 augmented, table-top touch screen could process voice commands combined with touch to ‘zoom here’, for example. All sophisticated demonstrations of the OIDE’s power. Meanwhile, a third map application allowed users to combine a Wiimote and iPhone to navigate round a map.
Lastly, several multimodal interfaces have been developed for games, in particular games on mobile phones. As the mobile game market tends to follow the more mature console/PC game market - and with the growing diffusion of phones with new sensors - game developers will be more and more interested in following this new trend.
“All these applications were developed simply to demonstrate the capacity of the OI framework to rapidly develop and prototype new multimodal interfaces on PC and mobile phones that combine several input devices,” explains Nigay.
Works with computers, too
Multimodal interaction can be developed for PC applications as well as mobile phones. The framework is open source and it supports various programming languages, and can be downloaded from the project website.
The framework is also extensible, so if a new input device reaches the market, it simply needs to be characterised and plugged into the framework to then become part of the framework ‘reference interface library’.
According to the partners, this is a first step towards a commercial tool for multimodal interaction. The only existing tools dedicated to multimodal interaction like this, according to the project, are research prototypes.
In addition to the framework, the OI repository describing various interaction modalities is also a reference point for the community interested in this field. And it is a way to promote multimodal interaction in various application domains including gaming, navigation in a map, and education.
The platform also ushers in another welcome development: standards. So far, according to the OI project, no industry agreed standard for defining multimodal interfaces on mobile devices exists. The project has championed the creation of a standards group at the European Telecommunications Standards Institute.
Next steps include taking the concept further, both through standards initiatives and further research.
More information: OpenInterface project -- www.oi-project.org/
Provided by ICT Results