[iva] Call for Papers: IEEE Transactions on Affective Computing - Special Issue on Laughter Computing: towards machines able to deal with laughter

[Radoslaw Niewiadomski]

------------------------- CALL FOR PAPERS--------------------------

IEEE Transactions on Affective Computing
Special Issue on Laughter Computing: towards machines able to deal with 
laughter


TOPIC SUMMARY:
Laughter is a significant feature of human-human communication. It 
conveys various meanings and accompanies different emotions, such as 
amusement, relief, irony, or embarrassment. It has strong social 
dimensions: e.g., it can reduce the sense of threat in a group and 
facilitate sociability and cooperation. It also may have positive 
effects on learning, creativity, health, and well-being. Because of its 
relevance in human-human communication, research on laughter deserves 
important attention from the Affective Computing community. Several 
recent initiatives, such as the Special Session on Laughter at the 6th 
International Conference on Affective Computing and Intelligent 
Interaction (ACII2015) and the series of Interdisciplinary Workshops on 
Laughter and other Non-Verbal Vocalizations in Speech, witness the 
importance of the topic. Recent research projects focused on laughter by 
investigating automatic laughter processing, and by developing proof-of 
concepts, experiments, and prototypes exploiting laughter for enhancing 
human-computer interaction.
Most research questions, however, are still unanswered. These address, 
for example, theoretical issues (e.g., how can laughter be modelled and 
analysed as a multimodal phenomenon, including non-verbal full-body 
expression? Which is the relation between different expressions of 
laughter, their perceived meanings and their social functions?), 
analysis (e.g., to what extent is multimodal analysis of laughter in 
complex social scenarios feasible and effective?), and synthesis 
techniques (e.g., can speech laughter be synthesized effectively?). 
Overcoming the lack of HCI/HRI/HHI applications that exploit the 
positive (as well as a critical analysis of negative) effects of 
laughter is also of high interest. The issue of acceptability of 
laughing machines, either virtual agent or robot, needs to be addressed 
as well.
The goal of this special issue is to gather recent achievements in 
laughter computing in order to trigger new research directions in this 
field. The interest is on computational models that deal with laughter 
in human-computer and human-human interaction. Laughter is characterized 
by a complex expressive behaviour that includes major expressive 
modalities: auditory, facial expressions, body movements and postural 
attitudes, and physiological signals. This special issue aims at taking 
into account the multimodal nature of laughter and its variety of 
contexts and meanings, and providing an interdisciplinary perspective of 
ongoing scientific research and ICT developments.
Topics of interest include but are not limited to:
• Multimodal laughter detection and synthesis
• Computational models of laughter mimicry and contagion
• Multimodal datasets of different laughter types in both controlled and 
ecological context
• Laughter analysis in human-human communication
• Individual differences in the expression of laughter
• Modelling of different communicative meanings of laughter
• Laughter-based applications in HCI/HRI/HHI and future user-centric media
• Acceptability of laughter in HCI/HRI applications
• Laughter elicitation mechanisms (e.g., "computational humour", KANSEI)
• Laughter as an expression of different emotions (e.g., amusement, 
embarrassment, relief, and so on)

IMPORTANT DATES:
Deadline for submissions: June 24, 2016
Review results: September 16, 2016
Deadline for submission of revised manuscripts: October 14, 2016
Final reviews: November 11, 2016

GUEST EDITORS:
• M. Mancini, DIBRIS, University of Genoa (Italy), maurizio.mancini at unige.it
• R. Niewiadomski, DIBRIS, University of Genoa (Italy), 
radoslaw.niewiadomski at dibris.unige.it
• S. Hashimoto, SHALAB, Dept. of Applied Physics, Waseda University 
(Japan), shuji at waseda.jp
• M.E. Foster, School of Computing Science, University of Glasgow 
(Scotland, UK), maryellen.foster at glasgow.ac.uk
• S. Scherer, Institute for Creative Technologies, University of 
Southern California (USA), scherer at ict.usc.edu
• G. Volpe, DIBRIS, University of Genoa (Italy), gualtiero.volpe at unige.it


SUBMISSION GUIDELINES:
Prospective authors are invited to submit their manuscripts 
electronically after the “open for submissions” date, adhering to the 
IEEE Transactions on Affective Computing guidelines 
(http://www.computer.org/web/tac/author). Please submit your papers 
through the online system (https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/taffc-cs) 
and be sure to select the special issue or special section name. 
Manuscripts should not be published or currently submitted for 
publication elsewhere. Please submit only full papers intended for 
review, not abstracts, to the ScholarOne portal. If requested, abstracts 
should be sent by e-mail to the Guest Editors directly.