Within this first iteration of the ACII A-VB Challenge, the participants are presented with four emotion-focused sub-challenges that utilize the large-scale and “in-the-wild” Hume-VB dataset. The dataset and the four tracks draw attention to new innovations in emotion science as it pertains to vocal expression, addressing low- and high-dimensional theories of emotional expression, cultural variation, and “call types” (laugh, cry, sigh, etc.). The four tasks include:

**The High-Dimensional Emotion Task (A-VB High)**: The A-VB High track, explores a high-dimensional emotion space for understanding vocal bursts. Participants will be challenged with predicting the intensity of 10 emotions (Awe, Excitement, Amusement, Awkwardness, Fear, Horror, Distress, Triumph, Sadness, and Surprise) associated with each vocal burst as a multi-output regression task. Participants will report the average Concordance Correlation Coefficient (CCC), as well as the Pearson correlation coefficient, across all 10 emotions. The baseline for this challenge will be based on CCC.

**The Two-Dimensional Emotion Task (A-VB Two)**: In the A-VB Two track, we investigate a low-dimensional emotion space that is based on the circumplex model of affect. Participants will predict values of arousal and valence (on a scale from 1=unpleasant/subdued, 5=neutral, 9=pleasant/stimulated) as a regression task. Participants will report the average Concordance Correlation Coefficient (CCC), as well as the Pearson correlation coefficient, across the two dimensions. The baseline for this challenge will be based on CCC.

**The Cross-Cultural Emotion Task (A-VB Culture)**: In the A-VB Culture track, participants will be challenged with predicting the intensity of 10 emotions associated with each vocal burst as a multi-output regression task, using a model or multiple models that generate predictions specific to each of the four cultures (the U.S., China, Venezuela, or South Africa). Specifically, annotations of each vocal burst will consist of culture-specific ground truth, meaning that the ground truth for each sample will be the average of annotations solely from the country of origin of the sample. Participants will report the average Concordance Correlation Coefficient (CCC), as well as the Pearson correlation coefficient, across all 10 emotions. The baseline for this challenge will be based on CCC.

**The Expressive Burst-Type Task (A-VB Type)**: In the A-VB Type task, participants will be challenged with classifying the type of expressive vocal burst from 7 classes (Gasp, Laugh, Cry, Scream, Grunt, Groan, Pant, Other). Participants will report the Unweighted Average Recall (UAR) as a measure of performance.
The A-VB Workshop will also be accepting contributions on other related topics:

Detecting and Understanding Nonverbal Vocalizations
*Modeling Vocal Emotional Expression
*Cross-Cultural Emotional Expression Modeling
*Other topics related to Auditory Affective Computing


The general deadlines have been extended and are as follows:
*Challenge Opening (data available): May 27, 2022
*Baselines information released: TBA.
*Other Topics contributions deadline: July 22, 2022
(Included in ACII Proceedings)
*Notification of Acceptance: July 29, 2022
*Camera Ready: August 15, 2022
*Competition deadline: September 2, 2022
*Competition Technical Report submission deadline: September 6, 2022
(Peer Reviewed by A-VB technical committee, not included in ACII Proceedings)
*Notification of Acceptance: September 16, 2022
*Workshop: October 18 - 21, 2022