Workshops Date: 17th – 18th October 2022
Workshop title: 2nd Workshop on What’s Next in Affect Modelling?
Abstract: The valid and reliable evaluation of affect and affective interaction is key for the advancement of affective computing (AC). Recent breakthroughs in deep (machine) learning and generative AI have boosted the efficiency and generality of affect models by discovering novel representations of users and their context acting on high resolutions of multimodal signals. Such representations, however, are data hungry and in need of large datasets that AC is not able to offer. Moreover, as affect models gradually become larger and more complex, their expressivity, explainability, and transparency becomes increasingly opaque. This workshop series puts an emphasis on state of the art methods in machine learning and their suitability for advancing the reliability, validity, and generality of affective models. We will be investigating entirely new methods, untried in AC, but also methods that can be coupled with traditional and dominant practices in affective modeling. In particular, we encourage submissions that offer visions of particular algorithmic advancements for affect modeling and proof-of-concept case studies showcasing the potential of new sophisticated machine learning methods. This is the second workshop in the series after the successful first event organised in conjunction with ACII 2021.
Website: http://whatnext.tamed-project.eu/
Workshop title: MEEC: Third Workshop on Momentary Emotion Elicitation and Capture
Abstract: Recognising and responding appropriately to human emotions can radically change the way we interact with technology. However, to train machines to detect and recognise human emotions sensibly, we need valid ground truth labels for emotions. We face a fundamental challenge concerning temporal resolution in emotion elicitation and measurement: even though emotions are in continuous flux and can be measured, self-reports do not have the same temporal resolution. Several factors contribute to this temporal resolution mismatch: different awareness levels across individuals; non-linearity in time perception; and how emotions themselves alter time perception. A fundamental challenge here is the momentary emotion elicitation and capture (MEEC) from groups and individuals continuously and in real-time, without adversely affecting user experience nor breaching ethical standards. In this virtual half-day workshop, we will (1) host research talks and a keynote presentation regarding emotion elicitation and modulation; (2) brainstorm on outstanding challenges to assess emotion dynamics with high temporal granularity; and (3) propose a roadmap to address identified challenges.
Website: https://cwi-dis.github.io/meec-ws/
Workshop title: AR4W: Affective Robotics for Well-being
Abstract: The main topic of this workshop is affective robotics for well-being, which aligns strongly with the ACII 2022 main theme of affective computing for mental and physical well-being that invites research work that “utilises Affective Computing to address the negative consequences on mental and physical well-being brought about by the current challenging circumstances”. During the last decade, an increasing number of people with well-being related concerns has been observed. In addition, the current COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated this growth leading to societal changes (such as social isolation and work-from-home arrangements) that have severely impacted mental and physical well-being. This has resulted in a more urgent need to support people’s well-being. Robotics has been employed in growing applications, such as, among others, logistics, medical treatments, transportation, and clinical contexts, and they have been playing an even greater role in socially assistive settings.
Website: https://sites.google.com/rosielab.ca/ar4w2022/
Workshop title: The 8th Linguistic and Cognitive Approaches to Dialogue Agents (LaCATODA 2022)
Abstract: Creating human-like dialog systems have been for decades one of the main goals of AI, but we are still far from achieving this goal for many reasons. LaCATODA series brings together researchers and entrepreneurs working on various facets of understanding, inviting not only computer scientists and engineers but also researchers working on cognition and language to present their work (including work in progress and position papers). Except traditional dialog processing we are interested in common sense knowledge and reasoning, emotions (affect-related papers are strongly welcome this year), moral aspects (like detecting hate speech or biases), etc. We are looking forward to discussing social, psychological and philosophical aspects of dialog systems, their problems and ideas for solving these problems. For that reason, also papers analyzing existing systems and describing their shortcomings are welcome.
Website: http://arakilab.media.eng.hokudai.ac.jp/ACII2022
Workshop title: AHRI 2022 – Affective Human-Robot Interaction
Abstract: The Affective Human-Robot Interaction workshop (A-HRI) provides a communication and collaboration platform for researchers from various fields, including but not limited to robotics, affective computing, emotion recognition, social robotics, HRI, machine learning, and healthcare. This workshop will focus on discussing the following research questions: (1) How to perceive unimodal or multimodal affective human behaviour adaptively / accurately in HRI? (2) How to efficiently generate natural and affective robot behaviour in HRI? (3) How to advantageously facilitate human users’ mental and physical well-being with affective HRI applications?
Website: https://www.a-hri.me/
Workshop title: Culture-originated Affect
Abstract: Emotion is defined as a biological state brought on by “neurophysiological changes variously associated with thoughts, feelings, behavioral responses, and a degree of pleasure or displeasure” (J. Panksepp, 1982). However, we are interested in another aspect of emotions as a response brought about by objects. This aspect of emotion is well-known in the Japan Society of Kansei Engineering (KE). The central focus of Affective Computing (AC) is, although is not limited to, human emotions per se. On the other hand, KE is more oriented to studying how human reactions that are induced by objects can improve product design. However, they overlap significantly and there are some differences in their methodologies. A notable fact is that AC and KE originated in different cultures. It is therefore meaningful to understand whether cultural differences influence affective computing studies and how strongly. Moreover, this workshop focuses on “kawaii” as a typical example of Kansei.
Website: https://sites.google.com/view/coa2022
Workshop title: The 2022 ACII Affective Vocal Bursts (A-VB) Workshop & Challenge
Abstract: The 2022 ACII Affective Vocal Burst Workshop & Challenge (A-VB) is a workshop-based challenge that introduces the problem of understanding emotion in vocal bursts – a wide range of non-verbal vocalizations that includes laughs, grunts, gasps, and much more. With affective states informing both mental and physical wellbeing, the core focus of the A-VB workshop is the broader discussion of current strategies in affective computing for modelling vocal emotional expression. Within this first iteration of the A-VB Challenge, the participants will be presented with four emotion-focused sub-challenges that utilize the large-scale and “in-the-wild” Hume-VB dataset. The dataset and the four sub-challenges draw attention to new innovations in emotion science as it pertains to vocal expression, addressing low- and high-dimensional theories of emotional expression, cultural variation, and “call types” (laugh, cry, sigh, etc.).