SIGGEN, the ACL Special Interest Group on Generation
SIGMedia, the ACL Special Interest Group on Multimedia
Research project of Tilburg University & University of Twente,
An important aspect of the new generation of intelligent systems is the
possibility to employ more than one output modality when interacting
with the user. A quick and successful interaction is expected when, for
instance, the system’s output is presented to the user via
multimedia/hypermedia in which text and graphics are merged, or by a
conversational agent that combines the use of speech and gesture. In
such multimodal systems sophisticated specifications are needed to
combine the different output modalities in such a way that each bit of
information is presented in the most appropriate manner (i.e., the
system should select the most suitable modalities and modality
combinations to convey information to the user).
The AISB symposium MOG 2008 aims to bring work on
multimodal output generation from different disciplines together to
establish common ground and discuss possible future collaborations.
Besides contributions from research fields such as multimodal language
generation and embodied conversational agents, we would like to bring
in an additional angle by investigating how research on multimodal
output generation can benefit from a non-engineering perspective on
multimodality. For example, how can research done in psychology and
cognitive sciences, related to understanding how humans perceive and
process multimodal information, be properly formalized for the purposes
of intelligent multimodal output generation? And to what extent is it
possible to formalize existing theories about how meaning is made in
multimodal communication and use that for generating more
meaningful multimodal output in the context of intelligent systems?
Thus, we invite technically oriented contributions as
well as work in the area of human communication, such as cognitive
models of multimodal communication and interaction. In this way we hope
to combine an AI/engineering perspective with input from other
disciplines such as linguistics and psychology, providing a forum where
international researchers from different disciplinary backgrounds can
exchange ideas on multimodal output generation and engage in scientific
MOG 2008 is a follow-up of MOG 2007, the
workshop on Multimodal Output Generation organized on January 25-26,
2007, at the University of Aberdeen.
The symposium will take place in two consecutive days. Note that this
is provisional depending on the number of submissions. Apart from the
talks in which the participants present their work there will also be
central discussions that should result in useful strategies for future
work. All accepted papers will have a poster space on the same day as
their paper presentation.
We welcome submissions on issues such as modality choice, integration
of output modalities, and meaning representation for multimodal output
generation, where natural language (in the form of either text or
speech) is one of the modalities. We aim to have a varied programme
that reflects the different research fields involved in multimodal
output generation. Possible topics are listed below, but this list is
not intended to be exhaustive.
- task-based modality choice (domain and data
- user-based modality choice (constraints, preferences
- cross-references between modalities (e.g., text and
- dependencies between modalities (e.g., speech, mimics
- relation between input and output modalities
- integration of modalities (models, levels,
- cognitive models for processing multimodal
- computational models for multimodal output generation
- models of modality integration based on multimodal
- usability and evaluation of existing models
- knowledge representation for multimodal output
- evaluation of (methods for generating) multimodal
- development of multimodal corpora from a generation
Justine Cassell (Northwestern University)
Michelle Zhou (IBM T. J. Watson Research Center)
PAPER SUBMISSION DETAILS
We invite both long papers describing mature research (max. 8 pages)
and short papers (max. 4 pages) describing plans, ideas and demos,
which could invoke discussion and questions to be addressed in the
Accepted papers will be published in the AISB
proceedings, with an ISBN number. Authors must sign a non-exclusive
copyright declaration which gives AISB the right to publish the paper,
but does not prevent the author from also publishing it in other venues
We intend to publish a special issue journal or book
collection (e.g., LNCS or LNAI) based on a selection of the best papers
from MOG 2007 and MOG 2008.
Paper formatting instructions will be provided
via the AISB website.
Note that there is a best
student paper award, and student scholarships
Papers can be submitted by e-mail to:
mog2008<at>ewi.utwente.nl (Substitute @ sign
- Submission of papers: January 18, 2008
- Notification: February 15, 2008
- Final paper deadline: March 10
- Symposium Dates: April 3-4, 2008
(Note that the symposium dates are provisional, subject
to the number of final accepted papers.)
To attend the MOG 2008 symposium you need to register yourself at the AISB
Accommodation can be found on
the AISB site about accommodation in Aberdeen.
Route directions to the symposium can be found on
the AISB site about Aberdeen and tourism.
- Mariet Theune, University of Twente, The Netherlands
- Yulia Bachvarova, University of Twente, The
- Elisabeth André, University of Augsburg, Germany
- Ielka van der Sluis, University of Aberdeen, UK
We thank SIGGEN, IMOGEN
for their support.
- Adrian Bangerter, University of Neuchâtel,
- Ellen Gurman Bard, University of Edinburgh, UK
- John Bateman, University of Bremen, Germany
- Harry Bunt, Tilburg University, The Netherlands
- Stephan Kopp, University of Bielefeld, Germany
- Emiel Krahmer, Tilburg University, The Netherlands
- Theo van Leeuwen, University of Technology Sydney,
- Anton Nijholt, University of Twente, The Netherlands
- Jon Oberlander, University of Edinburgh, UK
- Niels Ole Bernsen, University of Southern Denmark
- Paul Piwek, Open University, Milton Keynes
- Ehud Reiter, University of Aberdeen, UK
- Jan Peter de Ruiter, MPI, The Netherlands
- Jacques Terken, Eindhoven University, The Netherlands
- Eija Ventola, University of Helsinki, Finland
- Ipke Wachsmuth, University of Bielefeld, Germany
- Marilyn Walker, University of Sheffield, UK
MOG 2007 PROCEEDINGS
These proceedings are for sale
Contact Mariet Theune: M dot Theune at ewi dot utwente dot nl
when you want to buy them for only 15 euros
AISB Call for demos for highschool visit on April 3rd.
Some schoolkids (15-16 yrs old) are visiting Aberdeen on April 3rd.
Two separate groups of children will be present. The first group will be present from 12:00 to 12:30 and the second from 13:30 to 14:00.
This is during the lunchbreak/poster session on the convention.
Each group will have approximately 10 students.
We wish to solicit proposals for interactive AI related demos.
We intend to run a small number of exciting demos at a few stations,
so that the kids can spend some time moving from station to station.
This would mean just a couple of kids visiting one station at any one
The aim is simply to make the students enthusiastic about AI.
Demos will take place in the main hall of the convention,
and will also be available to the convention delegates.
Power will be available (UK style sockets), and laptops can be
made available by arrangement.
Please send demo proposals to email@example.com by February 29th.