Exploration of multimodal input interaction based on goals

Today applications demand newer and newer ways through which humans can interact with the system for effective and natural interaction. Each interaction modality have unique features and supports different interaction goals, which makes them logically appropriate for specific types of interaction necessary for different applications. With several multimodal input technologies now being available for users, a challenge is to design optimal combinations of multiple modalities for specific tasks. Also, it is important to understand that, how these modalities may coherently be used together in a well-coordinated manner. This paper presents our initial research wherein we did exploration with the objective of designing a scheme for identification of optimal multimodal input interaction for various applications and use cases. We identified the key interaction goals of few sample applications or usage scenarios, and systematically compared those with the capabilities of the modalities, in order to identify optimal multimodal combination for those applications.