NCCR Guide 2013 - Schweizerischer Nationalfonds (SNF)

Interactive Multimodal
Information Management
NCCR IM2
Kong Polytechnic University, HK
• Department of Computing,
University of Lancaster, GB
• Department of Physiology,
University of Arizona, Tucson, US
• Department of Psychology,
University of Fribourg, CH
• Universidad Politecnica de
Catalunya, Barcelona, ES
• Deutsche Forschungszentrum
für Künstliche Intelligenz (DFKI),
Kaiserslautern, DE
• Deutsche Forschungszentrum
für Künstliche Intelligenz (DFKI),
Saarbrücken, DE
• Dipartimento di Ingegneria
Elettrica ed Elettronica, Università
degli Studi di Cagliari, IT
• French Ministry of Research
and Education, University
of Avignon, FR
• Human Dynamics Group,
MIT Media Lab, Cambridge, US
• International Computer Science
Institute (ICSI), Berkeley, US
• Istituto per le Tecnologie
Informatiche Multimediali (ITIM),
CNR, Milano, IT
• Laboratoire de Télécommunications
et Télédétection (TELE),
Université catholique
de Louvain, BE
• Laboratoire d’Informatique pour
la Mécanique et les Sciences de
l’Ingénieur (LIMSI), Paris, FR
• Media Lab, Massachusetts Institute
of Technology, Cambridge, US
• Natural Language Processing
Laboratory, Faculty of Informatics,
Brno, CZ
• Speech, Audio, Brisbane, AU
• Transportation Centre, EPFL,
Lausanne, CH
• Unité de Physique Mathématique,
Université catholique
de Louvain, BE
Economy / Industry
• Alro Engineering SA, Martigny, CH
• Alto-Service,
Vufflens le Château, CH
• Anteleon Imaging SARL,
Geneva, CH
• Atonce Capital Management AG,
Bätterkinden, CH
• Canon CH, Zürich, CH
• Cinetis SA, Martigny, CH
• Deutsche Telekom Laboratories,
Berlin, DE
• EyeP Media SA, Yverdon, CH
• Fastcom Technology SA,
Lausanne, CH
• Fastnet, St-Sulpice, CH
• France Telecom R&D, Lanion, FR
• Google Inc., Mountain View, US
• Ibermatica SA, Madrid, ES
• IBM TJ Watson Research Center,
New York, US
• Ima-Sys SA, Lausanne, CH
Achievements of the previous years
Multimodal Processing
IM2 has significantly contributed
to the development
of a new research
field referred to as multimodal
processing, which is
now viewed as increasingly
important at the international
level. IM2 is also
recognized worldwide for
its contributions in related
areas such as speech and
language understanding,
computer vision, multichannel
processing and
fusion, and multimedia indexing.
Meeting Recordings
IM2 was among the first
projects worldwide to focus
on multimodal meeting recordings,
which is now attracting
more and more
attention. IM2 thus works
on large multimodal meeting
databases, and makes
them available to the scientific
community. IM2 is
not only significantly contributing
to the field, but is
also in a good position to set
up international research
and development standards.
Knowledge Dissemination/
Technology Transfer
In addition to new university
courses and doctoral
programs, IM2 was also
among the initiators of the
series of international Multimodal
Interaction and
Related Machine Learning
Algorithms (MLMI)
workshops. In 2008, it also
initiated a joint summer
institute in collaboration
with the Affective Sciences
NCCR, already resulting in
new collaboration. In terms
of technology transfer, IM2
also fostered the creation
of several start-up companies,
such as Anteleon
Imaging, Klewel, Kooaba,
Keylemon. Thanks to IM2,
Idiap Research Institute
and its subsidiary IdeArk
S.A. are core components
of the new Economic Development
strategy of the
Canton of Valais.
Young and Female
Researchers
The exchange programme
supported by IM2 helped
create a privileged relationship
between Swiss institutions,
researchers and
the International Computer
Science Institute (ICSI) in
Berkeley/USA. IM2 has
made significant efforts to
increase the visibility of
women active in science
(public events, publications,
meeting recordings).
IM2 supported (until 2007)
a successful Female Fellowship
programme aimed
specifically at boosting the
careers of female researchers.
Structural Impact
IM2 is having a strong
and visible structural impact
in several of the IM2
institutions. Based on its
growing reputation, Idiap
is now recognized by SER
(Federal Government) as
part of a “strategic alliance
with the EPF-ETH domain”
(since January 2008). This
came with a joint, Idiap-
EPFL development plan
(signed July 2008), involving
common research
activities, development of a
common doctoral program
and including the provision
for 2 to 3 new joint EPFL/
Idiap assistant professor
tenure track positions. In
addition, the Individual
Project in Brain machine
Interaction yielded the
creation of a new chair at
EPFL. New (assistant) professor
positions directly
related to IM2 were created
at ETHZ and University
of Geneva. Finally, the
University of Fribourg is
seriously considering the
creation of a new “institute”
(Human- IST) directly leveraging
on IM2 activities.
Several of the IM2 partners
have an excellent integration
in the ERA (European
Research Area) as key partners
in, and often coordinators
of, several key FP6 and
FP7 projects.
Further information see
www.im2.ch
72 | Guide 2013