AISB Symposium Mindful Environments

CALL FOR PAPERS
AISB 2007 Symposium Mindful Environments
Dirk Heylen & Stacy Marsella

April 2nd-5th, 2007 (Mindful Environments is a one day workshop in this period)

The aim of this workshop is to bring together an interdisciplinary group of
researchers to discuss the state of the art of the research on theory of mind
(ToM), computational models of ToM and systems that are directed towards the
ability to recognize and represent the intentions and other aspects of the mental
state. Another aim of this workshop is to discuss how the computational models
could inform empirical and theoretical research in human social processes,
through formalization and simulation, for instance.

This year the theme of AISB workshops is on Artificial and Ambient Intelligence.
One of the key paradigms for interaction envisaged for Ambient Environments
does not just involve disappearing computers, but also a disappearing interface.
"Natural interaction", or an intelligent system that can determine at any time what
the inhabitants of the environment need and long for, constitutes the holy grail of
ambient interaction. In this sense, the environment should be able to make
conjectures of the mental state of users as accurately as possible - similar to the
way we can read the minds of others.

Most computational research to date on detecting the mental state of people
have failed to consider the full range of mental states that people display in
natural interactions and the full range of displays of the various mental states.
They have not been able to capture how humans communicate their intentions,
the intricacies of mental life and have often ignored ecological validity.

This workshop address the question of how to go beyond the rather simplistic
notions regarding natural interaction in mindful environments. In order to be able
to build such systems, we need to integrate the knowledge we have about how
people show what's on their mind and how people go about building theories of
what goes on in the minds of others.

Some of the kinds of studies of interest are the following.
* Studies of behaviors and the models of behavior that people display in
interacting with each other and the environment. How can we really tell
what goes on into another person's mind? What cues do people use and
how can we rely on them? How can the features be detected? What is
needed to interpret them?
* Studies into cognitive modeling: alternative theories have been proposed
for how people come to understand beliefs, desires and intentions of
others, a theory of mind. How can we model these theories? How do
current computational models of theory of mind compare to these theories
and how do we evaluate them? How can computational models and
simulations inform knowledge about human processing and vice versa?
* Studies in system development for the intelligent environment such as
robots and virtual humans. What should a cognitive model of an intelligent
interactive environment look like? What should a representation of the
mind look like? Which categories need to be represented (intentions,
beliefs, attitudes, emotions, action tendencies)?

To help answer questions like these related to behaviors and modules, on
modeling and simulation-based studies of communication and cognition, and on
system building, we would like to receive contributions of a variety of disciplines.
From researchers studying natural systems, such as humans, that are equipped
with mind-reading skills to system engineers involved in building computational
systems; from linguistic, psychology, sociology, computational modeling
(simulation, (multi-)agent systems), signal processing, et cetera.

Dates:
Deadline: January 8, 2007
Original submission: 2-4 page extended abstract
Notification: February 5, 2007
Final version (full paper) due: February 23, 2007

Submission:
Abstracts (pdf) should be sent to both heylen@ewi.utwente.nl and
marsella@isi.edu.
The lay-out should comply with the general AISB format.

Websites:
AISB website: http://www.aisb.org.uk/convention/aisb07
Workshop website: http://hmi.ewi.utwente.nl/conference/ME


Committees:
Organizing Committee
Dirk Heylen & Stacy Marsella

Programme Committee
Elisabeth André
Ruth Aylett
Simon Baron Cohen
Timothy Bickmore
Cynthia Breazeal
Justine Cassell
Cristiano Castelfranchi
Kerstin Dautenhahn
Rana El Kaliouby
Andrew Gordon
Robert Gordon
Bilyana Martinovski
Lynn Miller
Ana Paiva
David Pynadath
Stephen Read
Fiorella de Rosis
Rineke Verbrugge