchenbecker at 
with any questions. These guidelines will be also updated as more information becomes available.
Oral Presentation Guidelines
Thirty-two accepted submissions were chosen for oral presentation. Full papers in this category have been assigned to fifteen-minute slots, and extended abstracts have been given ten minutes. Oral presentations are organized into five themed sessions. Consult the conference program to view session assignments.
Poster Guidelines
The other fifty accepted submissions were selected for poster presentation; these posters are an integral part of Haptics Symposium. Poster authors will introduce their work at the conference via a brief oral "teaser" presentation (see teaser guidelines below). Posters have been assigned to a specific presentation slot in one of two poster and demo teaser sessions on Thursday. Consult the conference program to view session assignments.
The posters themselves will be on display throughout the Symposium, and poster authors should stand near their poster during the poster session immediately following their teaser to engage in interactive discussions with other conference attendees. Poster presenters are also encouraged to stand by their posters during other breaks and during the poster session on Friday.
Poster authors are responsible for designing, printing, and transporting their poster to the Symposium. Each poster must fit within a 48 inch by 48 inch (122 cm by 122 cm) space and should indicate the paper title, authors, and affiliations. Posters will be mounted with push-pins in assigned locations on bulletin-board panels provided by the Symposium.
Poster Setup
Posters should be in place by 8:30 a.m. on Thursday, March 25. Student volunteers will be on hand from 7 to 9 p.m. on Wednesday, March 24, and from 7:30 to 8:30 a.m. on Thursday, March 25, to help authors hang their posters in the assigned locations. There will also be a lightly catered Welcome Reception on Wednesday evening in the same location to enable conference attendees to mingle while setting up. Posters should be removed when the conference concludes at 5 p.m. on Friday. Any posters left after this time will be discarded by the hotel.
Best Poster Awards
We are pleased to announce that SensAble Technologies is sponsoring two Best Poster Awards. The winners will be selected by the Awards Committee. The prize for each winner is a Phantom Omni haptic device.
Hands-On Demonstration Guidelines
Hands-on demonstrations allow Symposium attendees to try out the latest and greatest in haptics research. Individuals with accepted demos will introduce their work at the conference via a brief oral "teaser" presentation (see teaser guidelines below). A demo associated with a paper being presented as a poster will share a single teaser with the associated poster. A demo associated with a paper being presented orally will have its own teaser. Demos have been assigned to a specific presentation slot in one of two poster and demo teaser sessions on Thursday. Consult the conference program to view session assignments.
Demonstrations will be on display throughout the Symposium, and at a minimum demo presenters should be at their demo table for the session immediately following their teaser. To create an engaging atmosphere at the conference, demo presenters are encouraged to run their demos during the other demo sessions on Thursday and Friday, in addition to their assigned session on Thursday.
Each hands-on demonstration will be assigned a specific location in one of the rooms of demos and exhibits. Unless other arrangements have been made, this space will include a 6-foot-by-30-inch table, two chairs, one electrical outlet, and space to hang a poster. Demo posters should fit within a 48 inch by 48 inch (122 cm by 122 cm) space and should indicate the demo title, authors, and affiliations. If a demonstration is associated with a paper being presented as a poster, the poster and the demo will share a space in the demo room.
Demo presenters are responsible for preparing, transporting, and setting up their own hands-on demonstration. If needed, equipment may be shipped to the conference hotel ahead of time via US Mail, UPS, FedEx, or other carriers. Address such packages as follows: "Attention: IEEE Haptics Symposium, March 24-26, Westin Waltham Boston, 70 Third Avenue, Waltham, Massachusetts, 02451 USA." Please call the Westin hotel at (781) 290-5600 for further questions about shipping equipment.
Demo Setup
Demonstrations should all be set up before the conference begins. The demo rooms will be open for set up on Wednesday, March 24, from 7 to 9 p.m., and also on Thursday, March 25, from 7:30 to 8:30 a.m. Student volunteers will be on hand during both of these time slots to help demo presenters find their assigned locations. There will also be a lightly catered Welcome Reception on Wednesday evening in the same location to enable conference attendees to mingle while setting up.
Importantly, demo presenters who wish to hang a poster behind their table must deliver the poster to their assigned demo location before 9 p.m. on Wednesday. To save floor space, these posters are being mounted directly on the walls by hotel employees; authors will not be allowed to hang their own demo posters on the wall. If you anticipate difficulties in delivering your demo poster by 9 p.m. on Wednesday, please contact Katherine Kuchenbecker at as soon as possible.
The hands-on demonstration rooms will be locked when the conference is not in session, but the hotel cannot guarantee the security of the equipment located inside. Thus, demo presenters may wish to avoid leaving valuable items unattended in the demo room.
Presenters should plan to start packing up their demo equipment no later than 5 p.m. on Friday, March 26, which is when the conference concludes. All equipment will need to be removed from the demo rooms by 7 p.m. that day. Student volunteers will be on hand during this time to help presenters as needed. Any posters left after this time will be discarded by the hotel.
Best Demonstration Award
We are pleased to announce that Moog is sponsoring a $1000 Best Demonstration Award, to be selected by the Awards Committee.
Teaser Presentation Guidelines
To increase the visibility of poster papers and hands-on demonstrations, these contributions will each have a 45-second oral "teaser" presentation in the main Haptics Symposium lecture hall on Thursday, March 25. A demo associated with a paper being presented as a poster will share a single teaser with the associated poster. A demo associated with a paper being presented orally will have its own teaser.
Teaser presentations have been organized into two sessions on Thursday, March 25. The first will take place from 10:10 to 10:45 a.m., and the second will take place from 3:20 to 3:50 p.m. Teasers will be presented in the specific order listed on the conference program, which puts posters before demos in each session. Consult the conference program to view session assignments.
Teaser presenters should all come to the front of the lecture hall at the start of the teaser session to which they are assigned. Following the guidance of the Teaser Session Chairs, presenters should arrange themselves in the prescribed order and be ready to speak when it is their turn. Teaser presentations will be kept strictly to 45 seconds, so presenters are encouraged to practice their teaser until they are confident of meeting this time restriction.
Teaser presenters will be able to show just one PowerPoint slide during their 45-second slot. This slide must be a ppt/pptx file, and it should be based on the teaser template. You may change the look of this slide however you choose, but make sure it lists your title, authors, and poster/demo number. You can get your two-digit poster/demo number from the teaser listing. When your teaser slide is complete, rename the file "posterXX.ppt" or "demoXX.ppt", where XX is your poster/demo number. If your teaser is associated with both a poster and a demo, list both on your teaser slide, and name the file posterXXdemoXX.ppt. Submit this file as an attachment to an email addressed to 
by midnight PST on Friday, March 19.
All of the teaser slides will be consolidated into a single presentation that will be run by one of the demo co-chairs. Animations should be pre-timed so that they occur automatically. If you wish to embed a movie in your slide, please use mov or mpg format, locate the movie in the same directory as your PowerPoint slide, and submit the movie along with the slide via email. Due to potential computer incompatibilities, we cannot guarantee that movies will play correctly, so presenters are encouraged to use images when possible. The consolidated teaser presentation will be available for you to check at the Welcome Reception from 7 to 9 p.m. on Wednesday, March 24.
Creating a Good Teaser
The purpose of a teaser is to tease, not to tell all. Rather than trying to deliver a compressed version of your full contribution, use your teaser to get the audience interested and intrigued in what they will find when they visit your poster or demo. In general, we encourage you to
- Single out the most important idea or impact that you want your presentation to be remembered for.
- Express that one idea, as memorably as possible, without rushing, using whatever visual and auditory support you find helpful.
You are welcome to lighten the mood with humor or stunts if you want, but that is definitely not the only model, and some meaningful information should be conveyed in each teaser. Some examples of teasers that work well can be found in the ACM CHI Madness archive, along with CHI's technical guidelines for their teasers.
Teaser Videotaping
When you give your teaser, we will be recording your slide presentation, your voice, and possibly a video of you at the podium. These recordings will be used to provide future presenters with examples of a range of excellent Haptics Symposium teasers.
If the appropriate release was checked in the submitted IEEE Permission Agreement, your teaser recording will be posted on www.vgtc.org for general viewing. In addition, we will choose the best teaser examples for possible posting on the Haptics Symposium website; we will ask you to confirm your permission for this secondary use. For logistical simplicity, all teasers will be recorded, but we will share only those for which appropriate permissions have been granted.
Best Teaser Award
We are pleased to announce that RIM is sponsoring an award for Best Teaser Presentation. The prize will be a Blackberry smartphone.