ICAT is the oldest international conference on virtual reality and tele-existence. ICAT 2006 not only looked for innovations in the technology itself, but also explored novel ways to transfer and express information and creative ideas to the society and people. The 16th International Conference on Artificial Reality and Telexistence was held at the Zhejiang University of Technology, Hangzhou, P. R. China from November 29 to December 1, 2006. The main purpose of the conference is to provide opportunities for researchers and practitioners to present their research findings and exchange opinions on the development and use of such systems. The conference included plenary invited talks, workshops, tutorials, and paper presentation tracks. The main conference received 523 submissions in total from 21 different countries, including China (mainland, Hong Kong, Taiwan), USA, UK, Germany, Austria, France, Australia, Canada, Korea, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, etc. , of which 138 papers were accepted for this volume and 11 papers were invited to submit extended versions for a special issue of International Journal of Virtual Reality (IJVR, 5(4)).