AMIDA - Augmented Multi-party Interaction with Distance Access

AMIDA will develop and expand the research vision that we initiated in the
previous (still ongoing) EU-IST AMI Integrated Project, to understand better and
build new support for human communication. The ground-breaking research that we
shall undertake in AMIDA will span several traditionally separate disciplines,
including:

• Qualitative human analysis and human factors;
• 
  
• Audio-video processing, including unconstrained speech recognition and
  natural scene analysis;
• Multimodal structure and content analysis,
  including the modelling of individuals and groups, through the joint processing
  of multiple (multimodal) information channels (audio, visual, slides,
  handwriting, and white board activity);
• HCI, application prototyping,
  evaluation, and system integration.

The AMIDA research work will
directly build upon the recognized achievements and large multimodal corpora
(becoming a standard reference in the area of multimodal processing) resulting
from AMI. However, there will also be a very challenging shift in emphasis to
live meetings with remote participants, using affordable commodity sensors (such
as webcams and cheaper microphones), and targeting the development of advanced
videoconferencing systems featuring new functionalities such as (1) filtering,
searching and browsing; (2) remote monitoring; (3) interactive accelerated
playback; (4) meeting support; and (5) shared context and presence. While
addressing additional scientific challenges (such as real-time processing and
processing of lower quality audio and visual signals), AMIDA has also raised the
exploitation transfer potential through genuine integration of the AMIDA
industrial partners collaborating on common prototypes and applications. Finally,
through its "Community of Interest" (CoI)1, AMIDA will also actively engage
beyond the consortium to spread awareness and knowledge.