Fusion Strategies for Handwriting and Speech Modalities – Application in Mathematical Expression Recognition These DeadLine: 15/07/2010 christian.viard-gaudin@univ-nantes.fr http://www.projet-depart.org/index.php 

Keywords : Handwriting recognition, Speech recognition, Data/decision fusion.  IRCCyN - UMR CNRS 6597 - NANTES Equipe IVC 

Description of the Ph-D thesis: Handwriting and speech are the two most common modalities of interaction for human beings. Each of them has specific features related to usability, expressibility, and requires dedicated tools and techniques for digitization. The goal of this PhD is to study fusion strategies for a multi-modal input system, combining on-line handwriting and speech, so that extended facilities or increased performances are achieved with respect to a single modality. Several fusion methods will be investigated in order to take advantage of a possible mutual disambiguation. They will range from early fusion to late fusion, for exploiting as much as possible redundancy and complementarity of the two streams. The joint analysis of handwritten documents and speech is a quite new area of research, and only a few works have emerged concerning applications such as identity verification [1], white board interaction [2], lecture note taking [3], and mathematical expression recognition [4]. Precisely, the focus of this thesis will be on mathematical expression recognition [4,5,6]. This is a very challenging domain where a lot of difficulties have to be faced. Specifically, the large number of symbols, and the 2D layout of expressions have to be considered. Pattern recognition, machine learning, fusion techniques will play fundamental roles in this work. This PhD is part of the DEPART (Document Ecrit, Parole et Traduction) project funded by the Pays de la Loire Region. Applications, including cover letter, CV, and the contact information for references should be emailed to christian.viard-gaudin@univ-nantes.fr
 Qualification required:
• Master’s degree in computer science or a related field such as electrical, telecommunications engineering, signal processing or machine learning
• Good programming skills in C++, Java, C, Unix/Linux
 • High motivation in research and applications
• Good communication skills in English or French
. French knowledge is welcome but not mandatory

Starting date: September or October 2010
Place: Nantes (France).
The position is within IRCCyN IVC team in Nantes (Christian Viard-Gaudin, H. Mouchère) in collaboration with LIUM speech team in Le Mans (Simon Petitrenaud).  http://gdr-isis.org/rilk/gdr/Kiosque/poste.php?jobid=3802