Call for Papers: TEI 2026

Welcome to TEI '26, the 20th annual conference dedicated to tangible, embedded, and embodied interaction. The conference presents the latest results in this rapidly developing field, bringing together researchers, practitioners, businesses, artists, designers, and students from various disciplines.

TEI '26 will take place March 8-11, 2026, in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It is planned as a hybrid conference, allowing remote participation and presentations, though in-person attendance offers the full 'tangible and embodied' experience.

Theme: 'Tide + Tied'

The theme 'Tide + Tied' captures the essence of resurgence and convergence. It explores the seamless integration of the digital and physical, the interplay of technology and humanity, and the urban intermingling with the natural environment. Submissions are invited to explore interdisciplinary knowledge, bridging the physical and digital, technology and humanity, resurgence and convergence.

Topics of Interest

We invite paper submissions from a wide range of perspectives: technical, applied, empirical, theoretical, philosophical, conceptual, and artistic. We welcome contributions from fields including but not limited to:

• Tangible interaction design
• Embodied interaction design
• Embedded computing
• Digital fabrication
• Hybrid craft
• E-textiles
• Wearables
• Haptics
• Robotics
• Smart cities
• Smart materials
• Sustainability

Contribution Types

Authors are invited to submit high-quality papers that contribute to advancing this field. The following are highlighted as non-exclusive contribution types:

• Artifact: Research artifacts that advance the state of the art.
• Method: Tools, approaches, and techniques that enable research and work in the field.
• Theory: Explorations, extensions, refutations, instantiations, and other developments of theories pertaining to TEI.
• Empirical: Studies and data that add to the understanding of TEI through quantitative or qualitative characterizations.

Paper Length and Format

• Authors are encouraged to submit a paper with a length proportional to its contribution. While there is no maximum or minimum length, typical submissions are expected to be approximately 7,000–8,000 words excluding references, figure/table captions, and appendices.
• Reviewers will weigh the contribution relative to its method and length.
• TEI 2026 uses the new ACM workflow TAPS for submission templates and published papers.
• TAPS requires the use of a simplified one-column template for submission, while the final two-column paper will be rendered for publication after acceptance.
• We strongly recommend using the LaTeX templates rather than Word. All relevant information, including submission templates, can be found here: https://www.acm.org/publications/authors/submissions

Important Dates

All times are Anywhere on Earth (AoE):

• Abstract Deadline: July 31, 2025
• Full Submission Deadline: August 7, 2025
• Video and Supplementary Material Deadline: August 14, 2025
• Notification of Conditional Acceptance: October 15, 2025
• Camera-Ready Deadline: November 20, 2025
• TEI 2026 Conference: March 8-11, 2026

Submission Guidelines

• Submission System: All abstracts and full papers must be submitted electronically via the Precision Conference (PCS) website before their respective deadlines.
• Authorship Policy: Submissions must be original and not under concurrent review elsewhere. Use of AI-tools must be disclosed in the acknowledgements.
• Anonymization Policy: All papers must be anonymized for review. Author and affiliation information should be removed from the title, header, and metadata. Acknowledgements section must be left blank. Citations to previous work should ideally be in the third person.

Review Process

Each paper will be assigned to a primary AC (1AC) and a secondary AC (2AC). The 1AC will find two external reviewers. Each paper will receive 3 detailed reviews. The 1AC will write a meta-review, and recommendations will be made to the Program Chairs for final decisions.

TEI Ethical Research Statement

As a TEI community, we follow the ACM ethical research guidelines and adhere to the ACM policy on involving human participants. Authors are encouraged to include details on participants' recruitment, selection, consent, treatment, data handling, and any ethical approval obtained.

• ACM Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct: https://www.acm.org/code-of-ethics
• ACM Publications Policy on Research Involving Human Participants and Subjects: https://www.acm.org/publications/policies/research-involving-human-participants-and-subjects

Policy on Use of Large Language Models

Text and images generated from large-scale language models (LLMs) must be clearly marked where used beyond editing the author's own text. Use of AI-tools must be disclosed in the acknowledgements. Papers with undisclosed LLM use may be desk-rejected.

After Acceptance

After conditional acceptance, authors can implement minor modifications. One author of each accepted paper must register for TEI 2026. Accepted papers will be included in the Proceedings of TEI 2026 and available in the ACM Digital Library.

Authors must present their work at the conference. Papers whose authors do not present may be removed from the ACM Digital Library and conference proceedings.

Program Chairs

• Sara Nabil (Queens University)
• HyunJoo Oh (Georgia Tech)
• Elisa Rubegni (Lancaster University)

For further questions, please contact the Paper chairs at: program_chairs2026@tei.acm.org