CFP: Special Session on Machine Learning with Multimedia Data (Miami)

SPECIAL SESSION ON MACHINE LEARNING WITH MULTIMEDIA DATA

EIGHTH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON MACHINE LEARNING AND APPLICATIONS (ICMLA 2009)

MIAMI, FLORIDA

13 - 15 DECEMBER 2009

http://www.icmla-conference.org/icmla09/CFP_SpecialSession6.html

AIMS AND SCOPE

The web, as well as TV and radio archives and other sources, give access to a growing amount of data in a large variety of formats and media modalities, often containing useful information. However, much of this information is not easily accessible and usable, be it for users or for automatic systems that could make use of it.

While information extraction from written text has seen great advances and is used by search engines, news aggregators, opinion monitoring systems, mail filters, and many more, access to information in other modalities (audio, images, video, ...) is still a very difficult problem. Machine learning is used with varying success for diverse tasks dealing with multimedia data, but many problems remain, ranging from finding good machine readable representations of the data, extracting higher level (semantic) features to the development of machine learning algorithms capable of dealing with high-dimension spatio-temporal data. An important aspect is also the integration of information obtained from various modalities, and the possibility for cross-modal access to information (e.g. textual querying of video recordings).

TOPICS

This session would solicit original research papers including but not limited to the following:

* Low level feature extraction, selection and transformation

* High level feature extraction from multimedia/cross-media

* Semantic content analysis, classification, and automatic annotation

* Machine learning and statistical models for spoken document retrieval

* Speech recognition and speaker recognition

* User-access pattern monitoring, modeling, and prediction

* Learning and relevance feedback in multimedia retrieval

* Semi-supervised learning in multimedia data analysis

* Transfer or multitask learning in multimedia/cross-media data analysis

* Semantic organization/visualization of multimedia and cross-media data

IMPORTANT DATES

Paper Submission Deadline: *** July 15, 2009 ***

Notification of acceptance: September 7, 2009

Camera-ready papers & Pre-registration: October 1, 2009

The ICMLA Conference: December 13-15, 2009

The special session will be held as a part of the ICMLA’09 conference. The authors would submit papers through the main conference submission website. Papers must correspond to the requirements detailed in the instructions to authors. Accepted papers must be presented by one of the authors to be published in the conference proceeding. If you have any questions, do not hesitate to direct your questions to Dr. Jens Grivolla (jens.grivolla@barcelonamedia.org).

All paper submissions will be handled electronically. Detailed instructions for submitting the papers are provided on the conference home page at http://www.icmla-conference.org/icmla09/

Special Session Organizers:

* Jens Grivolla (Barcelona Media, Information Retrieval and Data Mining Group, Spain)

* Rafael Banchs (Barcelona Media, Information Retrieval and Data Mining Group, Spain)

Program Comittee Members:

* Cyril Laurier (Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Music Technology Group, Spain)

* Andreas Kaltenbrunner (Barcelona Media, Information, Technology, and Society Research Group, Spain)

* Joan Codina (Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Web Research Group, Spain)

* Joachim Neumann (Telefonica Research, Spain)

* Xavier Anguera (Telefonica Research, Spain)

* Oscar Celma (BMAT, Spain/Mexico)

* Benoit Favre (ICSI-Berkeley, USA)

* Christian Raymond (Laboratoire Informatique d'Avignon, France)

* Marc El-Bèze (Laboratoire Informatique d'Avignon, France)

* Jose San Pedro Wandelmer (University of Sheffield, UK)

* Paul Lamere (The Echo Nest, USA)

* Alberto Messina (RAI - Centre for Research and Technological Innovation, Italy)

* Maurizio Montagnuolo (RAI - Centre for Research and Technological Innovation, Italy)

* Elie El Khoury (IRIT, France)

* David Crandall (Cornell University, USA)

* Lyndon Kennedy (Yahoo! Research, USA)

* Roberto Basili (Univ. of Roma, Tor Vergata, Italy)

* Pierre Jourlin (Laboratoire Informatique d'Avignon, France)

* Paul Brossier (Fluendo, Spain)

* Haizhou Li (Institute for Infocomm Research Singapore)

* Teva Merlin (Laboratoire d'Informatique de l'Université du Maine, France)

* Nicolas Scheffer (SRI International, USA)

* Jialie Shen (School of Information Systems, Singapore Management University)

PhD Studentship Audio-Visual Machine Listening (Queen Mary, London)

PHD STUDENTSHIP IN AUDIO-VISUAL MACHINE LISTENING

CENTRE FOR DIGITAL MUSIC, QUEEN MARY UNIVERSITY OF LONDON

DEADLINE: 1 JULY 2009

Applications are invited for a 3-year PhD studentship to undertake research into audio-visual analysis of sound events, with an emphasis on non-speech (music and environmental) sounds.

Research in audio and video signal processing has traditionally taken place in different research groups, but audio-visual processing is now increasingly being linked. In speech processing, for example, image processing methods for lip reading can help improve speech recognition performance, particularly in noisy environments. One promising technique for audio-visual analysis of particular interest in this project is "sparse representations", which looks for a representation of an audio or video signal using a small number of non-zero elements, which can then be associated together.

The work will form part of a programme of research in "Machine Listening using Sparse Representations", supported by a Leadership Fellowship from the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC). This is a concerted programme of research aiming to establish machine listening as a key enabling technology to improve our ability to interact with the world.

The successful candidate will be based in the Machine Listening lab of the world-leading Centre for Digital Music at Queen Mary University of London, working under the supervision of Prof Mark Plumbley (www.elec.qmul.ac.uk/people/markp).

Candidates should have a first or upper second honours degree or equivalent in electronic engineering, mathematical science, physics, statistics, computer science, or allied disciplines, and be able to demonstrate excellent mathematical and programming skills. Research experience in digital signal processing of audio, image and/or video signals is desirable.

The studentship is for 3 years (subject to satisfactory progress) starting from 1 September 2009 or as soon as possible thereafter. It includes tuition fees and a tax-free stipend in line with EPSRC recommendations (currently at £14,940 per annum for the 2008/09 session), and is open to EU (including UK) candidates.

For informal enquiries, please contact Prof Mark Plumbley, Queen Mary University of London, Email: mark.plumbley [at]elec.qmul.ac.uk.

How to apply

To apply for the PhD studentship please email the following documents to Prof Mark Plumbley: mark.plumbley@elec.qmul.ac.uk: a completed application form, a CV listing all publications, your representative publications in PDF format, two independent reference letters, and other relevant documents as requested (see http://www.eecs.qmul.ac.uk/phd/apply.php). These documents must also be provided in paper form and sent to the Admissions and Recruitment Office (see the application form for address).

The closing date for applications is Wednesday 1st July 2009.

CFP: Workshop on Machine Learning and Music (Slovenia)

WORKSHOP ON MACHINE LEARNING AND MUSIC

ECML/PKDD-09 EUROPEAN CONFERENCE ON MACHINE LEARNING AND PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE OF KNOWLEDGE DISCOVERY IN DATABASES

BLED, SLOVENIA

7 - 11 SEPTEMBER 2009

CALL FOR PAPERS

http://www.iua.upf.es/~rramirez/MML09/

This conference is taking place on September 7, 2009, as part of ECML/PKDD-09, European Conference on Machine Learning and Principles and Practice of Knowledge Discovery in Databases

http://www.ecmlpkdd2009.net/

Research on machine learning and music is gaining increasing popularity due to the rapid expansion of music in audio formats, increasing availability of social music tagging data, and the ongoing musicological interest in mining of symbolic music data. As complexity of the problems investigated by researchers on this area increases, there is a need to develop new algorithms and methods to solve these problems. Machine learning has proved to provide efficient solutions to many music-related problems. The goal of MML 2008 is to bring together researchers who are using machine learning in musical applications, providing the opportunity to promote, present and discuss ongoing work in the area. The workshop is planned to last one full day, and will feature paper presentations, panel discussions and open discussions.

We invite contributions describing machine learning approaches to music processing including, but not limited to:

Sound synthesis and analysis

Pattern discovery in music

Computational musicology

Folk song analysis and classification

Music genre classification

Music analysis

Music Information Retrieval

Knowledge Representation and Computational Models

Psychoacoustics and Music Perception

Cognitive Modeling

Adaptive Systems and Music Education

Algorithmic Composition

Interactive Performance Systems

Digital Audio Signal Processing

Submissions:

Papers of 4-6 printed pages must be in English and must be formatted according to the Springer-Verlag Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence guidelines. Authors instructions and style files can be found in the workshop webpage. Papers should include author names, affiliations, contact information, and an abstract of 70-120 words. Papers will be reviewed by at least two members of the Workshop Committee. Contributions should be in PDF format and submitted to the workshop email address mml@iua.upf.edu.

Dates:

Submission deadline: June 14, 2009.

Acceptance notification: June 30, 2009.

Final versions due: July 8, 2009.

Workshop: September 7, 2009.

Organizing Committee:

Rafael Ramirez (Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Spain)

Darrell Conklin (City University London, UK)

Christina Anagnostopoulou (University of Athens, Greece)

José Manuel Iñesta (Alicante University, Spain)

MML09 webpage

http://www.iua.upf.edu/~rramirez/MML09

Music and Machines IX: Resistant Material (Upcoming conference, Newcastle)

MUSIC AND MACHINES IX: RESISTANT MATERIAL

NEWCASTLE UNIVERSITY

15 -1 6 JANUARY 2009

The "International Centre for Music Studies" (ICMuS) and "Culture Lab" at Newcastle University announce a two-day symposium on resistant materials in musical creativity as part of the "Music and Machines" research series.

Musical practices encounter many sites of resistance/resistivity
- the engagement with or overcoming of physiological restrictions
- the technological limitations of instruments, voices, computer systems, and other performance media
- constraints imposed by musico-theoretical systems such as "common practice" tonality and other formalistic issues
- the unpredictability and/or ambiguity of some of the newer creative tools such as interactive software, circuit-bending or distributed performance systems
- the critical dissonances that must be negotiated in much interdisciplinary collaboration

Developing out of a series of research events that began in 2004, "Music and Machines IX: Resistant Material" pulls together some of the different ways that contemporary musicians and theorists have thematized or had to work through the issue of resistant materials.
As well as core members of the CETL-funded ICMuS research grouping in Postvernacular Music, the symposium will include guest presenters from Glasgow Caledonian University, Royal Conservatory in The Hague, University of East Anglia, Edinburgh University, Culture Lab
Newcastle, and the Psychology and Philosophy departments at Newcastle University.

Sessions will take the form of short presentations by invited presenters, followed by round table discussions, with members of "the audience" actively encouraged to become involved. Session
presentations will include position statements, project reports, theoretical perspectives, and live performances. There are also live concerts each evening held in Culture Lab.

Participants will include
Paul Bell (ICMuS - Culture Lab)
David Clarke (ICMuS)
John Ferguson (ICMuS - Culture Lab)
Bennett Hogg (ICMuS)
Lars Iyer (Philosophy, Newcastle)
Raymond MacDonald (Psychology, Glasgow)
Peter Nelson (Music, Edinburgh University)
Sally Jane Norman (Culture Lab, Newcastle)
Joel Ryan (Royal Conservatory in The Hague)
Simon Waters (UEA)
Nick Williams (ICMuS - Culture Lab)
Graeme Wilson (Psychology, Newcastle)

Topics covered will include turntablism in free improvisation, learning Indian Classical Music, ambiguity and indeterminacy in bent circuits, modelling resistivity in virtual environments, formalism and subjectivity, the instrument in free improvisation, philosophical and cultural-theoretical perspectives on ideas of resistance in musical materials, and issues raised by the development of interfaces between musical performers and digital technologies.

A conference fee of £10 to cover coffee and tea is payable to Culture Lab, Newcastle. For registration please contact Carine Aguet at carine.aguet@ncl.ac.uk

For further information please contact Dr. Bennett Hogg at bennett.hogg@ncl.ac.uk

Details of registration procedures and a more detailed outline of the event will be posted on the "Culture Lab, Newcastle" website in due course. http://www.ncl.ac.uk/culturelab