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Terms of Reference
Sound Vison & Presence Research
Brainstorm meetings held Brussels 21 and 29 March 2000
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Cognition and the mainsprings of future communication among people, media
and machines:
How better basic scientific knowledge of the cognitive and affective roots of human
vision and sound perception results in radically different design (and use) of media
systems than the digital electronic communication technologies we know today.
Background
Intelligence is not artificial and “born” creatures still outsmart “made” artefacts,
including A-life forms or so-called intelligent autonomous agents. Efforts to design
“thinking machines” or a “cog”nitive computer or to reproduce the brain in the form
of connection-dense electronic device have not advanced far. Speech processing and
natural language understanding are still separate with little progress made to bridge
the gap. And yet, as more of our work and leisure hours are spent interacting with
pervasive information technologies, it surprises to note how little is actually known
about human vision, how perception of sounds and objects works, why some patterns
and symbols have special recognition. Neuroscientists do not often talk to the
programmers of personal computer spreadsheets about the puzzles of how sensory
inputs are organised experienced or remembered.
Future multimedia communication systems could have a better design and smarter use
if basic human processes were put back into the picture. Though limited, basic
knowledge of how we see colours, use depth or stereo-separation to predict motion,
and how altering sound creates visual illusions is rarely applied to the design of new
media.
Failures of the past, such as the “Picturephone”, cathode ray tube technology for
“Videotex” and satellite delivery analogue “HDTV” and DAB are examples of overengineered communication technologies which maximise throughput or pixels with
little basic understanding of how human perception works.
An Alternative Rationale for new media design
Cognition and Affective processes are at the root of human intelligence, and are the
mainsprings of language understanding, creativity and self-expression. Cognitive
research has dominated both Neuroscience and Psychology. It has informed the fields
of artificial intelligence, robotics, A-life investigations. Basic knowledge of human
vision and sound perception has not been influential to the design of advanced
software systems, broadband communication applications, multimedia service
development.
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FET Proactive Initiatives
The Future and Emerging Technologies (FET) arm of the IST programme supports
long-term, innovative and high risk research. The FET programme is in part
implemented through proactive initiatives whose objective is to focus resources on
visionary and challenging long-term goals that have strategic importance.
FET is exploring the area of Cognition and Presence Research for a new FET
Proactive Initiative for the IST Workplan 2001. If the vision and focus has merit, this
initiative could support a set of ten to twenty different projects running from the year
2002 to 2004, with an indicative total community budget of 15 to 20 M €, depending
on the response to a Call For Proposals with possible submission deadline in Spring
2001. The aim is to support collaborative work of an exploratory nature, foster an
extended community of researchers, encourage interdisciplinary approaches to a
specific set of research challenges.
The list of specific research challenges will be drawn up from the written
contributions of experts invited to give advice to the Commission. The final results of
the initiative will add value to two leading-edge sectors of European enterprise:
audiovisuals and advanced communications.
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