The goal of MIAMI is to develop approaches for integrating multimedia
data on the basis of knowledge of the Human Information Processing
system. Multimodality aspects in accessing, representing and producing
multimedia information by visual, acoustical and tactile/gestural
systems are studied, as the basis for future multimedia systems.
AIMS
The project aims at developing approaches for building integrated
representations of multimedia data by modelling certain basic properties
of the Human Information Processing system (HIP). In MIAMI, we want to study
full multimodality aspects in accessing, representing and producing multimedia
information by visual, acoustical and tactile/gestural systems. The main
aspect studied is how to build integrated representations of different
modalities as they occur at many levels of processing. This integration is
useful, both in the disambiguation of the human input to the system and in
the disambiguation of the system output.
APPROACH AND METHODS
MIAMI aims to follow the human information processing by providing and
analyzing data on selected aspects of human multimodal data processing,
and by devising an architecture for revealing and exploiting its integrative
capabilities. To avoid bottlenecks, a systematic, bottom-up approach combining
accumulated knowledge, psychophysical experiments and deductive thinking is
applied to developing new algorithms, their experimental verification and
practical applications. The application side is stressed by developing two
typical scenarios for multimedia information acquisition, representation, and
use. The first scenario is related to symbolic information retrieval and
develops an "Information City" metaphor. The second scenario is related to
the interaction and manipulation in information space as exemplified by
teleoperation. The scenarios cover fundamental aspects of multimedia data
handling and are close to practical applications.
POTENTIAL
Multimedia is the technology of the future and this project is of primary
importance for next generation information processing systems. These systems
will be evolving from the present "computers" to integrated information
assistants, managers and communicators. This project is focused on a central
issue of the integrated handling of information acquired by different
modalities and presented in a multimedia context. The ideas, models,
and algorithms produced in this project are most likely to exert a profound
influence on a whole range of future information technology products.
