10 February: Development of Multimodal Interfaces: Active Listening and

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ESF COST 2102 International School, Dublin, 23-27 March 2009
Call for Participation and Poster Presentations.

The European Science Foundation (ESF) funded (Co-operation in Science & Technology) COST Action 2102 on Cross-Modal Analysis of Verbal and Non Verbal Communication is organizing an International School for Spring 2009, from 23rd-27th March at Trinity College Dublin.

The title of the School is "Development of Multimodal Interfaces: Active Listening and Synchrony". As is normal for events organized under the COST 2102 aegis, there will be a number of high profile invited speakers in addition to regular research contributions from both COST 2102 members and non-members.

In addition, the Workshop will explore a sub-theme on Active Listening and Synchrony. Professor Nick Campbell is leading the organization of a Special Session at Interspeech2009 on Active Listening and Synchrony. The plan for this part of the international school is to relate a number of the presentations to this particular theme. Teams will be formed to co-ordinate work towards data collection and analysis that will form the basis of a number of submissions for the Interspeech 2009 event in Brighton.

For organizational purposes, we need, from all those intending to participate and/or contribute at the school, a declaration of intention (provisional title and list of authors with affiliation) by email, to reach each of the following addresses: iass.annaesp@tin.it, nick@tcd.ie, A.Nijholt@ewi.utwente.nl, vogel@tcd.ie
Please send this by February 15, 2009.

The main details about the event are as follows:

Dates:
March 23rd - 27th , 2009 (Arrival March 22, Departure March 28)

Number of Lecturers:
~15-20

Number of Participants:
~60 - 100

Location:

Lloyd Building, Trinity College, Dublin

Daily duration:

Three hours in the morning, three and a half hours in the afternoon
Free time: Wednesday is a half day and is thus free for a local excursion

Further details about the event, including the schedule of talks, are
being released incrementally at these websites:

https://www.cs.tcd.ie/research_groups/clg/COST2102.IS2009/ and
http://cost2102.cs.stir.ac.uk


1. SCHOOL TOPICS OF INTEREST

Include (but are not limited to) the following:

1) Verbal and non verbal information in face-to-face communication;
2) Cross modal analysis of speech, gestures, gaze and facial expressions;
3) Socio-cultural differences and personal traits;
4) Multimodal algorithms and procedures for the automatic recognition of emotions, faces, facial expressions, and gestures;
5) Audio and video features for implementing intelligent avatars and interactive dialogue systems


2. PRELIMINARY LIST OF LECTURERS


TBA - Gerard Bailly (GISPA-Lab, FR)
A Survey on Spoken Language Understanding for Speech Interfaces - Frederic Brechet (University of Avignon, FR)
TBA - Nick Campbell (Trinity College, Dublin, IE)
Multimodal Dialogue in Virtual Reality - Gerard Chollet (CNRS-LTCI, GET-ENST, FR)
TBA - Anna Esposito (Second University of Naples, IT)
Multimodal Databases: The Importance of Acquisition Close to Operational Conditions - Marcos Faundez-Zanuy (Univ. Politec. de Mataro, ES)
TBA - Bjorn Granstrom (KTH, SE)
Contributions to Conversations - A neo-postmodern attempt at re-de-(and de-re-)construction of turns and terms - Dirk Heylen (University of Twente, NL)
TBA - Adam Kendon (University of Pennsylvania, USA)
Human Facial Expressions of Emotion: New Empirical Findings and Theoretical Advances - David Matsumoto (San Francisco State University, USA)
TBA - Anton Nijholt (University of Twente, NL)
Modelling Multimodal Expressions of Emotions in Embodied Conversational Agents - Catherine Pelachaud (CNRS, Telecom, Paris, FR)
How Emotional Feelings Come from the Brain - Luigi Trojano (Second University of Naples, IT)


3. TARGET AUDIENCE

The school is oriented towards scientists, researchers and PhD students working in the field of multimodal communication, who are invited to submit short contributions to allow exchanges and discussions with the invited speakers.


4. ORGANIZATION

The school is organized as a series of lectures from the invited speakers, followed by short presentations given by the participants that will focus on recent developments and open problems in the field of multimodal signals in face-to-face interactions.


5. AIMS

The school will be built on existing and growing connections between the emerging field of technology devoted to the development of intelligent avatars and interactive dialogue systems and the fundamentals of verbal and non verbal communication which includes facial expressions, tone of voice, gestures, eye contact, spatial arrangements, patterns of touch, expressive movement, cultural differences, and other "non verbal" components. Several further key aspects will be considered, such as the integration of algorithms and procedures for the recognition of emotional states, gesture, speech and facial expressions, in anticipation of the implementation of useful applications that could be exploited to improve user access to future telecommunication services.


6. ORGANIZING INSTITUTIONS

Faculty of Psychology, Second University of Naples, Via Vivaldi, 43, Caserta, 81100, Italy, (http://www.unina2.it/psicologia)
Centre for Language and Communication Studies, Arts Building, Trinity College Dublin Computational Linguistics Group, O'Reilly Institute, Trinity College Dublin (http://www.tcd.ie/slscs/clcs)
ESF COST Action 2102: Cross Modal Analysis of Verbal and Nonverbal Communication (http://cost2102.cs.stir.ac.uk).




7. INTERNATIONAL ADVISORY COMMITTEE

Nick Campbell, Trinity College, Dublin (TCD), Ireland
Anna Esposito, Second University of Naples, Caserta and IIASS, Italy
Marcos Faundez-Zanuy, Escola Universitaria Politecnica de Mataro, Spain
Amir Hussain, University of Stirling, United Kingdom
Anton Nijholt, University of Twente, The Netherlands
Carl Vogel, Trinity College, Dublin (TCD), Ireland

8. LOCAL ORGANIZING COMMITTEE

Prof. Nick Campbell (Centre for Language and Communication Studies, TCD)
Dr. Carl Vogel (Computational Linguistics Group, Intelligent Systems Lab, TCD)

9. SECRETARY

Jean Maypother (School of Computer Science and Statistics, TCD), cost2102@cs.tcd.ie

10. SCHOOL OUTPUT

The school output will be a book, published by a leading publisher (Springer Verlag being among the editing press candidates). It will take between 3 to 5 months after the school, in order to collect, revise and obtain a complete camera-ready manuscript (Book chapter) for publication. Based on this schedule, the volume will be available 6 months after the actual meeting.

The book will contain contributions from the invited lecturers, as well as selected contributions from the participants. The length of the manuscript should not exceed 12-15 pages for lecturer contributions and 9 pages for selected contributions.

Proposed contributions will undergo a peer review process before being accepted for publication. The review process will start shortly after the school, and participants will be notified of the revision results no later than two months after the school.

Participants should express their desire to propose a contribution and send together with the application form, the title and the abstract.

Submissions to Interspeech2009 will also be formulated.


11. SCHOOL COSTS

There is no registration fee for COST2102 members or affiliated students and researchers taking part in the school. Unaffiliated established scholars and research students outside COST 2102 MoU countries can participate in the school by registering, but must pay their own accommodation, travel and living expenses.

The Trinity Capital Hotel has a special rate for accommodation for International School participants (see the school website: https://www.cs.tcd.ie/research_groups/clg/COST2102.IS2009/ for further information) Residential accommodation should be booked directly with the hotel.



12. APPLICATION PROCEDURE FOR FINANCIAL SUPPORT

ELIGIBILITY

The school is open to all motivated scientists, of any nationality. Applicants with little experience in the field should include a recommendation letter from their supervisor. COST 2102 financial support is available for up to 60 PARTICIPANTS, including 6 students and researchers from outside COST 2102 MoU countries, who will contribute to the school. The financial support is limited to a maximum of 600 Euros to cover accommodation, living and travel expenses of students and researchers resident outside Ireland, 400 Euros for students and researchers resident in Ireland, and 300 Euros for students resident in Dublin.

CRITERIA

The criteria for obtaining the award are as follows:
1.Supported students and researchers must attend the school every day and sign the attendance list each day. This is an important requirement for the grant to be awarded. The grant will be paid after the school and the signature on the attendance list will be used as proof of participation. No other receipts are required.
2.For the case of applicants from COST2102 MoU countries, the applicant must be normally resident in a COST 2102 MoU country (the full list is on the website http://www.cost.esf.org/index.php?id=110&action_number=2102). Please check your eligibility.
Preference will be given to
1.students and researchers affiliated to COST 2102 active Laboratories
2.students and researchers that have or will contribute to the COST 2102 school with a talk or a poster (in the past and/or presently)
3.students and researchers who can prove an expertise in the field of interest for the school
4.students and researchers who are highly motivated
Financial support will be attributed by the COST 2102 INTERNATIONAL AWARD COMMITTEE composed of the following professors:
Anna Esposito, Second University of Naples, Caserta and IIASS, Italy
Nick Campbell, Trinity College Dublin
Carl Vogel, Trinity College, Dublin
Anton Nijholt, University of Twente, The Netherlands
Amir Hussain, University of Stirling, UK
Application should be made through the conference registration system. Supporting documentation (justification letter, abstract and if necessary, recommendation letter) should be send by e-mail to the Award Committee (iiass.annaesp@tin.it , nick@tcd.ie , anijholt@cs.utwente.nl , ahu@cs.stir.ac.uk, vogel@cs.tcd.ie) no later than February 25, 2009. Applicants will be notified of the amount of support and all supplementary information for participating in the school by March 5, 2009.

IMPORTANT DATES
Deadline for sending financial support application: February 25th, 2009
Notification of acceptance: March 5th, 2009
School Time: March 23rd - 27th, 2009
Arrival: March 22nd, 2009

13. FINANCIAL SUPPORT APPLICATION FORM

To apply for financial support, you should indicate this when registering online (see School URL for details)
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