Areas of interest

• Natural Language Processing
• Machine Translation
• Multimodal Signal Analysis
• Embodied Communication Semantics
• Assistive Robotics
• Human-Machine Interaction
• Assistive Interfaces
• Sign Language Technologies

CV data

Eleni Efthimiou is Research Director at the Institute for Language and Speech Processing (ILSP) of the ATHENA RC, where she works since 1992.

In 1986, she received her PhD in Generative Linguistics from the University of Salzburg (Austria), in the domain of Physical and Human Sciences. At ILSP, she has served all major research domains, including Natural Language Processing (NLP), Machine Translation (MT), Educational Technology and Electronic Lexicography.

In 1999, she founded the ILSP Sign Language Technologies Team (slt.ilsp.gr). Since then, she has focused on sign language data collection and processing, as well as on synthetic signing technology and the development of assistive tools and accessible interfaces, mostly addressing accessibility needs of the Greek Sign Language (GSL) users’ community.

Since 2006, she has extended her research interests in the study of multimodal human communication during natural interaction in various environments, and the possible transfer of multimodal features of human communication in human-robot interaction (HRI).

In parallel to her research activity, she taught for a number of years at the University of Crete and the University of Athens, while she gives invited lectures and seminars in Greece and abroad.

Currently, she heads the Department of Embodied Interaction and Robotics at ILSP.

• Vacalopoulou, A., Efthimiou, E. & Vasilaki, K. (2018). Multimodal Corpus Lexicography: Compiling a Corpus-based Bilingual Modern Greek—Greek Sign Language Dictionary. In Proceedings of the XVIII EURALEX International Congress: Lexicography in Global Contexts (EURALEX 2018), Ljubljana, Slovenia, pages 17-21. [...] 
• Efthimiou, E., Fotinea, S., Vacalopoulou, A., Goulas, T., Vasilaki, K. & Dimou, A. (2018). Sign Language technologies in view of Future Internet accessibility services. In Proceedings of the 11th PErvasive Technologies Related to Assistive Environments Conference, pages 495-501. [...] 
• Kakoulidis, P., Efthimiou, E. & Goulas, T. (2018). Terminology Enrichment through Crowd Sourcing at PYLES Platform. In Mayumi Bono , Eleni Efthimiou , Stavroula-Evita Fotinea , Thomas Hanke , Julie Hochgesang , Jette Kristoffersen et al (editors), Proceedings of the Eleventh International Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC 2018). Paris, France : European Language Resources Association (ELRA). [...] 
• Efthimiou, E. & Fotinea, S. (2018). ComBox - a Multimodal HRI Strategy for Assistive Robots. ERCIM News, 2018(114). [...] 
• Goulas, T., Dimou, A. & Efthimiou, E. (2018). The POLYTROPON parallel corpus. In Mayumi Bono , Eleni Efthimiou , Stavroula-Evita Fotinea , Thomas Hanke , Julie Hochgesang , Jette Kristoffersen et al (editors), Proceedings of the Eleventh International Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC 2018). Paris, France : European Language Resources Association (ELRA). [...] 
• Vacalopoulou, A., Efthimiou, E., Fotinea, S., Goulas, T. & Dimou, A. (2018). MAKING ONLINE EDUCATIONAL CONTENT ACCESSIBLE IN GREEK SIGN LANGUAGE. In, pages 7305-7310. [...] 
• Koumpouros, G., Alexandra Karavasili, Efthimiou, E., Fotinea, S., Goulas, T. & Vacalopoulou, A. (2017). User Evaluation of the MOBOT Rollator Type Robotic Mobility Assistive Device. In Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on PErvasive Technologies Related to Assistive Environments, pages 354-359. New York, NY, USA : ACM. [...] 
• Efthimiou, E., Fotinea, S., Panos Kakoulidis, Goulas, T., Athansia-Lida Dimou & Vacalopoulou, A. (2017). Sign Search and Sign Synthesis Made Easy to End User: The Paradigm of Building a SL Oriented Interface for Accessing and Managing Educational Content. In International Conference on Universal Access in Human-Computer Interaction, pages 14-26. [...] 
• Koumpouros, G., Alexandra Karavasili, Efthimiou, E., Fotinea, S., Goulas, T. & Vacalopoulou, A. (2017). User Evaluation of the MOBOT rollator type robotic mobility assistive device. Technologies, 5(4), 73. [...] 
• Efthimiou, E. & Katsouros, V. (2016). "Δημιουργία του Ψηφιακού Αρχείου του Ελληνικού Ινστιτούτου Βυζαντινών και Μεταβυζαντινών Σπουδών στην Βενετία". In Ν. Ε. Μυρίδης (editor), Τουρκοκρατία και Τεχνολογία, Κεφάλαιο ΙΙ, pages 83-118. Αφοί Κυριακίδη. [...] 
• Efthimiou, E., Fotinea, S., Dimou, A., Goulas, T. & Dimitris Kouremenos. (2016). From grammar-based MT to post-processed SL representations. Universal Access in the Information Society, 15(4), 499-511. [...] 
• Efthimiou, E., Fotinea, S., Goulas, T., Panos Kakoulidis, Dimou, A. & Vacalopoulou, A. (2016). A complete environment for deaf learner support in the context of mainstream education. In Proceedings of the Conference Universal Learning Design, pages 35-44. [...] 
• Rosalee Wolfe, Efthimiou, E., John Glauert, Thomas Hanke, John McDonald & Jerry Schnepp. (2016). recent advances in sign language translation and avatar technology. [...] 
• Fotinea, S., Efthimiou, E., Koutsombogera, M., Dimou, A., Goulas, T. & Vasilaki, K. (2016). Multimodal resources for human-robot communication modelling. In Proceedings of the Tenth International Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC 2016), pages 3455-3460. [...] 
• Efthimiou, E., Fotinea, S., Goulas, T., Dimou, A., Koutsombogera, M., Vassilis Pitsikalis et al. (2016). The mobot platform--Showcasing multimodality in human-assistive robot interaction. In International Conference on Universal Access in Human-Computer Interaction, pages 382-391. [...] 
• Fotinea, S., Efthimiou, E., Goulas, T., Dimou, A., Tzafestas, C. & Vassilis Pitsikalis. (2016). The mobot human-robot interaction: Showcasing assistive hri. In Proceedings of the 20th Pan-Hellenic Conference on Informatics, pages 73. [...] 
• Fotinea, S., Efthimiou, E., Koutsombogera, M., Dimou, A., Goulas, T. & Vasilaki, K. (2016). Multimodal Resources for Human-Robot Communication Modelling. In N. Calzolari, K. Choukri, T. Declerck, S. Goggi, M. Grobelnik, B. Maegaard et al (editors), Proceedings of the Tenth International Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC 2016), pages 3455-3460. European Language Resources Association (ELRA). [...] 
• Efthimiou, E., Sapountzaki, G. & Andreou, G. (2015). Application of Saussurean Theory on Signed Sign Classes and Lexicalisation Processes - Grounding and Linguistic Structure: Findings from Greek Sign Language corpus analysis. In Proc. of the 22nd International Congress on the Education of the Deaf (ICED 2015). Athens, Greece. [...] 
• Efthimiou, E., Fotinea, S., Goulas, T. & Panos Kakoulidis. (2015). User friendly interfaces for sign retrieval and sign synthesis. In International Conference on Universal Access in Human-Computer Interaction, pages 351-361. [...] 
• Vacalopoulou, A. & Efthimiou, E. (2015). Multilingual lexicography for adult immigrant groups: bringing strange bedfellows together. In Electronic lexicography in the 21st century: linking lexical data in the digital age. Proceedings of the eLex 2015 conference, Herstmonceux Castle, pages 11-13. [...] 
• Fotinea, S., Efthimiou, E., Koutsombogera, M., Dimou, A., Goulas, T., Petros Maragos et al. (2015). The MOBOT human-robot communication model. In 2015 6th IEEE International Conference on Cognitive Infocommunications (CogInfoCom), pages 201 - 206. IEEE. [...] 
• Sapountzaki, G., Efthimiou, E. & Fotinea, S. (2014). Grounding and Linguistic Structure: Findings from Greek Sign Language corpus analysis. In Book of abstracts. Stuttgart, Germany. [...] 
• Fotinea, S., Efthimiou, E., Goulas, T., Pissaris, M. & Dimou, A. (2014). SiS-Builder: A tool to support sign synthesis and sign language resources maintenance - The end user perspective. In. York, UK. [...] 
• Dimou, A., Goulas, T., Efthimiou, E., Fotinea, S., Karioris, P., M Pissaris et al. (2014). Creation of a multipurpose sign language lexical resource: The GSL lexicon database. In Proceedings of Sixth Workshop on the Representation and Processing of Sign Languages: Beyond the Manual Channel, Language Resources and Evaluation Conference (LREC), pages 37-42. [...] 
• Fotinea, S., Dimou, A., Efthimiou, E. & Goulas, T. (2014). The Annotation Scheme of the MOBOT Dataset: Towards defining a multimodal HRI model. In Proceedings of the 5th IEEE CogInfoCom 2014 Conference, Vietri sul Mare, Italy, pages 5-7. [...] 
• Fotinea, S., Efthimiou, E., Dimou, A., Goulas, T., Karioris, P., Angelika Peer et al. (2014). Data acquisition towards defining a multimodal interaction model for human--assistive robot communication. In International Conference on Universal Access in Human-Computer Interaction, pages 613-624. [...] 
• Fotinea, S. & Efthimiou, E. (2013). Internet based Sign Language Teaching - the case of GSL vocabulary. In Proc. of the Int'l Conference on Using New Technologies for Inclusive Learning. Glasgow, UK. [...] 
• Dimou, A., Pitsikalis, V., Goulas, T., Theodorakis, S., Karioris, P., Pissaris, M. et al. (2012). A GSL Continuous Phrase Corpus: Design and Acquisition. In Proceedings of the 5th Workshop on the Representation and Processing of Sign Languages: Interactions between Corpus and Lexicon (LREC), pages 23-26. Istanbul, Turkey. [...] 
• Fotinea, S., Efthimiou, E. & Dimou, A (2012). Sign Language Computer-Aided Education: Exploiting GSL Resources and Technologies for Web Deaf Communication. In Miesenberger, K., Karshmer, A., Penaz, P. et al (editors), Computers Helping People with Special Needs (Part II). Springer. [...] 
• Efthimiou, E., Fotinea, S., Hanke, T., Glauert, J., Bowden, R., Braffort, A. et al (2012). The Dicta-Sign Wiki: Enabling Web Communication for the Deaf. In Miesenberger, K., Karshmer, A., Penaz, P. et al (editors), Computers Helping People with Special Needs (Part II). Springer. [...] 
• Efthimiou, E., Fotinea, S., Hanke, T., Glauert, J., Bowden, R., Braffort, A. et al. (2012). Sign Language technologies and resources of the Dicta-Sign project. In Proc. of the 5th Workshop on the Representation and Processing of Sign Languages: Interactions between Corpus and Lexicon. Satellite Workshop to the eighth International Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC-2012), pages 37-44. Istanbul, Turkey. [...] 
• Vacalopoulou, A., Giouli, V., Efthimiou, E. & Giagkou, M. (2012). Bridging the gap between disconnected languages: the eMiLang multi-lingual database. In In Proceedings of the 4th International Language Resources and Evaluation Conference Workshop on Creating Cross-language Resources for Disconnected Languages and Styles (CREDISLAS, 2012). Istanbul, Turkey. [...] 
• Dimou, A., Goulas, T. & Efthimiou, E. (2011). Grammar/Prosody Modelling in Greek Sign Language: Towards the Definition of Built-in Sign Synthesis Rules_1. In E. Efthimiou & G. Kouroupetroglou (editors), Proc. of the 9th International Gesture Workshop, pages 88-91. Athens, Greece. [...] 
• Dimou, A., Goulas, T., Fotinea, S. & Efthimiou, E. (2011). Exploiting the Dicta-Sign corpus data: teaching material for the Greek Sign Language. In 2nd Symposium in Applied Sign Linguistics. Bristol , UK. [...] 
• Vacalopoulou, A., Giouli, V., Giagkou, M. & Efthimiou, E. (2011). Online Dictionaries for immigrants in Greece: Overcoming the Communication Barriers. In Proceedings of eLEX2011, pages 274-279. Bled, Slovenia. [...] 
• Efthimiou, E., Fotinea, S., Hanke, T., Glauert, J., Bowden, R., Braffort, A. et al. (2010). DICTA-SIGN: Sign Language Recognition, Generation and Modelling with application in Deaf Communication. In Proc. of the 4th Workshop on the Representation and Processing of Sign Languages: Corpora and Sign Language Technologies (CSLT 2010), 2010, Satellite workshop of the LREC-2010 Conference, pages 80-83. Valetta, Malta. [...] 
• Kouremenos, D., Fotinea, S., Efthimiou, E. & Ntalianis, K. (2010). A Prototype Greek Text to Greek Sign Language (GSL) Conversion System. Behaviour & Information Technology Journal (TBIT), 29(5), 467-481. [...] 
• Efthimiou, E., Fotinea, S., Dimou, A. & Kalimeris, C. (2010). Towards decoding Classifier function in GSL. In LREC 2010, Proceedings of the 4th Workshop on Representation and Processing of Sign Languages: Corpora and Sign Language Technologies, pages 76-79. Valetta, Malta. [...] 
• Matthes, S., Hanke, T., Storz, J., Efthimiou, E., Dimou, A., Karioris, P. et al. (2010). Elicitation tasks and materials designed for Dicta-Sign's multi-lingual corpus. In LREC 2010, Proceedings of the 4th Workshop on Representation and Processing of Sign Languages: Corpora and Sign Language Technologies. Valetta, Malta. [...] 
• Goulas, T., Fotinea, S. & Efthimiou, E. (2010). SiS-Builder: A Sign Synthesis Support Tool.. In Proc. of the 4th Workshop on the Representation and Processing of Sign Languages: Corpora and Sign Language Technologies (CSLT 2010), 2010, Satellite workshop of the LREC-2010 Conference, pages 102-105. Valetta, Malta. [...] 
• Efthimiou, E., Fotinea, S., Vogler, C., Hanke, T., Glauert, J. & Bowden, R. (2009). Sign Language Recognition, Generation, and Modelling: A Research Effort with Applications in Deaf Communication. In Proc. of the HCII-09. San Diego, USA. [...] 
• Fotinea, S., Efthimiou, E., Caridakis, G., Diamanti, O., Mitsiou, N., Tzafestas, C. et al. (2009). DIANOEMA: Visual analysis and sign recognition for GSL modelling and robot teleoperation. In Proc. of the 8th International Gesture Workshop. Bielefeld, Germany. [...] 
• Fotinea, S. & Efthimiou, E. (2009). A platform for sign language content presentation. In Proc. of the V International Conference on Multimedia, Information and Communication Technologies in Education (m-ICTE 2009), pages 681-685. Lisbon, Portugal. [...] 
• Efthimiou, E. & Fotinea, S. (2008). Annotation and Maintenance of the Greek Sign Language Corpus (GSLC). In Proc. of the 3rd Workshop on the Representation and Processing of Sign Languages: Construction and Exploitation of Sign Language Corpora workshops series, June 1, 2008, Satellite workshop of the LREC-2008 Conference, pages 58-63. Marrakech, Morocco. [...] 
• Efthimiou, E., Fotinea, S. & Glauert, J. (2008). Special Issue: Emerging Technologies for Deaf Accessibility in the Information Society-Editorial. Universal Access in the Information Society, 6, 321-322. [...] 
• Fotinea, S. & Efthimiou, E (2008). Tools for Deaf accessibility to an eGOV environment. In Miesenberger, K. , Klaus, J. , Zagler, W. et al (editors), Book Computers Helping People with Special Needs. Berlin / Heidelberg : Springer. [...] 
• Fotinea, S., Efthimiou, E., Karpouzis, K. & Caridakis, G. (2008). A knowledge-based sign synthesis architecture. Universal Access in the Information Society, 6(4), 405-418. [...] 
• Efthimiou, E. & Fotinea, S. (2007). An Environment for Deaf Accessibility to Educational Content. In Proc. of the first International Conference on Information and Communication Technology and Accessibility, pages 125-130. Hammamet, Tunisia. [...] 
• Efthimiou, E., Fotinea, S. & Sapountzaki, G. (2007). Feature-based natural language processing for GSL synthesis. Sign Language & Linguistics Journal (SL&L), 10(1), 3-23. [...] 
• Efthimiou, E. & Fotinea, S (2007). GSLC: Creation and Annotation of a Greek Sign Language Corpus for HCI. In Stephanidis & Constantine (editors), Universal Acess in Human Computer Interaction. Coping with Diversity. Springer Berlin / Heidelberg. [...] 
• Karpouzis, K., Caridakis, G., Fotinea, S. & Efthimiou, E. (2007). Educational resources and implementation of a Greek sign language synthesis architecture. Computers & Education, 49(1), 54-74. [...] 
• Sapountzaki, G., Efthimiou, E. & Fotinea, S. (2006). Digital Technology in the service of Greek Sign Language Learning for Primary Education. In Πρακτικά Πανελληνίου Συνεδρίου "Ψηφιακό Εκπαιδευτικό Υλικό: ζητήματα δημιουργίας, διδακτικής αξιοποίησης και αξιολόγησης", pages 161-170. Volos, Greece. [...] 
• Sapountzaki, G., Efthimiou, E. & Fotinea, S. (2006). Web-based Distance Learning for Greek Sign Language Teaching of deaf students. In Πρακτικά Διημερίδας «Εξ Αποστάσεως Εκπαίδευση με χρήση ΤΠΕ». Lamia, Greece. [...] 
• Efthimiou, E., Fotinea, S. & Sapountzaki, G. (2006). Processing linguistic data for GSL structure representation. In Proc. of the Workshop on the Representation and Processing of Sign Languages: Lexicographic matters and didactic scenarios, Satellite Workshop to LREC-2006 Conference, pages 49-54. Genoa, Italy. [...] 
• Fotinea, S. & Efthimiou, E. (2006). Μαθαίνω τα Νοήματα 1 - Εγχειρίδιο χρήσης & Οδηγός Εγκατάστασης. [...] 
• Efthimiou, E. & Fotinea, S. (2006). Μαθαίνω τα Νοήματα 1 - Βιβλίο Δασκάλου. [...] 
• Efthimiou, E., Fotinea, S. & Sapountzaki, G. (2006). E-accessibility to educational content for the deaf. European Journal of Open, Distance and E-Learning, II. [...] 
• Efthimiou, E., Fotinea, S. & Sapountzaki, G. (2005). GSL educational content for E-learning. In Proc. of the ICL 2005 Conference on Interactive Computer Aided Learning. Villach, Austria. [...] 
• Fotinea, S., Efthimiou, E. & Kouremenos, D. (2005). Generating linguistic content for Greek to GSL conversion. In Proc. of the HERCMA-2005 Conference (The 7th Hellenic European Conference on Computer Mathematics & its Applications). Athens, Greece. [...] 
• Alexandris, C., Fotinea, S. & Efthimiou, E. (2005). Emphasis as an Extra-Linguistic Marker for Resolving Spatial and Temporal Ambiguities in Machine Translation for a Speech-to-Speech System involving Greek. In Proc. of the 3rd International Conference on Universal Access in Human-Computer Interaction (UAHCI 2005), pages 22-27 July. Las Vegas, Nevada, USA. [...] 
• Fotinea, S., Efthimiou, E., Karpouzis, K. & Caridakis, G. (2005). Dynamic GSL synthesis to support access to e-content. In Proc. of the 3rd International Conference on Universal Access in Human-Computer Interaction (UAHCI 2005). Las Vegas, Nevada, USA. [...] 
• Caridakis, G., Karpouzis, K., Sapountzaki, G., Fotinea, S. & Efthimiou, E. (2005). A dynamic environment for Greek Sign Language Synthesis using virtual characters. In Proc. of the Web3D 2005 Symposium, Workshop on Education and Training. Bangor, UK. [...] 
• Efthimiou, E. & Fotinea, S. (2004). Multipurpose Design of Greek Sign Language Resources: A factor towards Universal Access. In Proc. of the 1st International Conference "From Scientific Computing to Computational Engineering" (IC-SCCE), Invited Session on Human Computer Interaction, pages 820-827. Athens, Greece. [...] 
• Efthimiou, E. & Fotinea, S. (2004). An adaptation-based technique on current educational tools to support universal access: the case of a GSL e-Learning platform. In Courtiat, JP , Davarakis, C. , Villemur & T. (editors), Proc. of the TeL'04 Workshop on “Technology Enhanced Learning”, pages 177-186. Toulouse, France. [...] 
• Katsoyannou, M. & Efthimiou, E. (2004). Ελληνική Ορολογία: Έρευνα και εφαρμογές. Εκδόσεις Καστανιώτη. [...] 
• Efthimiou, E., Sapountzaki, G., Karpouzis, K. & Fotinea, S (2004). Developing an e-Learning Platform for the Greek Sign Language. In Miesenberger, Klaus, Klaus, Joachim, Zagler, Wolfgang et al (editors), Computers Helping People with Special Needs. Springer Berlin / Heidelberg. [...] 
• Katsoyannou, M. & Efthimiou, E (2004). Terminology theory, methods and practices [in Greek]. In Μαριάννα Κατσογιάννου & Ελένη Ευθυμίου (editors), Greek Terminology: Research and Applications. Αθήνα : Kastaniotis. [...] 
• Efthimiou, E., Vacalopoulou, A., Fotinea, S. & Stainhaouer, G. (2004). Multipurpose Design and Creation of GSL Dictionaries. In Proceedings of the Workshop on the Representation and Processing of Sign Languages “From SignWriting to Image Processing. Information, pages 51-58. Lisbon, Portugal. [...] 
• Efthimiou, E., Katsoyannou, M., Κουρμπέτης, Β. & Stainhaouer, G. (2002). ΝΟΗΜΑ: Η εκπαιδευτική διάσταση ενός πολυμεσικού λεξικού νοηματικής γλώσσας. In Πρακτικά 3ου διεθνούς συνεδρίου «Oι τεχνολογίες της Πληροφορίας και Επικοινωνίας στην Εκπαίδευση», pages 429-432. Ρόδος. [...] 
• Efthimiou, E. & Vassiliou, M. (2001). Αυτόµατη αναγνώριση φραστικών όρων σε περιβάλλον ελεγχόµενης υπογλώσσας: Η διαχείριση της ορολογίας στο έργο "Σχηµατοποίηση". In Πρακτικά της 22ης Ετήσιας Συνάντησης Εργασίας Τοµέα Γλωσσολογίας, Αριστοτέλειο Πανεπιστήμιο Θεσσαλονίκης, pages 32-41. Θεσσαλονίκη. [...] 
• Κοτζιά. Ε. & Efthimiou, E. (2001). Γενετική γραμματική και συγκριτική ανάλυση. Εκδόσεις Καστανιώτη. [...]