Full programme available (direct link)

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This is the website for the 4th edition of the SLTAT workshop, taking place April 9-10, 2015. Following the initial session in Berlin, that in Dundee and the last one to date in Chicago, this event will take place in(side!) Paris and be hosted at ISCC (Institut des sciences de la communication du CNRS). The address is:

20 rue Berbier du Mets, 75013 Paris --- see map from left menu

Though still leaving some room for the more usual paper+talk publication format, this edition will mainly be dedicated to applications and users of translation and avatar technologies. The prospects in accessibility and user expectations can be quite high, and given the newly formed and safely growing state of the community, a good idea was to have a proper space to understand the current state of progress on both scientific and technological aspects.

To achieve this, we propose that be represented at the workshop:

• computer science and any system that processes or presents Sign Language, provided it is relevant to avatar technology or translation, whether to process or edit SL content, perform or enable avatar animation, etc.
• potential uses and ideas about what is needed, not needed, hoped for in terms of technology or software service
• Sign linguistics and field expertise on issues like feasabiilty, language acceptability, or valuable input in social and legal discussions.

This remaining an academic event, we also hope to balance the technological and scientific aspects. While reaching out more for running systems and user needs this time, we do emphasise that all presentations should be backed by innovative research, which remains a criterion for selection.

Therefore, all junior and senior researchers, students and companies, deaf users and SL translators interested in the following topics should register for the next SLTAT, and we look forward to receiving your work if you have anything exciting to propose:

• Sign Language processing
• Signing avatars (virtual signers)
• Automatic or assisted SL translation

The ATALA (French scientific association for Natural Language Processing) has offered to consider grants for students with no funding who would want to present at the workshop. So think twice about not attending!

In short, we wish to see systems and what the community and end users think about their purpose and underlying assumptions. We will not worry so much about system failures and robustness as we will discuss their motivations and Sign Language adequacy.

The programme at a glance (full download here):

DAY 1

• registration at 9:30
• am: introductory talk by Orange Labs and Interprétis + presentations of the systems to be shown in the afternoon (motivations, features and science addressed)
• pm: system demonstrations with real users and input

EVENING

• social event at ELDA: aperitif served with surprise guests (!!)
• restaurant dinner (not covered by registration fee)

DAY 2

• day 2, am: round tables on user feedback and discussion (feasability, linguistic perspective, use and improvement prospects)
• day 2, pm: plenary discussions chaired by Alexis Heloir
• conclusion at 17:00

Registration is now closed. For the record, the fee for registration to SLTAT was:

• €100 per person;
• €75 if you are a student.

This fee includes all coffee/tea breaks and both lunches. Lunch will be served in the park nearby for a hopefully sunny picnic together.

There are two ways of submitting for the workshop: as a system presenter (main track) or as an oral presenter, each described below.

System presentations

Presenters are asked to submit a two-page PDF document addressing the three following aspects about the system to be displayed:

1. Motivations for the system: what need is addressed? what help does it bring?
2. Features: what does the system do? what will be open for testing at the workshop? which of those features are unique to the system?
3. Science: what research preceeded and/or enabled the implementation? what scientific problem was tackled?

Submissions will be collected and checked against the conference topics, and in the case where too many submissions are received, a choice will be made to cover the workshop topics and fit in the time and space available. We plan for about 5 spots in about 2 hours.

Oral presentations

A few oral presentations will also be programmed with a usual 20+10-minute format each, on reviewed articles of about 8 pages. All papers relevant to the workshop topics are accepted for peer review, and will be judged on the regular scientific criteria applying to scientific articles: relevance to topics, innovativeness, quality of research, methodology and references, impact, etc.

Sept. 2014: Workshop announced

Oct. 2014: Website opens

Nov. 2014: Website open for submissions

Jan. 15, 2015: Deadline for submissions (system and oral presentations)

Feb. 2015: Registration and payment system set up

Feb. 28, 2015: Notification of acceptance to presenters and authors

March 15, 2015: Deadline for final submissions

March 31, 2015: Deadline for registration

April 9-10, 2015: SLTAT workshop