Les Wilson

The emerging world without wires has fostered a growing number of small and mobile devices (everything from PDAs to smart phones) capable of accessing data and running applications. The trouble is, while devices are getting smaller, human hands and fingers are not. To assist users in managing their devices, user interface designers have begun to combine the traditional keyboard-input model with such interactive technologies as voice-directed input. This type of interaction, in which the user has more than one means of accessing data in his or her device, is sometimes called multimodal interaction. It is fast becoming the norm in the world of wireless mobile computing. If asked, most developers will cite speed and efficiency as the main reasons for developing multimodal interfaces. Parallel input - for example, the ability to both key in commands and voice them - all... (more)

From Mobile to Multimodal

From battery powered tablet computers to Internet connected smart phones, advances in networking and electronic miniaturization have created more ways to access Internet services and data than ever before. Old problems can now be solved with new mobile computing technologies. The ubiquity of access to data and services via Internet Web browsers has enabled large scale integration of business processes and workers. Anytime and anywhere access to your business is a great marriage of Internet technology and IT but it creates a new problem that requires a new solution. Enter the wo... (more)