[evaal contest] EvAAL next steps and a sincere request for help

[Dario Salvi]

Dear Mitja, all,

> There is also a third option, which I find attractive:
> We could hold a live competition in conjunction with an appropriate
> conference, such as Ubicomp, AmI, IE ... This solves the problem of travel,
> since the people likely to compete would also be likely to attend the
> conference anyway. If we allowed only equipment with a relatively short
> set-up time (say, an hour) and if the sequence of activities to be
> recognized were not long, we could squeeze half a dozen competitors in a
> day.  They could not use ambient sensors, but wearable sensors, cameras (of
> the regular and Kinect varietay), robots etc. are all still possible. The
> main reason this idea is cool is that it is interesting for spectators (thay
> can watch activities being recognized as the competition is in progress, we
> could have a live electronic scoreboard etc.).


Thanks for the suggestion.
I have two problems related to this idea:

1) the setup of the benchmarks.
In Madrid we have our own Living Lab which has served well for 2  
years. We control it and we can connect to its network and get data  
from its appliances.
In a conference: a) there can be no living lab at all, b) we can't  
have good control on it, c) the effort to integrate the software  
solution to the new living lab could be very high

2) time.
We need to launch the call for competition soon, I would aim at a  
couple of weeks since now.
Given the little time, I don't think it's feasible to organize this  
collaboration, unless we find a very effective and motivated channel  
for doing it.


As you can see from Vadlo's email, there are other conferences that  
are setting up indoor localization competitions. This is also  
something that makes me worry, I don't want other competitions, with  
big companies behind, to obscure EvAAL. For this reason, having  
already 3 years of experience in advance to competitors, I think we  
should go further pure localization and activity recognition and  
suggest some more integrated approach.


In the end, if you can think of some concrete conference where we can  
join, and if you have a direct connection to that conference so that  
we can setup the track easily, we can consider this option, but we it  
must be effective given the short time.


I am willing to receive your proposals.


best regards,



Dario

>
>> We have to know where exactly the papers of the competitors will be
>> published.
>
>> For the place of the workshop, the most recent idea was to have it in
>> Madrid, just after the competition took place. In the case of the
>> Evarilos track, they were proposing a "virtual conference" (with people
>> connected on-line) so to avoid people from travelling. This could also
>> apply if we make the Madrid's track also off-line, but then the workshop
>> will be completely on-line and probably less interesting.
>
> Again, I suggest a workshop at some conference interesting for the
> competitors anyway. This may also solve the issue of the proceedings -
> depending on how the conference is organized.
>
> Best regards,
>
> Mitja


-- 
Dario Salvi
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9203-1124
http://www.researcherid.com/rid/E-5754-2012
http://scholar.google.es/citations?user=Yeoj3BEAAAAJ
+34 915495700
dsalvi at lst.tfo.upm.es
Life Supporting Technologies
Departamento de Tecnología Fotónica y Bioingeniería
Universidad Politécnica de Madrid
Madrid, Spain