Intelligence and Multimodality in Multimedia Interfaces: Research and Applications
Edited by John Lee
19 chapters, 9 multimedia clips, 2 sound clips, electronic
index; PDF, QuickTime, and MOOV format.
CD: $29.95, This book
is available in CD format only.
978-1-57735-260-0
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Very little in computing these days is promoted with as much vigor as multimedia. Multimedia, we are told, will increase the usability and productivity of systems; it will improve the ability of people to learn from educational applications; it will combine naturally with other interface technologies to create a more natural interaction than ever before.
Most of what we see, however, falls well short of these expectations. The majority of multimedia systems are little more than a means of stringing together pre-packaged information which, almost incidentally, may take the form of images, sound or video clips, as well as simple text. The structure behind the presentation is usually limited to a hypertext network, where video clips, etc. can be the items at the nodes (which we are now used to calling "hypermedia"). Such systems are inevitably limited in their ability to respond to the needs of the user; they are often complicated and expensive to create; they are also complicated and expensive to change once created. To make good on the promises of the hype—if it is possible at all—we will have to develop systems that are much more responsive and adaptable (automatically or otherwise).
The nineteen chapters in this electronic book, in one way or another, address issues that arise in this context. They derive from presentations given at IMMI-1, the First International Workshop on Intelligence and Multimodality in Multimedia Interfaces, held in Edinburgh,Scotland, specifically to examine the prospects for such developments, and to identify pointers for promising research.
Some of these chapters tackle technical problems in improving the responsiveness and adaptiveness of systems, while others are directed more towards design and evaluation of the presentations and interactions that users will need. Both of these perspectives are of course equally important.The chapters in this book are divided into sections on multimedia and multimodality, multimodality and natural language, theoretical and formal approaches to multimodality, system designs based on Users' intentions and expectations, and methodologies for multimodal system design, and cognitive approaches and evaluation.