Jon Slack – författare

This book considers how it is possible for people to use directions like 'above the table' or 'over the city'. How does our brain or any other information processing system represent a direction as a spatial entity? And, how is it possible to link such a representation to language, so that we talk about a direction we have in mind? When we look at or imagine a scene, what entities can be employed for representing a direction, and what are the parts in language that can be used to talk about directions? This book brings together research from linguistics, psychology, philosophy, computer science, anthropology, and neuroscience to answer these intriguing questions. By considering direction representation across different languages and in different information processing systems, this book gives an overview of the main issues in this area for both the interested novice and the specialized researcher.

This is the third Workshop on Self-Organising Maps (WSOM) and its related techniques. The previous two were held in Helsinki (1997 and 1999) and confIrmed the vitality of the SOM as one of the most popular and powerful concepts for unsupervised pattern recognition and data visualisation. These meetings not only acted as a showcase for the latest advances in SOM theory and for illustrating its vast range of applicability, but also as venues where much informal and fruitful interaction could take place. It is interesting to observe the development of the original SOM, and this remarkable progress confrrms the originality and insight of Teuvo Kohonen''s pioneering work. With the range and quality of the papers in this volume, the stage is set for another very successful meeting. This volume is a permanent record of all the contributions presented during WSOM''OI held at the University of Lincolnshire and Humberside, 13 - 15 June, 2001. The University is the newest of England''s universities but it is situated in the heart of one of our oldest cities - founded by the Romans and overlooked by the towering mass of its medieval cathedral. Primarily Lincoln has always been a centre for the rich agricultural heartland of England; however, it was the birthplace, 186 years ago, of George Boole. So WSOM''OI is continuing Lincoln''s long and honourable tradition of advancing scientific understanding.

This is the third Workshop on Self-Organising Maps (WSOM) and its related techniques. The previous two were held in Helsinki (1997 and 1999) and confIrmed the vitality of the SOM as one of the most popular and powerful concepts for unsupervised pattern recognition and data visualisation. These meetings not only acted as a showcase for the latest advances in SOM theory and for illustrating its vast range of applicability, but also as venues where much informal and fruitful interaction could take place. It is interesting to observe the development of the original SOM, and this remarkable progress confrrms the originality and insight of Teuvo Kohonen's pioneering work. With the range and quality of the papers in this volume, the stage is set for another very successful meeting. This volume is a permanent record of all the contributions presented during WSOM'OI held at the University of Lincolnshire and Humberside, 13 - 15 June, 2001. The University is the newest of England's universities but it is situated in the heart of one of our oldest cities - founded by the Romans and overlooked by the towering mass of its medieval cathedral. Primarily Lincoln has always been a centre for the rich agricultural heartland of England; however, it was the birthplace, 186 years ago, of George Boole. So WSOM'OI is continuing Lincoln's long and honourable tradition of advancing scientific understanding.

This book addresses the question of whether and how currentcomputational approaches to communication can or might beable to accommodate the range ofcomplexities thatcharacterize both human-human and human-machinecommunication. The chapters in the book are based on papers presented at aNATO Advanced Research Workshop held in Italy in late 1990where an international group of computer scientists andcognitive scientists met to discuss theoretical and appliedissues concerning communication. The initial chapters aremore theoretical in nature with an emphasis on formalapproaches to communication. The middle chapters focus onparticular application issues, such as the generation ofmultimedia documents and the role of planning in buildingsystems to support human-human or human-machine interaction. The final few chapters consider more general issues relatingto communication, such as the influence of social structureon, and the role of affect in communication.

Castel Ivano, originally built in 1375, is one of many beautiful and impressive castles strategically placed atop hills in Trentino''s Valsugana in Northern Italy. It was in this castle on a series of brilliant sunny crisp November days in 1990 that an international group of computer scientists and cognitive scientists met at a workshop to discuss theoretical and applied issues concerning communi­ cation from an Artificial Intelligence and Cognitive Science perspective. About forty people, representing nine countries, participated in the workshop, either as speakers, discussants, or observers. The main motivationfor the workshop wasto address the questionofwhether and how current computational approaches to communication can or might be able to accommodate the range of complexities that characterize both human­ human and human-machine communication. The chapters in this book are based on the papers that were presented at the workshop. They are presented in an order that is determined primarily by the specificity of the topics they address. The initial chapters are more theoretical in nature with an emphasis on formal approaches to communication. The middle chapters focus on particular application issues, such as the generation ofmultimedia documents and the role of planning in building systems to support human-human or human-machine interaction. The final few chapters consider more general issues relating to com­ munication, such as the influence ofsocial structure on, and the role of affect in communication.