The Multimodal Interaction Activity seeks to extend the Web to allow users to dynamically select the most appropriate mode of interaction for their current needs including any disabilities in order to enable Web application developers to provide an effective user interface for whichever modes the user selects. With multimodal Web applications, users can provide input via speech, handwriting and keystrokes, with output presented via displays, pre-recorded and synthetic speech, audio, and tactile mechanisms such as mobile phone vibrators and Braille strips.
The goal of the Multimodal Interaction Activity is to clearly define how to author concrete multimodal Web applications, for example, coupling a local XHTML user agent with a remote VoiceXML user agent. The Multimodal Interaction Working Group is important as a central point of coordination within W3C for multimodal activities, and the group collaborates with other related Working Groups, e.g. Voice Browser, Compound Document Formats and Ubiquitous Web Applications.
The Multimodal Interaction Working Group published EMMA, the Extensible MultiModal Annotation markup language specification, as a Proposed Recommendation on 15 December 2008 and then as a W3C Recommendation on 10 February 2009 (Press Release, Testimonial). The group got 11 implementation reports from 10 companies as described in the compiled Implementation Report . EMMA promotes the development of rich Web applications that can be adapted to more input modes (such as handwriting, natural language, and gestures) and output modes (such as synthesized speech) at lower cost.
Regarding the Multimodal Architecture and Interfaces (MMI Architecture) , the group is working on defining the details of interoperability of Modality Components and Interaction Managers. The group is also working on the Disposition of Comments and Implementation Report Plan for InkML in order to advance the spec to a Candidate Recommendation. The group will be requesting implementers to submit Implementation Reports when the specification is published.
The group held a face to face meeting in Cannes-Mandelieu, France during the joint Technical Plenary and Advisory Committee meetings (TPAC) on October 20-21, hosted by W3C. The main topics at the meeting were:
We also held joint meetings with the Emotion Markup Language Incubator Group about the possibility of their joining MMI-WG for the next charter period, and with the SVG-WG about the process of defining Modality Components. Please see also the detailed summary from the meeting archived in the group's public archive.
The Multimodal Interaction Working Group charter expired on January 31 and has been extended to the end of April to finish the work on the new proposed Working Group charter.
The group plans to investigate potential extensions of EMMA to support new features, and continue the work for MMI Architecture, MMI Authoring and InkML. Also the group is planning to start the work on Modality Components Definition and EmotionML which was originally designed by the Emotion Markup Language Incubator Group.
The group may schedule up to 3 full group f2f meetings if the group participants believe it to be beneficial. For budgeting purposes, the group may hold 3 working group meetings per year. We anticipate holding a f2f in association with the upcoming Technical Plenary. However, currently we have no additional f2f meetings planned.
| Group | Chair | Team Contact | Charter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Multimodal Interaction Working Group (participants) | Deborah Dahl | Kazuyuki Ashimura | Chartered until 7 July 2009 |
This Activity Statement was prepared for the October 2008 W3C Advisory Committee Meeting (Members only) per section 5 of the W3C Process Document. Generated from group data.
Kazuyuki Ashimura, Multimodal Interaction Activity Lead
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