A three-dimensional characterization space of software components for rapidly developing multimodal interfaces
Marcos Serrano, David Juras, Laurence Nigay · 2008
In this paper we address the problem of the development of multimodal interfaces. We describe a three-dimensional characterization space for software components along with its implementation in a component-based platform for rapidly developing multimodal interfaces. By graphically assembling components, the designer/developer describes the transformation chain from physical devices to tasks and vice-versa. In this context, the key point is to identify generic components that can be reused for different multimodal applications. Nevertheless for flexibility purposes, a mixed approach that enables the designer to use both generic components and tailored components is required. As a consequence, our characterization space includes one axis dedicated to the reusability aspect of a component. The two other axes of our characterization space, respectively depict the role of the component in the data-flow from devices to tasks and the level of specification of the component. We illustrate our three dimensional characterization space as well as the implemented tool based on it using a multimodal map navigator.