[I18n-sig] Final CFP: Workshop on Speech in Mobile and Pervasive Environments (SiMPE) with ACM Mobile HCI 2007

[Nitendra Rajput]

We apologize in advance if you receive multiple copies of this CFP.

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 Call for papers:
           Workshop on Speech in Mobile and Pervasive Environments
                 (in conjunction with ACM Mobile HCI '07)
                         Singapore
                         September 9, 2007

                http://research.ihost.com/SiMPE/index.html


Organisers

 * Amit A. Nanavati, IBM India Research Laboratory, India.
 * Nitendra Rajput, IBM India Research Laboratory, India.
 * Alexander I. Rudnicky, Carnegie Mellon University, USA.
 * Markku Turunen, University of Tampere, Finland.


Programme Committee

  * Abeer Alwan, UCLA, USA.
  * Péter Boda, Nokia Research Center, Finland.
  * Nick Campbell, ATR, Japan.
  * Nobuo Hataoka, Tohuko Inst. of Tech., Japan.
  * Matt Jones, Swansea University, UK.
  * Gary Marsden, Univ. of Cape Town, South Africa.
  * David Pearce, Motorola, UK.
  * Shrikanth S. Narayanan, USC, USA.
  * Yaxin Zhang, Motorola, China.

Theme

Traditionally, voice-based applications have been accessed using
unintelligent telephone devices through Voice Browsers that reside
on the server. The proliferation of pervasive devices and the
increase in their processing capabilities, client-side speech
processing is emerging as a viable alternative. As in SiMPE 2006,
we will further explore the various possibilities and issues
that arise while enabling speech processing on resource-constrained,
possibly mobile devices.

In particular, this year's theme will be SiMPE for developing regions.
There are
three compelling reasons for this:
(1) The penetration of mobile phone in emerging economies,
(2) The importance of speech for semi-literate and illiterate users, and,
(3) The completely novel HCI issues that arise when the target population
is not tech savvy.

The workshop will highlight the many open areas that require research
attention, identify key problems that need to be addressed, and also
discuss a few approaches for solving some of them --- not only to
build the next generation of conversational systems, but also help
create the next generation of IT users, thus extending the benefits
of technology to a much wider populace.


Topics of Interest

All areas that enable, optimise or enhance Speech in mobile and pervasive
environments and devices. Possible areas include, but are not restricted
to:

 * Speech interfaces/applications for Developing Regions
 * Multilingual Speech Recognition
 * Robust Speech Recognition in Noisy and Resource-constrained Environments
 * Memory/Energy Efficient Algorithms
 * Multimodal User Interfaces for Mobile Devices
 * Protocols and Standards for Speech Applications
 * Distributed Speech Processing
 * Mobile Application Adaptation and Learning
 * Prototypical System Architectures
 * User Modelling


Intended Audience

This cross-disciplinary burgeoning area requires that the people from
various disciplines -- speech, mobile applications, user interface design,
solutions for emerging economies -- meet and discuss the way forward. It
would be
particularly relevant and interesting to have lively discussions between
the two communities -- researchers working on technologies for developing
regions and those working on SiMPE areas. We hope that a fruitful
collaboration
will take place: the former will articulate the needs of the population for
the
latter to address and jointly solve.

SiMPE 2006 was a common meeting ground to bring together small isolated
groups of people working in SiMPE-related areas. To continue exchanges
further beyond SiMPE 2006, we created the SiMPE wiki, which currently has
27
participants.
A follow-up in SiMPE 2007 will further strengthen this community and pave
the way for more fruitful exchanges and collaborations. The focus on
developing
regions and its relevance to SiMPE is timely and compelling.


Submissions

We invite position papers (upto 8 pages - shorter papers are also welcome).
Electronic submission is required. Submissions should be formatted
according to ACM SIG style. All submissions should be in PDF (preferred) or
Postscript format. If any of these requirements is a problem for you,
please feel free
to contact the workshop organisers.

We also welcome participation without paper submission.

Position papers must be submitted via the conference submission web site,
http://www.easychair.org/SiMPE07. We are in the process of trying to
publish the proceedings of the workshop as a special issue. For any
comments
regarding submissions and participation, contact:
namit AT in DOT ibm DOT com, rnitendra AT in DOT ibm DOT com

Note: Registration for this workshop is included in the MobileHCI'07
conference registration fee. Alternatively, participants can register only
for the workshop - one day registration fee.


Seed Questions

    * How to do speech recognition in noisy environments ?
    * How to make voice UIs flexible and adaptive ?
    * Are there any novel and easier ways to handle multiple languages
       and dialects ?
    * How do we construct speech systems with small footprints of memory
       and power consumption ?
    * How can we distribute processing more efficiently given the increased
       available computing power on handhelds ? How do we trade this off
       with a remote server to conserve energy ?
    * Do we need shorthand languages for the mobile speech UI ?
    * How do we make such devices adapt automatically to the user, task
       and environment ?
    * What novel applications and services can be deployed on such devices
?
    * What are the right learning models for such settings ?
    * What does the architecture of future systems looks like ?
    * How can we design scalable speech applications ?
    * How can we leverage context (such as location) to make more
       intelligent UIs that reduce the cognitive burden of
       semi-literate/illiterate users ?
    * What are the acoustic implications ? The major challenge in deploying
       ubiquitous ASR is that the operating environments may change rapidly
       leaving the ASR system very vulnerable. To increase ASR system
robustness in
       varying environmental noise context, we discuss schemes that are
applicable
       to a specific environment context.


Key Dates

 * Position Paper Submission Deadline: July 1, 2007 (11:59 PM Singapore
                                       Time)
 * Notification of Acceptance: July 15, 2007
 * Early Registration Deadline: July 31, 2007
 * Workshop: 8:45AM -- 5:00PM, September 9, 2007.


Websites

 * SiMPE Workshop: http://research.ihost.com/SiMPE/index.html
 * ACM Mobile HCI '07 : http://www.mobilehci.org/