About
Gestures have been identified as important signs that can appear in synchrony or non-synchronously with the speech, in order to identify references (deictic), describe speech content (iconic), and coordinate the communication in general (metalevel gesturing). Active research is being conducted concerning the use of gestures in natural conversations, as well as their automatic recognition and integration into interactive systems. Collection and analysis of high-quality video recordings has brought forward new accurate ways to study gestures as part of the interlocutors’ communicative activity, and novel recognition devices, semi-automatic data analysis and visualisation techniques enable investigations of various multimodal interaction phenomena in multidisciplinary framework.
The research training course focuses on gestures and their function in natural communication. It will consist of lectures and seminars by some of the leading experts of the field, and it is connected to the 2nd European and the 5th Nordic Multimodal Symposium that will be held at the University of Tartu on August 6-8.
The course will thus provide an opportunity to study multimodal interaction phenomena both from a theoretical and practical point of view, and allow the participants to discuss methodological and technical challenges related to research issues and data collection. The topics will be addressed from a multidisciplinary view-point, including hands-on exercises on data analysis. The participants will also have an opportunity to present their own work, and get guidance from the teachers.
This event has been supported by the Graduate School of Linguistics, Philosophy and Semiotics of the University of Tartu; Department of Computer Science; Institute of Estonian and General Linguistics; Faculty of Philosophy; The ETIS project MINT (ETF8958); European Regional Development Fund through the Estonian Center of Excellence in Computer Science, EXCS
