call for participation in ASRS'93 session on aud. reps.

[Martin Cooke <M.Cooke@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Colleagues,

Appended to this email is an announcement for a conference on
"ANTHROPOMORPHIC SYSTEMS OF AUTOMATIC SPEECH RECOGNITION AND
SYNTHESIS (ASRS' 93)" due to take place in St Petersburg at the end
of June.

I have been asked to chair a session on auditory representations
(which will include auditory scene analysis etc), and would like to
hear from members of the list who might wish to participate in this
session. Please get in touch with me directly at

  m.cooke@dcs.shef.ac.uk

as soon as possible [although I'll be away from 10/3 to 14/3]. Please
note the deadlines at the end of the message, and in particular the
last date for visa application (April 10th).

best wishes

Martin Cooke
Computer Science
Sheffield University

-------------------
[copied from ECTL 3.3.1 announcement]
[Copied and edited from:  neva@coninfo.spb.su]

**Conference Announcement**


ANTHROPOMORPHIC SYSTEMS OF AUTOMATIC SPEECH

RECOGNITION AND SYNTHESIS (ASRS' 93)


St. Petersburg, Russia

June 30-July 2



At present a lot of organizations invest considerable amounts of
money, know-how and effort to solve problems of speech
recognition and synthesis by machine. It is stimulated by practical
requirements, and scientific research has been concentrated on the
optimal solutions in the domain of speech technology systems.



The peculiarity of the present situation is that most systems of
speech recognition and synthesis are being built around
mathematical theories of signal processing and do not involve our
knowledge of actual processes taking place in the acts of speech
production and perception.  Speech technology has reached its
major breakthrough in speech recognition systems via application
of dynamic programming and hidden Markov models, and in
speech synthesis - using large basic units such as diphones and
allophones. Further success has been stimulated by an increasing

computing power of the hardware being used.


Most existing applied systems are, generally speaking, far from
real biological, neural and psychophysiological systems.  The
designers of applied systems are not inclined to reach resemblance
between the functioning of their systems and that of human beings.



We believe that the knowledge about a human being might be
helpful for the improvement of the automatic understanding of
human speech and enhancement of synthesis-by-rule systems,
taking into account the following arguments:


       -      At present basic knowledge and the results of
              research of human speaking behaviour are
              considered as an important resource for the progress
              of automatic speech recognition, understanding of
              spoken language and synthesis-by-rule;



       -      The users who order a speech technology system
              usually formulate their requirements only in terms
              of speech communicative behaviour;


       -      It is necessary to take into account the fact, that the
              result of a project in speech technology is oriented
              towards involvement of a human user in any case;
              thus the knowledge of his communicative behaviour
              should be incorporated in an automatic device.



The Organizers of the proposed symposium invite scientists in all
fields of research to participate in discussions and to work out
solutions to the problems that are facing them in the domain of
anthropomorphic models and systems.



          We propose the following topics of our meeting:



          1.  Speech processing in biological systems.

          2.  Perspectives for the  development  of
              anthropomorphic  systems.

          3.  Role of research in speech science for the
              development of speech technologies.
          4.  Types of knowledge that can be implemented in
              speech processing systems.

          5.  Methodological problems of experimental research
              of speech communicative process (using natural vs.
              laboratory - simulated speaking behaviour and
              signals).

          6.  Important features of human user behaviour that are
              being developed in the process of speech
              communication between a person and a speech
              processing system.

          7.  Role of symbol (phoneme, allophone) units in the
              processes of perception and speech generation and
              their relation to the problems of automatic speech
              synthesis and recognition.

          8.  Organization of a lexicon and its role in a speech
              process.

          9.  Organization of a word processor and a linguistic
              knowledge base of various levels.

         10.  User requirements to psychologically comfortable
              conditions of operations with a speech interface.



Precise dates of ASRS'93:



 - for scientific sessions: June 30-July 2

 - for social and cultural programme: June 28-29 and July 3-4.



Important Dates:

 - April 10, 1993 - last date for visas submission

 - April 10, 1993 - last date for abstracts submission

   (about 2000 words, by E-mail to neva@coninfo.spb.su)

 - May 15, 1993  - last date for registration fee

 - June 27, 1993 - first date arrival to St. Petersburg


Registration fees:


 - 300 USD for participants,

 - 100 USD for students,

 -  50 USD for accompanying persons.


Accommodation:


The Organising Committee proposes the Educational Center hotel
(very cosy and comfortable) to be the most suitable for participants

because our symposium will be held there.  It is also possible to

book three-, four- or five-stars hotels.  Prices range from 60 USD
for single room in the hotel of the Educational Center to 240-285 USD
in a five-star hotel.

        ASRS '93 Organixing Committee
        Valery Galloonov
        Valentina Lublinskaja

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