Temporal Dynamics in Speech and Hearing Antwerp, Belgium August 26, 2007 Biological signals are inherently variable, and sensory systems are especially responsive to their temporal dynamics. Vocal communication, including speech, exploits such dynamic sensitivity for robust information transfer. Moreover, many species have developed sophisticated strategies for efficient sensory transduction of the external world. This one-day workshop will focus on those aspects of auditory and higher-cortical function germane to analysis, decoding and interpretation of biologically relevant information encoded in the signal’s temporal structure. Of particular interest is the role of modulatory processes for encoding and decoding information germane to communication and environmental navigation (e.g., spoken language, auditory scene analysis, acoustic spatialization, musical dynamics) as well as computational approaches for exploiting such information for technology applications. The structure of this workshop departs from tradition in that it will favor structured discussion, reflecting the collective knowledge and wisdom of its participants, instead of long-winded presentations by a few. Presentations will be short and will focus on one of the following themes: (1) Auditory Temporal Dynamics and Informational Masking (2) Speech Dynamics and Its Relation to Information Coding in Spoken Language (3) Temporal Dynamics in Speech Engineering Each themed session will consist of a few short presentations and plenty of open discussion. The conference room’s seating arrangement will be semi-circular to foster interactive discussion. Among the participants will be: Les Atlas (University of Washington), Doug Brungart (Wright-Patterson Air Force Research Lab), Pierre Divenyi (EBIRE), Li Deng (Microsoft), Mounya El-Hilali (Johns Hopkins), Steven Greenberg (Technical University of Denmark), Hynek Hermansky (IDIAP), Tammo Houtgast (Free University of Amsterdam), Christian Lorenzi (Ecole Normale Supérieure, Paris), and Shihab Shamma (University of Maryland). We invite applications for participation. Please send a SINGLE Powerpoint or PDF Slide describing your prospective contribution to one of the themes (or suggest an additional theme). There will be no official proceedings of this workshop. However, electronic versions of the presentations will be posted on the workshop’s website. The meeting will be held at the Park Plaza Astrid Hotel in Antwerp. Workshop participants are eligible for the special conference rate associated with Interspeech2007. Additional information about the hotel is available at: http://www.parkplaza.com/antwerpbe. The Interspeech2007 web site (http://www.interspeech2007.org/) will offer hotel reservation information by the beginning of June. Organizers: Hynek Hermansky (hynek@xxxxxxxx), Les Atlas (atlas@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx) and Steven Greenberg (steveng@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx). To apply for workshop participation please contact: workshop@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx The workshop website will be operational by June 10, 2007: www.silicon-speech.com/workshop |