2nd Call for Papers
                 The First Workshop on Embodied
                    Conversational Characters

        Granlibakken Resort & Conference Center at Lake Tahoe
                     Tahoe City (North Shore)
                        California, USA

                      October 12-15, 1998

                    With the support of AAAI
                   Cooperation of ACM/SIGCHI


Recent advances in several core software technologies have made possible
a new type of human-computer interface: the conversational character.
Conversational characters are autonomous, anthropomorphic, animated
figures that have the ability to communicate through multiple
modalities, including spoken language, facial expressions, and gestures.
Unlike textual natural language interfaces, conversational characters
have the ability to perceive and produce the verbal and non-verbal
signals that identify discourse structure and regulate the flow of
information between interlocutors. Such signals include intonational
patterns, gestures, back-channel feedback signals, and turn-taking
protocols. These capabilities enable them to engage in complex
interactions with human users via natural speech rather than complex
command languages, menus or graphical manipulations.

Research on conversational characters has emerged from a number of
disciplines, including, among others, artificial intelligence,
computational linguistics, computer animation, computer vision,
psychology, cognitive science, virtual reality, CSCW, and HCI. This
diversity is naturally reflected in the broad range of active research
areas in conversational character interfaces.

The primary goal of this workshop is to advance the state of
conversational character research and development by identifying novel
approaches to the topics and issues listed below, and integrating them
into a framework for embodied, conversational human-computer
interaction.  Selected contributors will be invited to expand and refine
their papers for inclusion in a book to be published by Addison-Wesley.
The aims of this book will be to introduce, define, and advance the
field; to give a snapshot of current work in it; and to suggest future
challenges and opportunities.

Particular topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

* Multi-Modal Interaction               * Autonomy
* Recognition & perception of speech,   * Behavior/dialogue planning
   gesture, facial expressions, etc.
* Distribution of semantic information  * Reactivity and opportunism
  across multiple modalities
* Rendering techniques                  * Representation
* Semantic representations for          * Character individuation
  non-verbal communication
* Dialogue planning                     * Affect and personality
* Turn-taking and back-channel signals  * User Studies
* Spoken Language Processing            * Tools for character
* Discourse structure                     building/authoring
* Intonation                            * Architectures & Applications

Papers should address one or more of these topics. Demonstrations and
video presentations of working systems are strongly encouraged.

Format

The two and a half-day workshop will include several paper sessions,
organized around emerging themes, with follow-up panel discussions. In
addition, there will be a demonstration session for authors to present
working systems.

Attendance

Attendance will be limited to 35-40 people. Preference will be given to
authors whose papers have been selected for presentation at the
workshop.

Submission Requirements

Paper submissions are due on June 15, 1998, and should be no longer
than 6 pages (10-12 point font). Upon acceptance, authors will be given
the opportunity to expand their papers to 8-10 pages. Electronic
submissions in Postscript or Microsoft Word formats are preferred, and
should be sent to prevost@pal.xerox.com. Otherwise, send four hardcopies
to:

     Scott Prevost
     ATTN: Embodied Conversational Characters Workshop
     FX Palo Alto Laboratory
     3400 Hillview Avenue, Bldg. 4
     Palo Alto, CA 94304
     Voice: 650/813-7701

Deadlines

Submissions due                 June 15th
Notification of acceptance      August 17th
Final papers due                September 14th
Workshop                        October 12th -15th

Workshop Organizers

Joseph W. Sullivan, FX Palo Alto Lab, USA (sullivan@pal.xerox.com)
Justine Cassell, MIT Media Laboratory, USA (justine@media.mit.edu)

Workshop Program Committee

Committee Co-Chairs:
Scott Prevost, FX Palo Alto Lab, USA (prevost@pal.xerox.com)
Elizabeth Churchill, FX Palo Alto Lab, USA (churchill@pal.xerox.com)

Committee Members:
Elisabeth Andre, DFKI GmbH, Germany (Elisabeth.Andre@dfki.de)
Gene Ball, Microsoft Research, USA (geneb@microsoft.com)
Phil Cohen, Oregon Graduate Institute, USA (pcohen@cse.ogi.edu)
Barbara Hayes-Roth, Stanford Univ., USA (hayes-roth@cs.stanford.edu)
Kenji Mase, ATR International, Japan (mase@mic.atr.co.jp)
Clifford Nass, Stanford University, USA (nass@leland.stanford.edu)
Mark Steedman, University of Pennsylvania, USA (steedman@cis.upenn.edu)
Kris Thorisson, Lego A/S, Denmark (kris@digi.lego.com)

Demos Chair:
Timothy Bickmore, ISII Inc., USA (bickmore@pal.xerox.com)

Additional Information

For more information, please consult the workshop web page:
www.fxpal.com/wecc98/