Special Issue on Social Multimedia and Storytelling - IEEE MultiMedia

IEEE MultiMedia Special Issue on Social Multimedia and Storytelling: Using
Social Media to Capture, Mine, and Recreate Experiences, Events, and Places

(1st Call for Contributions)

The pervasive use of media capturing devices and the wide adoption of online
social networking platforms have led to the proliferation of online content
captured at places (such as landmarks and points of interest) and events
(ranging from live concerts to demonstrations). Such content holds great
potential for deriving richer representations of the depicted places and
events. This is not only due to the abundance of diverse multimedia content,
but also due to the availability of a large variety of contextual
information, ranging from location metadata and textual descriptions to
online interactions and user feedback (for example, in the form of ratings).
Therefore, leveraging social multimedia content and its surrounding context
offers ample opportunities for better understanding and capturing the real
world and for building innovative and engaging applications. However, the
uncontrolled nature of user-contributed content and the complexity of the
social media lifecycle raise significant research challenges related both to the effective
collection, mining, and indexing of social multimedia and to their
combination, creative reuse, and presentation.

The objective of this special issue is to revisit how social multimedia is
transforming the way multimedia content is captured, shared, and made
available to others. In particular, we are interested on the different
stages of the lifecycle of the social multimedia content — from the moment
something is captured, through its online sharing, collection, and
processing to its remixing, repurposing, retrieval, and presentation. The
nexus of all these stages is the relation of the content with user
experiences, real-world places, and events. This special issue aims to cover
multidisciplinary works that congregate around places, activities, and
people.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to
* place- and event-centric social multimedia discovery and collection;
* social event detection;
* real-world place and event mining and analytics;
* place and event summarization through social content;
* social network and interaction analysis around places and events;
* social media content geotagging and applications;
* dynamic image and video mash-ups on real-world places and events;
* social media visualization and aggregation of places and events;
* event- and location-based storytelling using social media;
* interactive social media applications;
* sentiment and engagement analysis using social media.

Call available online at:
http://www.computer.org/portal/web/computingnow/mmcfp3

Submission deadline is 20 July 2014.

Guest Editors
Symeon Papadopoulos, The Centre for Research & Technology Hellas (CERTH),
Greece Pablo Cesar, Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica (CWI), The Netherlands
David Ayman Shamma, Yahoo! Research, USA Aisling Kelliher, Carnegie Mellon
University, USA Ramesh Jain, University of California Irvine, USA

Feel free to get in touch for further questions.

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PhD position @ TU Delft, The Netherlands - Declarative & Semantic Modelling for PTSD

PhD position at

Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science
Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands

Duration of contract: 4 years
Salary scale: €2062 to €2638 per month gross

Apply before: August 1st, 2013 (details at http://goo.gl/q8UuE)


JOB DESCRIPTION

The candidate will participate in the "Virtual eCoaching and Storytelling
technology for post-traumatic stress disorder treatment (VESP)" project,
which studies how effective a stand-alone, multi-modal memory
restructuring
(3MR) system and an Internet-based, guided self-therapy system could be
used for the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) patients.
The main goal of this PhD project is to investigate how a storytelling
framework could use declarative and semantic methods for enabling patients
to easily re-create an experience via a virtual environment for
therapeutic
purposes. Among other tasks, the PhD student will investigate (1) desired
object semantics and associations for virtual reality exposure therapy
(VRET) environments, (2) how to integrate procedural techniques and
non-intrusive interactive methods, and (3) methods to support the
declarative creation of scenarios and their consistency maintenance.
The project will combine new techniques with existing, in-house algorithms
and systems, e.g. procedural methods, solvers, and libraries. Within the
VESP team, the candidate will work closely together with two other PhD
students, who will respectively (1) investigate how to establish a virtual
coach that assists in the treatment execution, and (2) design and conduct
two Randomized Controlled Trials to evaluate the efficacy of PTSD
treatment
systems.   


REQUIREMENTS

You have a university MSc degree in computer science, human-computer
interaction or a related area, with excellent grades. Experience with
computer graphics and game technology is a plus. You have excellent
programming skills in languages such as C#, C++ and Python, and have a
passion for game technology and (serious) gaming. You have excellent
communication skills, and a good mastery of both spoken and written
English. You have a creative mind and are an excellent player in a
multi-disciplinary team that spans areas such as human-computer
interaction, computer graphics, serious gaming, and clinical psychology.

The project will be mainly performed within the Computer Graphics and
Visualization Group, which has more than 25 years of experience in
research
in a wide range of topics in computer graphics, visualization, game
technology, augmented/virtual reality, and geometric modeling.

For more details, see http://goo.gl/q8UuE

For information on this position, contact: R.Bidarra@tudelft.nl

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Research Grant for “Machinima Storyteller” - Two Positions Available in Lisbon

Research Grant for "Machinima Storyteller"

INESC-ID - www.inesc-id.pt

Two Positions Available

Application Deadline: 15/5/2012

Contact: rui.prada@ist.utl.pt

Description

Machinima Storyteller is a bilateral project between GAIPS, INESC-ID Lisbon (http://gaips.inesc-id.pt/) and BeActive (http://www.beactivemedia.com/) that aims at the development of tools to support the creation of Machinima (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machinima) with the Unity3D (http://unity3d.com/) game engine.

The project will go beyond Machinima by allowing characters to be played by virtual actors (implemented as autonomous agents) and by allowing users to play the story through one of the characters as an interactive storytelling game.

The platform to be developed will include tasks for different roles in film/game making. It will allow:

—  a "Scriptwriter" to create the script for the characters

—  an "Art director" to setup scenarios and characters wardrobe

—  a "Director" to direct the characters, work on the camera and lightning

—  a "Game designer" to add gameplay elements to the story (e.g. turn the film into an adventure game)

Figure 1 summarizes the concept and architecture of the platform. It includes: an Asset Manager to organize the art assets that represent the props and characters, an Editor that enables the user to define and configure scenes based on a script, a Player that allow the user to see the performance and manage the camera to record a video and a Game Creator to allow the user to add gameplay element to the story. The script and final video editing will be produced in external tools (e.g. Final Draft and Premiere).

 

Figure 1 – Machinima Storyteller Concept and Architecure.

The grant holder will be involved in the development of one (or more) of the following tasks:

—  Develop autonomous agents that play as virtual actors and follow a script with concurrent/simultaneous/ordered actions.

—  Add the ability to the virtual actors to improvise while there is no action scripted and, also, to react to the other actors' improvisation actions.

—  Add the ability to the virtual actors to understand the suggestions/orders of a director (human) and adapt their performance accordingly.

—  Develop the Asset Manager tool

—  Develop the Machinima Editor tool

—  Develop the Machinima Player tool

—  Develop the Game Creator tool

There is an opportunity to define a PhD proposal based on the work developed in this project.

The activity will be supervised by Professor Rui Prada project leading Researcher at INESC-ID.

The grant holder will be integrated at INESC-ID in the Intelligent Agents and Synthetic Characters Group (GAIPS).

Salary

Two Research Grants - Bolsa de Investigação para Mestre (BI-M) - are now available for the duration of 12 months renewed in the end if both parties agree. The salary will be 980€ / month tax free with the addition of accident insurance and social security contributions according to the FCT "Regulations for Advanced Training and Qualification of Human Resources" and INESC-ID Lisbon grant regulations.

Requirements

Candidates are expected to have an MSc degree in computer science, electrical engineering or related area, with experience in one (or more) of the following areas:

1. Programing with Unity3D
2. Developing Autonomous Agents
3. Interactive Storytelling
4. User Centred-Design
5. Game Design

Application

Applications must be sent to Rui Prada (rui.prada@ist.utl.pt) and include a detailed CV, a brief statement about research interests and motivation to join the project.

The selection of candidates will be based on academic record, interest for multidisciplinary areas of research related to the project and possible publications and experience in the area of intelligent agents and interactive applications' design. English language level will also be considered as criteria.

The applications' deadline is 15/05/2012.

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The 5th International Conference on Interactive Digital Storytelling

First Call For Papers

The 5th International Conference 

on Interactive Digital Storytelling

November 12th - 15th, 2012

Technology Park of San Sebastián, Spain

http://icids2012.vicomtech.tv/

ICIDS is the premier international conference on Interactive Digital Storytelling (IDS), bringing together researchers interested in presenting recent results, sharing novel techniques, and exchanging ideas about this exciting new media. IDS redefines the narrative experience by empowering the audience to significantly participate in the story due to advances in technology. As such, it offers new possibilities for communication, education and entertainment, through the enriching of characters with intelligent behavior, the collaboration of humans and machines in the creative process, and the combination of disciplines for improving the user experience.

ICIDS emphasises on several aspects of Computer Science, specially on research in Artificial Intelligence, Virtual Environments and Human-Computer Interaction; topics include automated reasoning, computational creativity, multi-agent systems, narrative intelligence, natural language generation and understanding, user modelling, and smart graphics. Furthermore, IDS is inherently a multidisciplinary field. To create novel applications in which users play a significant role during the development of a story, new concepts and theoretical works on Digital Humanities, New Media Studies and Interactive Arts are needed.

We welcome research papers and demonstrations – including interactive narrative art – presenting new scientific results, innovative technologies, case studies, creative insights, best practice showcases, or improvements to existing techniques and approaches in the research field of Interactive Digital Storytelling and its possible applications in other fields, e.g. videogames, virtual/online worlds, e-learning, training, and edutainment.

Suggested research topics for contributions include, but are not limited to:

• Theories of Interactive Storytelling
• Story Generation and Drama Management
• Authoring Modes and Tools for Interactive Digital Storytelling
• Virtual Characters, Virtual Humans and Autonomous Agents
• Interactive Cinematography and Television
• Narrative User Interfaces
• Procedural Content Generation and Real-Time Techniques
• Interactive Sound and Music
• Narrativity in Digital Games
• Ubiquitous/Mobile Narratives
• Collaborative Environments and Multi-User Systems
• Emotional Design and the use of Non-Visual Senses
• Robotics, Virtual/Mixed Reality and Interactive Visual Effects
• Semantic Knowledge for Representation and Reasoning
• Social and Cognitive Approaches
• Web-Based and Text-Based Approaches
• Evaluation and User Experience Reports

Submissions

All submissions must follow the Lecture Notes in Computer Science format, available at:
http://www.springer.com/computer/lncs?SGWID=0-164-6-793341-0
Papers must be written in English, and only electronic submissions in PDF format will be considered for review.

The submission categories accepted are:
• Full papers (8-12 pages in the proceedings) describing interesting, novel results or completed work in all areas of IDS and its applications.
• Short papers (4-6 pages in the proceedings) presenting exciting preliminary work or novel thought-provoking ideas that are in their early stages.
• Demonstrations and posters (2-4 pages in the proceedings) describing working, presentable systems or brief explanations of a research project.
• Workshop proposals (2-4 pages, not appearing in the proceedings) describing a workshop to be held in association with ICIDS. See the Workshop Proposals section below for additional submission details.

Submissions (of all categories except workshop proposals) that receive high ratings in the peer review process will be selected for publication by the program committee as Springer LNCS conference proceedings. For the final print-ready version, the submission of source files (Microsoft Word/LaTeX, TIF/EPS) and a signed copyright form will be required.

All submissions will be processed using the EasyChair system. Authors are advised to register a new account well in advance of the paper submission deadline:
http://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=icids2012

The review process for ICIDS will be double blind. Authors should remove all identifying information from their submissions.

Workshop Proposals

Workshops can vary in length from half a day to a day. Proposals for workshops should be from two to four pages in length and include the following information:
• A brief technical description of the workshop, specifying its goals.
• A preliminary format and proposed schedule for organizing the workshop, including its desired length, intended audience, and a short draft of the call for participation.
• The names, affiliations and email addresses of the proposed organizing committee. This committee should consist of two to four people knowledgeable in the area.
• The primary contact for the organizing committee.
• If available, a list of tentatively confirmed attendees.

Workshop organizers must submit their proposals via email to the Workshops Chair.

For additional information, please contact Gonzalo Méndez at:
gmendez@fdi.ucm.es

Important Dates

June 1, 2012 Deadline to register an author account with EasyChair.

June 8, 2012 Submission deadline for full and short papers, demonstrations and posters proposals. The precise deadline for paper submissions is 11:59PM on June 8, 2012, Hawaii Standard Time. Authors are strongly advised to upload their submissions well in advance of this deadline.

June 15, 2012 Submission deadline for workshop proposals.

July 6, 2012 Accept/reject notifications sent to all workshop organizers.

July 16, 2012 Accept/reject notifications sent to all registered authors.

August 24, 2012 Camera-ready copy due.

November 12 - 15, 2012 ICIDS Celebration. Workshops on 12th November. Main conference from 13th to 15th November, both included.

Organizing Committee

General Chair
David Oyarzun (Vicomtech, Spain)

Program Co-Chairs
Federico Peinado (Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain)
R. Michael Young (North Carolina State University, USA)

Local Arrangements Chair
Ane Elizalde (Vicomtech, Spain)

Workshops Chair
Gonzalo Méndez (Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain)

More Information

Questions about the conference should be directed to the organizers via email at: icids@vicomtech.org

Additional information about the conference can be found online at:
http://icids2012.vicomtech.tv/

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