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.