Humanism and Technology

1. Welcome
2. 1. Preface
3. 2. Birth and Infancy
4. 3. Video Analysis Researcher
5. 4. MediaTeam and Convergence
6. 5. Ubiquitous History
7. 6. Waterfall Model of Innovation
8. 7. Living Lab and Societal Impact
9. 8. Humanism and Technology
10. Credits

Although current statistical methods used in different areas of language technology may already solve many problems in everyday life, computers do not really understand natural language yet. The mere possibility of using natural spoken or written language in the interaction between humans and computers noticeably increases the usability of different applications. Automatic speech and text recognition are key technologies in this kind of interfaces: in the future, computers could, for example, recognize the emotions and attitudes of their users directly from the acoustic structure of speech.

Thematically and scientifically, the establishment of MediaTeam’s Language and Audio Technology team in 1999 was a response to the urgent need for an integrated approach to the research of digital databases of text and audio material. From the very beginning, the aim of the team’s research was to utilize and develop methods for pattern recognition, digital signal processing and the automatic interpretation, recognition and processing of speech and audio signals and text within the framework of artificial intelligence. The most important application areas still include new search engines for movie and sound recordings databases, as well as computer tools for the design and description of audiovisual content. The results of MediaTeam's research in this field have not gone unnoticed: Dr. Juhani Toivanen, a member of the team, was appointed to the post of Academy of Finland Research Fellow for August 2004 - July 2009. In his research, Toivanen studies the vocal correlates of emotions in spoken Finnish and their multi-parametric prosodic analysis, broadening and deepening his earlier research on phonetic and linguistic correlates in emotions conveyed by Finnish speech.

The Language and Audio Technology team was established in its initial form when Professor Tapio Seppänen, who had defended his doctoral dissertation at the University of Oulu some ten years earlier, left VTT Electronics to rejoin the ranks of the Faculty of Technology in the University of Oulu. At VTT Electronics Professor Seppänen had worked as a senior and chief research scientist in 1993-1998 and as the head of the Electronic Circuits and Systems division in 1998-1999.

The mission of the Language and Audio Technology team was essentially cross-disciplinary; it was therefore necessary to recruit a group of promising researchers representing different areas and interests. In 1999, Ilkka Juuso, Kai Noponen and Eero Väyrynen joined the team as young students of electrical engineering. Pertti Väyrynen, who held an M.A. degree in English Philology at the time, also joined in. Väyrynen had a background in linguistics and considerable experience in language technology: his company, PhoneSoft, produced translation software systems. Dr. Juhani Toivanen made his first contribution in 2000 as a part-time researcher; he had a background in English Philology and language teaching, and had also worked as a university lecturer in phonetics and general linguistics. The funding of the team’s research was – and still is – almost entirely dependent on outside sources, such as the National Technology Agency and the Academy of Finland, significantly backed up by funding from industry.

Currently, the Language and Audio Technology team consists of one professor, five full-time researchers and a part-time researcher. It participates actively in the Osaava Pohjois-Suomi (Capable Northern Finland) project, a large undertaking of northern universities and polytechnics which aims to promote cross-disciplinary research in Northern Finland within key areas such as wellness technology, ICT, and travel industry. MediaTeam’s contribution – the development of new algorithms and software for digital signal analysis and classification – is significant: a lexicon and phraseology system comprising of several languages and genres relating to health issues and enabling an automatic translation via wireless devices would be a great asset in a clinical context.

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