Human Communication Sciences Network (HCSNet)

The past decade has seen the advancement of human communication technologies and human-machine interaction at an exponential rate. Use of mobile phones with built-in cameras, communication over the internet, SMS, MMS, search engines, avatars, and both auditory and auditory-visual speech recognition systems are becoming a part of everyday life. This progress in communication technology depends on and requires ongoing research in communication sciences.

In December 2004 the Australian Research Council (ARC) announced funding of AU$2 million for the Human Communication Sciences Network (HCSNet) spread over a period of five years. HCSNet, convened by Robert Dale at Macquarie University , and aided by Denis Burnham and Kate Stevens at the University of Western Sydney (UWS) was launched at an inaugural conference of HCSNet members on 27 January, 2005.

The HCNet was established in order to enhance communication and collaboration between researchers working on human-human, machine-machine, and human-machine communication. HCNet aims to:

• connect leading and emerging researchers across disciplines, in order to solve the toughest outstanding problems relating to explaining, simulating and augmenting human communication;

• implement strategies for interdisciplinary graduate training of upcoming new researchers who will lead the field in human communication theory and technology;

• identify and exploit previously unrecognised intersections between disciplines that will generate an explosion of new approaches and knowledge;
  
• make visible a network of experts who will advise government on emerging trends in communication technology; and

• build Australia 's reputation as a research leader in human communication science and technology.

In general, HCSNet covers research in four key areas: text, speech, music, and sound. Over the next five years and beyond HCSNet aims to pave the way for an expansion of knowledge in these key areas by juxtaposing researchers from the areas in order to stimulate new ideas and projects, leading to better theoretical models and technological advances in communication science.

HCSNet will use a number of strategies to achieve the above networking goals. Some of these that have been implemented already are set out below.

Summer Schools. Each year in December-February period a summer school will be be organised on various human communication science topics. The target audience for the summer schools will be postgraduate students, young researchers and experienced researchers. The seminars will be tailored in line with the participants' level of expertise, and the network will fund the teaching by experts from the industry and research institutions as well as subsidies for participation fees. The first of these is scheduled for December 13-14, 2005.

An Annual Multidisciplinary Conference. HCSNet will fund a three-day conference in order to provide a platform on which researchers can present their work in an interdisciplinary framework and meet other researchers to explore opportunities of collaboration. The first of these is scheduled for December 14-16, 2005, and will include plenary presentations by Justine Cassell , an internationally recognised expert credited with developing the Embodied Conversational Agent; and Stelarc , the Australian-based performance artist whose work explores and extends the concept of the body and its relationship with technology through human/machine interfaces.

Focussed Interdisciplinary Workshops. HCSNet will fund various interdisciplinary workshops on the basis of proposals from the network members. Workshops will be on a wide range of topics, both specialist and general. The first of these, the NICTA-HCSNet Multimodal User Interaction Workshop , was held on September 13-14 2005. Other are scheduled, including the HCSNet Conceptualising Communication Workshop , 8th-9th December 2005, UNE, Armidale; and within the HCSNet conference, SPRAPAC, a workshop on Speech Recognition and Auditory Perception in Adverse Conditions; and WISP, a workshop on Interactive Systems in the Performing Arts.

Data Infrastructure Support. A major anticipated outcome of the network collaborations is the collation and creation of comprehensive data sets and corpora covering various aspects of human communication. While the brief of the network is not to fund data collection, it can develop ways of sharing data sets and information, such as sponsoring a web server and distribution mechanisms, auditing the existing data sets by a Data Standards Task Group, and sponsoring the development of good software tools to enable data collection.

Travel and Participation Support: A significant portion of HCSNet membership is comprised of researchers who are in the early stages of their careers, and PhD students working on various topics in Human Communication Science. These researchers, and more established researchers will be supported to attend workshops, the HCSNet conference, and various other HCSNet activities .

One of the areas of research in human and machine communication sciences that can provide a solid basis for interdisciplinary research and contribute to and benefit from the HCSNet is Auditory-Visual Speech Processing , which attracts researchers from numerous disciplines such as linguistics, engineering, signal processing, psychology, psycholinguistics, speech pathology, and the creative arts. Members of AVISA, especially those in Australia , are encouraged to register with the HCSNet , attend HCSNet events, and develop research ideas and collaborations with other members of the network. Membership registration can be effected, and more information obtained from HCSNet website- www.hcsnet.edu.au

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