■ Human Information Science Laboratories


　　ATR CALL

　　ATR CALL (ATR Computer Assisted Language Learning System) is an English language training system developed by the Spoken Language Acquisition Project (SLAP) group at ATR. SLAP's main research interest lies in how learners of a foreign language acquire listening and pronunciation skills, and ATR CALL provides SLAP's ongoing experimental research program with learning data from various users. ATR CALL is an instruction tool suitable for learners of all ages from school-age to advanced, and for use in school LAN environments. ATR CALL has also been adapted and partially made available to the public in the form of CD-ROMs accompanying language learning books, as well as online learning software.

Exhibitions and workshops featuring ATR CALL
Multimedia Festival 2002 in Okayama
(November 15-17, 2002, Okayama)
　　ATR CALL was exhibited at Multimedia Festival 2002 in Okayama, as part of a booth organized by the Ministry of Public Management, Home Affairs, Posts and Telecommunications. Twelve computers were made available for use by visitors to try out the ATR CALL web learning system. Visitors ranging from the very young to the elderly experienced the training program in English sounds, rhythm, and vocabulary offered by ATR CALL. The three-day event attracted more than 110,000 visitors.



ATR CALL booth at the Multimedia Festival 2002 in Okayama

Keihanna Venture Fair 2003
(February 12, 2003, Kyoto)
　　ATR took part in Keihanna Venture Fair 2003 held at Keihanna Plaza, where the CD-ROM and Pocket PC versions of ATR CALL were exhibited in the section introducing new technology. The Pocket PC version, which runs on Windows CE, attracted a lot of attention. The fair received more than 1,000 visitors, with approximately 500 visitors to the technology exhibition.




Scenes from Super Science Seminar (S-cube)

Super Science Seminar (S-cube)
(February 12, 2003, Kyoto)
　　The Japanese Atomic Energy Institute KANSAI Research Establishment (located at Keihanna Science City, Kyoto) has been hosting regularly since October 2002 a series of workshops called Super Science Seminar (S-cube). The workshops, held on weekday after-school hours, are designed to offer secondary school students a taste of some of the latest developments in technology. ATR-CALL was introduced in the twelfth workshop in the series, titled 'Wonders of Language - English Learning Through Computers'. The timing of the workshop coincided with term end at most secondary schools, so most of the participants were elementary school children, who were introduced to the mechanisms involved in spoken language use, and to English training through ATR CALL. Even though many of the participating children were learning English for the first time, ATR CALL was a big hit with many of them, as the system allows children to check their progress at a glance.

Edutaiment Forum 2003 Kyoto
(March 25-26, 2003, Kyoto)
　　At the forum held at Kyoto Research Park, a talk was given by SLAP leader Reiko AKAHANE-YAMADA on web-based training of English phonemes at elementary school and junior and senior high schools.


ATR CALL is available online


　　ATR CALL is available online through Kodansha Book Club (http://www.bookclub.kodansha.co.jp/books/bluebacks/atrcall.html).The online ID, valid for three months, costs 1,000 yen. Users can access ATR CALL from their web browsers and receive training in English phonemes, such as R and L, B and V, S and TH, as well as vowel sounds.


Pocket PC version of ATR CALL

A Screen from ATR call

 

     
■ Computational Neuroscience Laboratories


　　The Computational Neuroscience Laboratories (CNS) opened on May 1, 2003. The three departments comprising CNS adopt computational approaches towards understanding the workings of the human brain, and apply their findings to the development of innovative communication technologies. The Department of Cognitive Neuroscience focuses on cognition and learning mechanisms underlying human intelligence. Computational theories, psychological experiments and brain activity measurements are utilized to investigate higher cognitive functions in the cerebellum, the mechanisms of learning and control systems in the motor system, as well as mechanisms of visual dynamics. The Department of Computational Neurobiology's research interests lie in the electrical and chemical mechanisms of computation in the brain. These are approached through combining neurobiological data with theoretical principles of adaptive systems. It also works on developing reliable computational paradigms and software for interpreting neurobiological data. Last but not least, the Department of Humanoid Robotics and Computational Neuroscience examines ways of reproducing in humanoid robots the highly complex and adaptive nature of human behavior. Its research projects aim not only to find the underlying principles of human information processing through humanoids but also to seek ways of developing humanoids equipped with superior communication, interaction, and motor skills.

 

     
■ Spoken Language Translation Research Laboratories


Multilingual speech corpus for C-STAR III goes online


　　The Spoken Language Translation Research Laboratories (SLT) at ATR conduct research in multiple language speech translation in cooperation with the Consortium for Speech Translation Advanced Research (C-STAR III), which is an international partnership of research laboratories engaged in automatic translation of spoken language. Current members besides ATR include CMU (US), ITC/Irst (Italy), University of Karlsruhe (Germany), ETRI (Korea), CAS (PRC), and CLIPS (France).
　　One of C-STAR's ongoing projects has been for member labs to jointly build a speech corpus which handles a common task in multiple languages. The creation of such a corpus would not only enable translation among multiple languages but would also facilitate exchange and discussion of research results among member labs. As part of this project, an English-Japanese speech corpus comprising 160,000 tourism-related sentences originally compiled by ATR, has been translated into the native tongues of C-STAR members. Translation work for a number of languages has now finished, and we have set up a site within ATR's internal network so that C-STAR partners can access and use the latest version of this multilingual corpus.

　　Once translation into all languages is complete, we will have one of the largest-ever multilingual corpora of spoken languages. We are confident that the corpus, which uniquely offers sentence-to-sentence translation among multiple languages, would become an invaluable resource for research in spoken language translation.

     
■ Intelligent Robotics and Communication Laboratories


　　The Intelligent Robotics and Communication Laboratories (IRC) opened on October 1, 2002. IRC's main research theme is to develop technology for realizing a society where humans can live alongside robots. Projects include the development of "partner" robots - robots equipped with superior communication skills that make them capable of becoming human companions. Partner robots being developed at IRC include the Robovie humanoids and robots in the form of stuffed toys. Another ongoing project, carried out in partnership with the Media Information Science Laboratories, involves realizing the concept of what we call "network robots". The idea is to couple our partner robots with a wealth of information gathered by sensors both installed in the environment and worn by subjects to create a completely novel robotic platform capable of offering optimal assistance to our daily activities. IRC also works with medical institutions on the "e-Nightingale project", in which activities at hospitals are automatically recorded and analyzed to improve the quality and efficiency of medical care and to prevent starts and near misses.