New Trends in HCI and Sports

Over the last 15 years, we have witnessed a digitalization of the sports experience, i.e., many sports have been enhanced by digital and wearable devices. The centrality of the human body and the different contexts where sports can be practiced have led HCI research to explore how mobile and wearable devices could support the physical, social, and environmental aspects of sports disciplines. Yet, the field of HCI & sports continues to evolve under the push of new technological developments and events affecting people worldwide, such as the Covid-19 pandemic and climate change. Technological advancements like the metaverse, inbodied technologies, and AI have paved the way for augmented humans, esports, new forms of sociality, and new ways to engage the audience. Likewise, contextual factors push sports trends in two opposite directions simultaneously: on the one hand, they foster the indoorisation and individualization of sports; on the other hand, they encourage practicing sports outdoors and taking advantage of the “restorative environment” of nature. With this workshop, we would like to invite the MobileHCI community to discuss the current trends in portable technologies for sports and trace future directions for HCI research in this field.