THIRD SPECIAL WORKSHOP ON

The WMS06 is the fourth workshop in a series of workshops in multimedia semantics that started in 2002. You are invited to be part of the fourth workshop and to formulate the future research directions in multimedia semantics. You are invited to send a paper and/or a thought-provoking one-page position statement, which should provide a clear statement concerning where the deficits are in current multimedia semantics research, where multimedia semantics research should go, and some multimedia semantics research visions. These position papers will be used to stimulate discussions throughout the entire workshop.
Based on everyone’s positions statements on the first day of the workshop, we will form working groups, each of which will discuss a particular cluster of topics in more detail. Each group will then bring their results back to everyone, where we can discuss them all and formulate some research directions for multimedia semantics in the next few years. All of the statements and reports, including a general workshop will be printed after the workshop.
The workshop will be hosted in Chania, Greece. This is the westernmost of the four prefectures of Crete. In the beautiful town of Chania, modern, Venetian, Turkish and traditional architecture are blended together in a perfect harmony, creating unique and attractive pictures. Various archaeological sites, villages, churches, caves, gorges, and wonderful beaches embellish the attractive and charming prefecture of Chania.
The workshop is organized by Technical University of Crete in Greece, Kettering University in USA, and the Institute of Mathematics and Informatics, Bulgaria.

WORKSHOP HISTORY
The first workshop was held in Varna, Bulgaria, 2002. The second workshop was held in Sofia, Bulgaria, 2003. These workshops were in conjunction with the 29th in a series of conferences, “Information and Communication Technologies and Programming” (ICT&P) (http://www.math.bas.bg/infres/ictp/), held annually since 1976. The third was held in Pisa, Italy (http://www.kettering.edu/~pstanche/wms05homepage/wms05.html).

PROGRAM COMMITTEE
Niv Ahituv, Tel Aviv University, Israel
Hesham Ali, University of Nebraska at Omaha, USA
Frederic Andres, National Institute of Informatics, Tokyo, Japan
George Blanas, TEI of Larissa, Greece
Tiziana Catarci, University of Rome 'La Sapienza', Italy
Stavros Christodoulakis, Technical University of Crete, Greece
Vassil Dimitrov, University of Calgary, Canada
Chabane Djeraba, Universite des Sciences et Technologies de Lille, France
Farshad Fotouhi, Wayne State University, USA
Forouzan Golshani, Wright State University, USA
William Grosky, University of Michigan-Dearborn, USA
Hiroshi Ishikawa, Tokyo Metropolitan University, Japan
Nik Kasabov, Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand
Robert Laurini, INSA-Lyon, France
Noureddine Mouaddib, Ecole polytechnique de l'université de Nantes, France
Youngchoon Park, Johnson Control, USA
Pichappan Pit., Annamalai University, India
Fausto Rabitti, Information Science and Technology Institute, CNR, Italy
Peter Stanchev, Kettering University, USA
Chrisa Tsinaraki,Technical University of Crete, Greece
Remco Veltkamp, Utrecht University, The Netherlands
Juan Villanueva, Computer vision center, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, Spain
Rong Zhao, SUNY Stony Brook, USA

TOPICS
Multimedia information retrieval is at a crossroads. It is becoming increasingly clear that multimedia information does not have a unique semantics, but exhibits multiple semantics which depend on context and use. Deriving these semantics and using them to answer user queries presents some very difficult problems for researchers. This workshop will concentrate on techniques for doing this task.
The main topics include, but are not limited to:
• Conceptual clustering
• Computational semiotics
• Dimensional reduction
• Emergent semantics
• Intelligent browsing and visualization
• Multimedia semantic web
• Semi-automatic and automatic methods for multimedia annotation
• Spectral methods
• Multimedia ontologies
• Cultural contents
• Education
• 3D&2D annotation
• Human sequence evaluation
• Content-based image/video retrieval, indexing and annotation
• Perception and cognition.
• Image Web mining
• Digital libraries
• User interfaces
• Modeling and recognition of visual objects and actions
• Multisensory data integration and fusion for decision making
• Semantic web in Bioinformatics and gene ontology

SUBMISSION INFORMATION
Please submit papers, not exceeding 8 pages and/or position statements to wgrosky@umich.edu by April 5, 2006 using the templates at http://www.dirf.org/jdim/. Authors will be notified by April 25, 2006. For accepted papers, camera-ready versions must be submitted electronically, with copyright permission forms, by May 5, 2006. As a condition for final acceptance, at least one of the authors is required to register for the workshop and to present the work described in the workshop sessions. The accepted papers will be published in the workshop proceeding and in the Journal of Digital Information Management (JDIM) (http://www.dirf.org/jdim/) or in the International Journal “Information Theories and Application” (www.foibg.com).

IMPORTANT DATES

April 5, 2006 Full paper submission
April 5, 2006 One -page position statement
April 25, 2006 Notification to the authors
May 5, 2006 Camera-ready papers due
June 19-21, 2006 Workshop

CONFERENCE FEE
The conference fee is 350 euros or 425 USD.

ACCOMMODATION
The workshop will take place outside Chania in Hotel Porto Veneziano. Special room rates for the period 18 - 22 June: 63 euros per day (single room) - breakfast included, 88 euros per day (double room)- breakfast included

TENTATIVE EXCURSIONS
June 18, 2006 - Afternoon – Venizelos Graves
June 20, 2006 – Whole day - Knossos Palace, Heraklion, Rethymn

There will be a reservation on a limited number of hotel rooms in Athens from June 22-24, 2006.

WORKSHOP HOME PAGE
http://www.kettering.edu/~pstanche/wms06homepage/wms06.html.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
For any questions please send e-mail to Peter Stanchev at pstanche@kettering.edu