The frequent difficulties of cross-cultural friction and the recent issues of coexistence with robots and ambient machines, which we are all more likely to face in the near future, are really nothing other than problems of basic communication. They raise questions about the nature of human communication and about the cultural differences between different people and groups. We are interested in exploring the roles that are played by language, paralanguage, non-verbal behavior, and gestures of the human body in such communication, and we are discovering how to utilize these elements in the learning of second and other languages. The Advanced Communication Group harnesses the latest technology in efforts to shed light on these questions and to open up new possibilities for human and machine-mediated communication.

Contact:Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute International