Re: [mmiws] Summary of the Workshop on W3C's Multimodal Architecture and Interfaces

An HTML version of this summary is also available at:
http://www.w3.org/2007/08/mmi-arch/summary.html

Kazuyuki


Kazuyuki Ashimura wrote:
>
> Following is the summary of the MMI Architecture Workshop held
> on November 16-17, 2007 in Japan.
>
> ---
> Summary of the Workshop on W3C's Multimodal Architecture and
> Interfaces
>
> On 16-17 November the W3C Multimodal Interaction Working Group held a
> Workshop on W3C's Multimodal Architecture and Interfaces in Fujisawa,
> Japan, hosted by W3C/Keio.
>
> The minutes of the workshop are available on the W3C Web server:
> http://www.w3.org/2007/08/mmi-arch/minutes.html
>
> There were 25 attendees from following organizations:
> * ACCESS
> * Conversational Technologies
> * Deutsche Telekom Laboratories
> * T-Systems
> * IBM
> * INRIA
> * KDDI R&D Laboratories
> * Kyoto Institute of Technology
> * Hewlett-Packard Labs India
> * Intervoice Inc.
> * Microsoft Windows Division
> * Openstream Inc
> * Opera Software
> * Toyohashi University of Technology
> * Polytechnic University
> * University of Tampere
> * W3C
>
> The motivation of the W3C Multimodal Interaction Working Group for
> holding the MMI Architecture includes:
>
> * There is great need for multimodal input/output modes these days
> especially for hand-held portable devices with small displays and
> small or nonexistent keypads.
>
> * Accessibility to the Web must be extended so that users are allowed
> to dynamically select the most appropriate modes of interaction
> based on their needs depending on:
>   1. their condition
>   2. their environment
>   3. their modality preferences
>
> * A general and flexible framework should be provided to guarantee
> application authors interoperability among modality-specific
> components from different vendors - for example, speech recognition
> from vendor A and handwriting recognition from vendor B.
>
> This workshop was narrowly focused on identifying and prioritizing
> requirements for extensions and additions to the MMI Architecture to
> better support speech, GUI, Ink and other Modality Components. Topics
> discussed during the Workshop included:
>
> * Multimodal application authoring (Modality Component specific
> grammar, standard authoring approaches, synchronizing multiple
> modalities, error handling, etc.)
>
> * Architecture design (latency of communication, integration with Web
> browsers, fusion/fission of data, device capability, higher level
> control language, etc.)
>
> * User experience (accessibility, user information, application
> context, multiple users, etc.)
>
> * Topics that need further clarification (role of Interaction Manager,
> application specific management, direct communication between
> modality components, etc.)
>
> We have generated a list of issues and requirements about the current
> MMI Architecture through the workshop:
> http://www.w3.org/2007/08/mmi-arch/topics.html
>
> The major "takeaways" are:
>
> * Multimodal applications use various modalities including GUI,
> speech, handwriting, etc. Some of the Modality Components,
> e.g. kinesthetic sensor input on mobile devices, etc., need modality
> specific grammars for converting user input to concrete events.
>
> * Considering that all data must be communicated between the
> Interaction Manager and the Modality Components, latency of
> communication may be problematic for real-time applications.
>
> * Integration of multimodal applications with ordinary Web browsers is
> a key question. Starting with integrating them as a plug-in
> application might be a quick option.
>
> * The capabilities of each handset and the user's preferences should
> be available to the Interaction Manager to allow the application to
> be adapted to accommodate both the handset and the user.
>
> The W3C Multimodal Interaction Group will review those new topics and
> use the list as a guideline for future enhancements to the MMI
> Architecture.
>
> Deborah Dahl and Kazuyuki Ashimura, Workshop Co-chairs
>

Received on Monday, 26 November 2007 13:33:14 UTC