Skip to main content

Multimodal Interfaces

  • Reference work entry

Definition:Multimodal interfaces process two or more combined user input modes, such as speech, pen, touch, manual gestures, and gaze, in a coordinated manner with multimedia system output.

They are a new class of emerging systems that aim to recognize naturally occurring forms of human language and behavior, with the incorporation of one or more recognition-based technologies (e.g., speech, pen, vision). Multimodal interfaces represent a paradigm shift away from conventional graphical user interfaces. They are being developed largely because they offer a relatively expressive, transparent, efficient, robust, and highly mobile form of human-computer interaction. They represent users’ preferred interaction style, and they support users’ ability to flexibly combine modalities or to switch from one input mode to another that may be better suited to a particular task or setting.

Figure 1.
figure 1_0-387-30038-4_171

Multimodal interfaces for field and mobile use.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

References

  1. S.L. Oviatt, P.R. Cohen, L. Wu, J. Vergo, L. Duncan, B. Suhm, J. Bers, T. Holzman, T. Winograd, J. Landay, J. Larson, and D. Ferro, “Designing the user interface for multimodal speech and gesture applications: State-of-the-art systems and research directions,” Human Computer Interaction, 2000, Vol. 15, No. 4, pp. 263–322 (also in Human-Computer Interaction in the New Millennium, Ed. by J. Carroll, Reading, MA.: Addison-Wesley, 2001).

    Google Scholar 

  2. S.L. Oviatt, “Multimodal interfaces,” Handbook of Human-Computer Interaction, (Ed. by J. Jacko and A. Sears), Lawrence Erlbaum Assoc: Mahwah, New Jersey, 2003, Chapter 14, pp. 286–304.

    Google Scholar 

  3. G. Potamianos, C. Neti, J. Luettin, and I. Matthews, “Audio-visual automatic speech recognition: An overview,” in Issues in Visual and Audio-Visual Speech Processing, (Eds. G. Bailly, E. Vatikiotis-Bateson, and P. Perrier), MIT Press, 2004.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2006 Springer Science+Business Media, Inc.

About this entry

Cite this entry

(2006). Multimodal Interfaces. In: Furht, B. (eds) Encyclopedia of Multimedia. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/0-387-30038-4_171

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics