Dependability and Safety: Two Clouds in the Blue Sky of Multimodal Interaction

The research field of multimodal interactions has been extremely good at evolving to address new challenges over the years. Those challenges can be expressed in terms of properties, in terms of technologies and devices and in terms of context of use. However, research on Multimodal Interactions has overlooked Safety and Dependability aspects and we argue that this is the reason why deployment of multimodal interactions in industrial setting is below the expected level considering their unquestionable benefits. This Blue Sky paper analyses ICMI contributions on safety and dependability over the years and highlights both research challenges and contributions from other disciplines that could foster research on these aspects and favor deployment of multimodal interactions in industrial and critical contexts.