This book constitutes the thoroughly refereed post-proceedings of the Second International Conference on Cooperative Multimodal Communication, CMC'98, held in Tilburg, The Netherlands, in January 1998. The 13 revised full papers presented together with an introductory survey by the volume editors have passed through two rounds of reviewing, selection, and revision. The book offers topical sections on multimodal generation, multimodal cooperation, multimodal interpretation, and multimedia platforms and test environments.

This volume examines the role of multimodal augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) in supporting speech, language, and communication of individuals with Down syndrome, across the lifespan.

Multimodal approach to primate communication with focus on its cognitive foundations and how this relates to theories of language evolution.

This book constitutes the strictly reviewed post-workshop documentation of the First International Conference on Cooperative Multimodal Communication held in Eindhoven, The Netherlands, in 1995. The volume presents an introductory survey and carefully re vised and updated full versions of three invited contributions and 14 papers selected for inclusion in the book after intensive reviewing. Among the issues addressed are intelligent multimedia retrieval, cooperative conversation, agent system communication, multimodal maps, multimodal plan presentation, multimodal user interfaces, multimodal dialog, and various systems for multimodal HCI.

Welcome to the 8th International Workshop on Groupware (CRIWG 2002)! The previous workshops took place in Lisbon, Portugal (1995), Puerto Varas, Chile (1996), El Escorial, Spain (1997), Búzios, Brazil (1998), Cancun, Mexico (1999), Madeira, Portugal (2000), and Darmstadt, Germany (2001). CRIWG workshops follow a simple recipe for success: good papers, a small number of participants, extensive time for lively and constructive discussions, and a high level of cooperation both within and between paper sessions. CRIWG 2002 continued this tradition. CRIWG 2002 attracted 36 submissions from 13 countries, nine of them outside Ibero-America. Each of the 36 articles submitted was reviewed by at least three members of an internationally renowned Program Committee. This year we used a double-blind reviewing process, i. e. , the reviewers did not know who the authors of the papers were. In addition, the reviewers were chosen based on their expertise and we also ensured that they came from countries and institutions not related to those of the paper’s authors. This reviewer assignment worked remarkably well, as indicated by the high average confidence value the reviewers gave their own reviews. This means that papers were usually reviewed by experts in the paper’s topic. As a consequence, reviews were usually quite extensive and contained many suggestions for - provements. I would like to thank all the members of the Program Committee for their hard work, which I am sure contributed to improving the quality of the final articles.

This book explores the use of technology to detect, predict and understand social cues, in order to analyze and prevent conflict. Traditional human sciences approaches are enriched with the latest developments in Social Signal Processing aimed at an automatic understanding of conflict and negotiation. Communication—both verbal and non-verbal, within the context of a conflict—is studied with the aim of promoting the use of intelligent machines that automatically measure and understand the escalation of conflict, and are able to manage it, in order to support the negotiation process. Particular attention is paid to the integration of human sciences findings with computational approaches, from the application of correct methodologies for the collection of valid data to the development of computational approaches inspired by research on verbal and multimodal communication. In the words of the trade unionist Pierre Carniti, "We should reevaluate conflict, since without conflict there is no social justice." With this in mind, this volume does not approach conflict simply as an obstacle to be overcome, but as a concept to be fully analyzed. The philosophical, linguistic and psychological aspects of conflict, once understood, can be used to promote conflict management as a means for change and social justice.