ABSTRACT
The main achievements in multimodal processing and retrieval that are presented in this book are an outcome of a large and long-term coordinated project, the Swiss IM2 NCCR. As presented in the introduction (Sect. 1.2), the National Center of Competence in Research on Interactive Multimodal Information Management has lasted for twelve years (2002-2013), or even longer if one counts the almost two years that were necessary for its preparation, submission to the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF), and successful selection along with thirteen other NCCRs. Twelve years in information and communication technology is a lifetime or, more precisely, three generations of PhD students. IM2 has involved more or less directly many persons, certainly over five hundred, at all levels: from PhD students to professors, from children in elementary schools to Swiss federal councilors, from laboratory technicians to artists.
