WG4 Meeting Berlin 2008-04-24: Minutes

Minutes of the WG4 meeting 20080424 Berlin

The 3rd WG meeting of COST IC0601 SID took place 2004-04-24 in Berlin, Germany, hosted by Dr. Matthias Rath (Deutsche Telekom AG Laboratories)

Attendees for the morning session:

• Matthias Rath (WG4)
• Thomas Hermann (WG4 chair, MC)
• Eoin Brazil (MC, WG4)
• Yon Visell (MC, WG4)
• John Williamson (WG4)
• Nicolas Misdariis (WG4)
• Federico Fontana (Invited Expert)

Absent WG4 delegates:

• Rod Murray-Smith (MC, WG4) (ill)
• Stephen Barrass (WG4)

Additional attendees for the lunch & scientific meeting on the afternoon:

• Georg Spehr (UdK Berlin)
• Martin Backes (UdK Berlin)
• Max Schneider (UdK Berlin)
• Holger Schulze (UdK Berlin)
• Georg Essl (Telekom Labs)
• Micheal Rohs (Telekom Labs)
• Sile o'Modhrain (SARC, Belfast)

T0: Welcome

A welcome address was given by Matthias Rath as local host of the meeting.

T1: Approval of the Agenda and Minutes

Agenda and Minutes were approved unanimously.

T2: Introduction of new WG members

A quick introduction of Matthias Rath was given, a more detailed overview rescheduled to the scientific afternoon session.

T3: Revisiting Goals/Mission of WG4

We checked WG4 goals as listed in the Technical Annex (T1-T6) and discussed them in light of our goals set at the first WG meeting (Brussels, 2007). Hermann summarized 4 concrete goals as

• allowing people to experience the utility of interactive sonification, for instance by providing downloadable mobile applications for standard platforms such as mobile phones, standard PCs/Macs, PDAs or web applications
• to increase the visibility of SID/Sonification by listing sonification projects, emphasizing the relevance of SID for Sonification and the relevance of Sonification of SID
  • e.g. by creating guidelines, lists of good and bad SID examples
• organizing sonic interactions to give design helps for the community, including a discourse on taxonomy to characterize sonic interactions
• attracting industry to the idea of sonification
  • e.g. via focused Industry targeted workshops.
  • TODO: compile a list of companies that are interested in an industry workshop (2009), a meeting on how sonification could be useful for them in the market. Ask if possible to get COST itself to host it in their buildings in Brussels.
    • (in the discussion, names like Nokia, Telekom, StokesBio (Eoin) came up, Federico brought up the idea to address also industries of genome sequencing
• TODO: Look at Technical Annex (T1-T6) and relate individual research work to points and where it is can be situated with regard to the sub tasks as proposed by these paragraphs. One or two short sentences per point with points to papers, demos, or videos. This is to be placed online in the Wiki (cost-sid.org)

T4: Reviewing past actions

We reviewed a list of past actions, many of them have been successfully executed, some not. We agreed to create a 'private' WG4 webpage to list actions and to monitor their progress. Eoin will check how to implement this, as fallback Hermann offered a Mediawiki solution.

The review of past actions that haven't been done:

• TODO: Putting online of examples (Good and Bad)
• TODO: Private site, sort out another MediaWiki on richie
• TODO: Add the category "Useful links", STSMs category to wiki
• TODO: Email actual home page links to Eoin
• TODO: People need to add projects, maybe change to list of links
• TODO: Publications or relevant publications (books, papers, articles, tutorials) (list of 10 papers to read for sonification)
• TODO: Remove projects and add only links to all projects but on their sites.
• TODO: Collect materials and make new site for Training School (Thomas)
• TODO: Collect all the STSMs that might be relevant for WG4

T5: SID/CHI Workshop (2004-04-06)

• Thomas reported the results of his STSM to McGill, where he developed the Sonic Interaction Atlas. He gave an interactive demo of SIA. Discussion addressed the taxonomy and ways of interaction.
• John reported about the workshop event and the discussion following his presentation of the WG4 contribution "Sonification for SID". In summary the feedback was positive and constructive.
• Thomas gave a summary of the current development of Neo/NST, which is the environment used to develop the Sonic Interaction Atlas. A OS X DMG should be available soon and a newer QT version is under development.
• Nicolas discussed the possibility for the perceptual layer validation of the various categories used in the first demo of the SIA.
• Yon discussed the issue of Semantic connections and the possible use of Wordnet links, is it crumbling or crushing a bit of paper.

T6:Web Presence

• Eoin gave an update of the status of the integration of WG4 information into cost-sid.org.
• Thomas suggested to limit the width of text columns and to revise the structure. Eoin said, that this can be achieved by using style-sheets and will be checked.
• We agreed to check our own research for overlap with the goals of WG4 and to aggregate a list of items on the website.
• Thomas suggested to remove the item Publications but to list besides SID papers a list of 10 articles/books to read to get started with SID/Sonification.
• We agreed to remove longer project descriptions as online now and to replace them by a link list to relevant projects, including a short (1-sentence) comment what they are about.
• Thomas: to update the Training School website, adding slides, photos, and a summary of the event.
• We agreed that it is useful to keep better track on STSMs that fall under WG4 and to list their results on the web.

T7: Research Retreat

• We agreed to plan a research retreat, 4-6 days, as a focussed work camp, integrating besides WG4 members a very small set of selected PhD students that receive focused teaching and help with implementing ideas. The RR shall remain very small (e.g. <12 participants) and could be aligned to a WG4 meeting, combined with STSMs for the students.
• TODO (all): to propose locations for the RR (initial suggestions have been: Dagstuhl, Schloss Crassenstein, Canazei (Verona), Rigi, Zürich, ZKM).
• TODO (Thomas): to clarify options to cover expenses for the events
• TODO: Collect options for locations and then rate the options.

T8: SID Book

• Thomas informed about the status of the SID book (as discussed on the MCM in Florence) and asked delegates to exchange opinions for structure and offered chapters.
• WG4 favours a Handbook/Recipe collection book with many short focussed well-organized pieces
• We regarded it as impossible to compile a book that covers everything in depth.
• TODO (all): to send a list of potential recipes/articles with working name, average length in pages to Thomas within 2 weeks
• Thomas informed about his plans to publish 2 chapters on Interactive Audio Systems under the roof of SID at COST publishing. Eoin favoured an extension by available sections/chapters of SID delegates. Thomas emphasized that this is nothing that should create concurrence to the SID book project, and be executed at a short time constant, e.g. Oct. 2008.
• Eoin proposed that an email be circulated to SID members to see if they wished to contribute existing material for such a book but only if they could make the very tight deadline.

Planning Activities:

• Some of WG4 will meet in Paris at ICAD (informal meeting)
• Next WG meeting was decided to take place together with the MC Meeting in Finland, if possible on 2008-09-18, the day after the MC.
• TODO: check with HAID organizers for a possibility to arrange a WG meeting.

Summary of the Scientific Session (afternoon)

The afternoon session began with demos organized by Matthias Rath from colleagues at Deutsche Telekom AG Laboratories. Demos were given by

• Georg Essl, Pebble-Box
• Dr. Geshe Jost, Wave Field Synthesis and Multi-Touch Interactions
• Matthias Rath, The Ballancer

Presentations:

• Federico Fontana, Natural Interactive Walking, about a ICT-FET-Open project proposal
• John Williamson, the STANE
• Matthias Rath, Thoughts about interactive Sound Feedback which were followed by lively discussions.

Thomas gave a quick summary presentation about COST SID, WG4 goals and ways to get and stay in touch with Action. Holger Schultze from UdK stressed their interest to contribute and interact with COST SID.

The meeting closed at 18:30.