IRLIST Digest ISSN 1064-6965 February 21, 1994 Volume XI, Number 8 Issue 201 ********************************************************** I. NOTICES A. Meeting Announcements/Calls for Papers 1. ACM Multimedia '94 2. Workshop on Combining Statistical and Symbolic Approaches to Language II. QUERIES B. Requests for Information 1. Retrieving and Indexing Non-Textual Documents 2. IR and Information Science Courses IV. PROJECT WORK D. Miscellaneous 1. Error Reduction in Pattern Recognition ********************************************************** I. NOTICES I.A.1. Fr: Zubin Dittia Re: ACM Multimedia '94 NOTE: Please send all your responses and/or questions to the various program chairs listed in this posting. ACM MULTIMEDIA 94 October 15-20, 1994, San Francisco, California THE SECOND ACM INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON MULTIMEDIA ACM Multimedia 94 will provide an international forum for papers, panels, courses, workshops, and exhibits focusing on the synergies between processing and communicating information represented in multiple media (multimedia). Research ideas, emerging technologies, engineering methodologies, prototype demonstrations, and experiences should be submitted for review. Technical areas for Multimedia 94 include, but are not limited to: applications and tools; video information systems; interactive television; collaboration environments; database and information systems; distributed systems; operating system extensions; hardware and architectures; networking and communication; media integration and synchronization; image, video and audio compression techniques; programming paradigms and environments; storage and I/O architectures; and user interfaces. PAPERS: Technical papers, preferably accompanied by electronic and videotape software, on completed or in-progress research, innovative applications, or experience with multimedia systems are solicited. Where applicable, prototype demonstrations or videotape presentations are encouraged to supplement the talks. Outstanding papers on different areas of multimedia will be given awards. Selected papers will be forwarded to ACM/Springer-Verlag Multimedia Systems, the Communications of the ACM (CACM), the ACT Transactions on Information Systems, or the IEEE/ACM Transactions on Networking. Submit six copies of each paper (no more than 15 double-spaced pages including figures, tables, and references) and four copies of any accompanying videotape to: Prof. Domenico Ferrari, Program Chair Computer Science Division EECS Department University of California Berkeley, CA 94720 USA. Voice: +1 510 642 3806 Fax: +1 510 642 5775 Email: multimedia94@tenet.berkeley.edu PANELS: We are soliciting proposals for panels that examine an innovative, controversial, or otherwise provocative issue of interest to the field. Panel proposals should include the issue to be addressed, the members of the panel with a brief statement of their positions on the issue, and a description of the panel format. The best panels, in our experience, have been structured as a debate with an opportunity for audience participation, but we are open to other stimulating ideas. Panels consisting of a collection of short paper presentations are not encouraged. The Panel chair is willing to work with prospective session chairs in advance of submission to discuss panel concepts or the form of a proposal. Panel proposals should be at most 3 pages, and should include a brief description of each panelist's relevant expertise. Submit six copies of each panel proposal to: Allan Kuchinsky, Panels Co-Chair Hewlett-Packard Co. 1501 Page Mill Rd. M/S 1U-17 Palo Alto, CA 94304 USA. Voice: +1 415 857 7423 Fax: +1 415 857 8526 Email: kuchinsk@hpl.hp.com COURSES: Proposals (at most 5 pages, including biographical sketches of instructors) for both 1/2- and 1-day tutorial courses are solicited. Evaluation of proposals will be based on expertise and experience of instructors, relevance of subject matter, and the use of multimedia technology in the presentation. Submit six copies of each course proposal to: Ephraim Glinert, Courses Chair Department of Computer Science and Engineering FR-35 University of Washington Seattle, WA 98195 USA. Voice: +1 206 543 4305 Fax: +1 206 543 2969 Email: glinert@cs.washington.edu WORKSHOPS: During the first two days of Multimedia 94, we would like to hold workshops on specific areas of multimedia research and technology. Evening sessions during the main conference (last three days) will be held to report on the results of the workshops. For more information, contact: D. Shepherd, Workshops Chair Computer Center University of Lancaster Lancaster, UK LA1 4YW. Voice: 44-52-459-3827 Fax: 44-52-484-4011 Email: doug@comp.lancs.ac.uk EXHIBITS: ACM Multimedia 94 offers a unique opportunity for vendors and researchers to exhibit and demonstrate multimedia products and research prototypes. For more information, contact: Multimedia 94 Exhibit Sales c/o Danieli & O'Keefe Associates, Inc. 490 Boston Post Road Sudbury, MA 01776 USA. Voice: +1 508 443 3330 Ext. 1227 Fax: +1 508 443 4715 Email: DOK.Boston@applelink.apple.com DEMONSTRATIONS: As part of ACM Multimedia 94, we plan to hold a referreed technical and artistic demonstration program. We solicit working systems that demonstrate the essence of multimedia: the integration of technologies and media (e.g., computers, television, facsimile, communications/networking, databases, user interfaces, hypermedia, operating systems, virtual reality, data compression, interface hardware, publishing, etc.). Submissions (at most 4 pages) should consist of a description of the exhibit, demo requirements, biography, and a single VHS video. Electronic submission of the description is encouraged. Send submissions to: Tom Little, Demonstrations Chair Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Boston University 44 Cummington Street Boston, MA 02215 USA. Voice: +1 617 353 9877 Fax: +1 617 353 6440 Email: tdcl@spiderman.bu.edu VIDEO: We are solicting videos of innovative multimedia technology. Videotape submissions should be between 5 to 8 minutes, and should be accompanied by a 2 page overview. We expect to show the Multimedia 94 Video Program in a special room in the Conference Center during the conference, and the videotape will be available for purchase. For more information, contact: Marc Brown or Dave Redell, Video Co-Chairs DEC Systems Research Center 130 Lytton Ave. Palo Alto, CA 94301 USA. Voice: +1 415 853 2152 or 2131 Fax: +1 415 853 2104 Email: {mhb,redell}@src.dec.com ELECTRONIC PUBLISHING: The proceedings of Multimedia 94 will be available both on CD-ROM and via electronic network. Accepted papers will be expected to be finally provided in several formats including postscript, and authors are strongly encouraged to provide about 2 minutes of video and also software and other relevant information that complements the content of the paper. For more information, contact: Roy Rada, Electronic Publishing Chair Department of Computer Science University of Liverpool Liverpool, UK L69 3BX. Voice: 44-51-794-3669 Fax: 44-51-794-3715 Email: rada@compsci.liverpool.ac.uk STUDENT PARTICIPATION: Papers with a student as the primary author can enter the student paper award competition. A cover letter must identify the paper as a candidate for the competition. Graduate and undergraduate students are invited to participate in Multimedia 94. Student volunteers receive complimentary registration, complimentary meals and the opportunity to interact with conference attendees in return for helping with day-to-day operations of the conference. Housing costs for student volunteers may be reduced by sharing hotel rooms. IMPORTANT DATES: All submissions due: March 10, 1994. Notification of acceptance: June 10, 1994. Submissions in final form due: July 20, 1994. ********** I.A.2. Fr: Judith Klavans Re: Workshop on Combining Statistical and Symbolic Approaches to Language THE BALANCING ACT: Combining Symbolic and Statistical Approaches to Language 1 July 1994 New Mexico State University Las Cruces, New Mexico, USA A workshop in conjunction with the 32nd Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics A renaissance of interest in corpus-based statistical methods has rekindled old controversies -- rationalist vs. empiricist philosophies, theory-driven vs. data-driven methodologies, symbolic vs. statistical techniques. The aim of this workshop is to set aside a priori biases and explore the balancing act that must take place when symbolic and statistical approaches are brought together. We plan to accept papers from authors having a wide range of perspectives, and to initiate a discussion that includes philosophical, theoretical, and practical issues. Submissions to the workshop must describe research in which both symbolic and statistical methods play a part. All research of this kind requires that the researcher make choices: What knowledge will be represented symbolically and how will it be obtained? What assumptions underlie the statistical model? What is the researcher gaining by combining approaches? Questions like these, and the metaphor of the balancing act, will provide a unifying theme to draw contributions from a wide spectrum of language researchers. ORGANIZERS: Judith Klavans, Columbia Univerisity; Philip Resnik, Sun Microsystems Laboratories, Inc. REQUIREMENTS: Papers should describe original work; they should clearly emphasize the type of paper to be presented (e.g. implementation, philosophical, etc.) and the state of completion of the research. A paper accepted for presentation cannot be presented or have been presented at any other meeting. In addition to the workshop proceedings, plans for publication as a book require that papers not have been published in any other publicly available proceedings. Papers submitted to other conferences will be considered, as long as this fact is clearly indicated in the submission. FORMAT FOR SUBMISSION: Following guidelines for the ACL meeting, authors should submit preliminary versions of their papers, not to exceed 3200 words (exclusive of references). Papers outside the specified length and formatting requirements are subject to rejection without review. Papers should be headed by a title page containing the paper title, a short (5 line) summary and a specification of the subject area(s). If the author wishes reviewing to be blind, a separate page with author identification information must be submitted. SUBMISSION MEDIA: Papers may be submitted electronically or in hard copy to either organizer at the addresses given below. Electronic submissions should be either self-contained LaTeX source or plain text. LaTeX submissions must use the ACL submission style (aclsub.sty) retrievable from the ACL LISTSERV server (access to which is described below) and should not refer to any external files or styles except for the standard styles for TeX 3.14 and LaTeX 2.09. A model submission modelsub.tex is also provided in the archive, as well as a bibliography style acl.bst. Note that the bibliography for a submission cannot be submitted as separate .bib file; the actual bibliography entries must be inserted in the submitted LaTeX source file. Be sure that e-mail submissions have no lines longer than 80 characters to avoid mailer problems. Hard copy submissions should consist of four (4) copies of the paper. A plain text version of the identification page should be sent separately by electronic mail if possible, giving the following information: title, author(s), address(es), abstract, content areas, word count. Schedule: Papers must be received by 15 March 1994. Late papers will not be considered. Notification of receipt will be mailed to the first author (or designated author) soon after receipt. Authors will be notified of acceptance by 10 April 1994. Camera-ready copies of final papers prepared in a double-column format, preferably using a laser printer, must be received by 10 May 1994, along with a signed copyright release statement. The ACL LaTeX proceedings format is available through the ACL LISTSERV. FOR COMPLETE INFORMATION CONTACT: Judith L. Klavens Department of Computer Science 500 W 120th Street New York, NY 10027, USA (212) 939-7120 klavans@cs.columbia.edu ********************************************************** II. QUERIES II.B.1. Fr: Y. Shum Re: Retrieving and Indexing Non-Textual Documents Hi there, I'm doing a project on document retrieval. One of the tasks requires indexing non-textual documents such as a table of some statistics. The purpose of such indexing is to enable the table to be retrieved independently of the text in which it is imbedded. The indexing is done by scanning and plucking keywords from the paragraphs where the table is being cited. I would very much like to know the current advanced techniques used to select automatically keywords and merge them in indexing phrases. It would be good to know if there are any good publicly available lexicons (besides Wordnet) that could aid this task. My other task involves automatically creating hyperlinks from a text document to an existing sound data (such as a radio interview of a politician) in the database if that new text document happens to cite that sound data (e.g., " Senator X spoke on ABC radio this morning."). I'm thinking of using "data mining" techniques to identify such relationships. "Data mining" is quite new to me and I welcome suggestions/reference articles/docs or better alternatives. Thank you very much. ********** II.B.2. Fr: Jose Perez Carballo Re: IR and Information Science Courses Hello, I'm interested in the syllabi that are being used around the world in courses about IR and other subjects (list below). Unfortunately none of these courses is given by my CS dept (NYU) so I do not have a model to follow. I have contacted some members of the SIGIR committee in charge of studying the matter and all responded that as soon as they come up with an official result they will let me know. While that happens, I would appreciate any information about such syllabi (by the way, given the response I got from PACS-L I'm not the only one who is interested). The courses are: * Information Retrieval * Information analysis, synthesis and presentation * Technology for Libraries and Information Agencies (emphasis on computer and communications technology, on-line database searching, etc) * Search strategies, on-line sources * Internet I would appreciate if anybody can either send me the syllabus used for some of these courses or point me to the place where I could obtain them. If you can't sent it on-line please try to fax it to (201) 656 4633. Any information obtained will be appreciated and shared with anybody else interested. Thanks, Jose Perez-Carballo 205 Tenth St. 5F Jersey City, NJ, 07302 Voice/FAX: (201) 656 4633 carballo@cs.nyu.edu ********************************************************** IV. PROJECT WORK IV.D.1. Fr: Elliot Davis Re: Error Reduction in Pattern Recognition I would greatly appreciate your thoughts on the: ERROR TEMPLATE TECHNIQUE The "Error Template" technique (patent 4,802,231) provides an alternative method for reducing false alarms in pattern recognition systems. In this approach, a pattern representing a mismatched pattern is stored in the reference lexicon. It is a reference pattern to an error rather then to what is desired. THIS IS DONE WITH THE EXPECTATION THAT IF THE ERROR PATTERN OR A VARIATION OF IT IS REPEATED IT WILL TEND TO BE CLOSER TO ITSELF THEN TO THE PATTERN THAT IT FALSED OUT TO. Preferential matching to an Error Template can result in the system deciding that: 1. the test pattern was outside its reference vocabulary or 2. the test pattern falsely matched a desired reference pattern but should be compared for possible matches to other desired reference patterns and Error Templates. In this case the Error Template is linked to specific desired reference patterns and is called a Linked Error Template. This technique should be tried on any pattern recognition system that needs improvement in error reduction or speed. Pattern recognition systems may be streamlined by reducing the amount of desired reference templates while keeping the false alarm rate down by the use of Error Templates. It is, relative to most other techniques, extremely easy to implement. The Error Template can be created and positioned in the comparison process in the same way as a normal reference pattern. As all pattern recognition systems must have a means of characterizing parameters to be stored and compared, the applicability of the Error Template technique should be widely and easily testable. 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