The mission of the Multimodal Interaction Working Group, part of the Multimodal Interaction Activity, is to develop open standards that enable the following vision:
| End date | 31 January 2009 |
|---|---|
| Confidentiality | Proceedings are Member-only, but the group sends regular summaries of ongoing work to the public mailing list. |
| Initial Chairs | Deborah Dahl |
| Initial Team Contacts (FTE %: 40) |
Kazuyuki Ashimura |
| Usual Meeting Schedule | Teleconferences: Weekly Face-to-face: 3-4 per year |
The primary goal of this Charter is to develop W3C Recommendations that enable multimodal interaction with mobile phones and other devices with limited resources. For rapid adoption on a global scale, it should be possible to add simple multimodal capabilities to existing markup languages in a way that is backwards compatible with widely deployed devices, and which builds upon widespread familarity with existing Web technologies. The standards should be scalable to enable richer capabilities for subsequent generations of multimodal devices.
Users will be able to provide input via speech, handwriting, or keystrokes, with output presented via displays, pre-recorded and synthetic speech, audio, and tactile mechanisms such as mobile phone vibrators and Braille strips. Application developers will be able to provide an effective user interface for whichever modes the user selects. To encourage rapid adoption, the same content can be designed for use on both old and new devices. People with new phones will get to experience the multimodal capabilities, while users with old phones will get to use the keypad and/or stylus in the same way as now.
The specifications developed by the Multimodal Interaction Working Group under this charter must fall within the scope defined in section 3, and should be implementable on a royalty-free basis, see section 9.
Target Audience of the Multimodal Interaction Working Group should include a range of organizations in different industry sectors like:
The Working Group's initial focus was on use cases and requirements. This led to the publication of the W3C Multimodal Interaction Framework, and in turn to work on extensible multi-modal annotations (EMMA), and InkML, an XML language for ink traces. The Working Group has also worked on integration of composite multimodal input; dynamic adaptation to the user, device and environmental conditions; modality component interfaces; and a study of current approaches to interaction management. Natural Language Semantics Markup Language for the Speech Interface Framework is obsolete and has been replaced by work on EMMA.
The Working Group is now being re-chartered for a further two years.
All work items carried out under this Charter must fall within the scope defined by this section.
The aim is to develop W3C Recommendations that will enable the widespread deployment of multimodal applications on mobile phones and other devices, and to complete existing work on EMMA and InkML.
Future Web applications will allow developers to define applications in terms of markup of their own choosing, with the means to define the corresponding runtime behavior in terms of scriptable objects and shadow markup, such as SVG for visualization.
To assist with realizing this goal, the Multimodal Interaction Working Group is tasked with providing a loosely coupled architecture for multimodal user interfaces, which allows for co-resident and distributed implementations, and focuses on the role of markup and scripting, and the use of well defined interfaces between its constituents. The framework is motivated by several basic design goals:
Where practical this should leverage existing W3C work. We expect to reach Recommendation status by the end of the charter.
This task (1) validates that the Multimodal Architecture and Interfaces and associated development languages can be used to create multimodal user interfaces, and (2) suggests standard approaches, techniques and principles for developing multimodal user interfaces on mobile phones in particular as well as other devices. The approach must allow simple multimodal capabilities to be added to existing markup languages in a way that is backwards compatible with widely deployed mobile devices, and which builds upon widespread familiarity with existing Web technologies. The standards should be scalable to enable richer capabilities on subsequent generations of multimodal devices. This involves the separation of the user interface from the application, to enable different user interfaces according to the user's preferences and the capabilities available to the devices. Work is expected on:
This is not expected a recommendation track document but a Working Group note. We may fold this into an informative appendix of the Multimodal Architecture and Interfaces specification. The first draft is expected in June 2007 and the second draft is expected in December 2007.
The working group will investigate and recommend how various W3C languages can be extended for use in a multimodal environment using the multimodal life cycle events. We may prepare W3C notes on how the following languages to participate in multimodal specifications by incorporating the life cycle events from the multimodal architecture: XHTML, VoiceXML, MathML, SMIL, SVG, InkML and other languages that can be used in a multimodal environment. The working group is also interested in investigating how CSS and Delivery Context Interfaces (DCI) can be used to support Multimodal Interaction applications, and if appropriate, may write a W3C Note.
EMMA is being developed as a data exchange format for the interface between input processors and interaction management systems. It will define the means for recognizers to annotate application specific data with information such as confidence scores, time stamps, input mode (e.g. key strokes, speech or pen), alternative recognition hypotheses, and partial recognition results etc. EMMA is a target data format for the semantic interpretation specification being developed in the W3C Voice Browser Activity, and which describes annotations to speech grammars for extracting application specific data as a result of speech recognition. EMMA supercedes earlier work on the natural language semantics markup language in the Voice Browser Activity.
InkML provides a range of features to support real-time ink streaming, multi-party interactions and annotated ink archival. Applications may make use of as much or as little information as required, from minimalist applications using only simple traces to more complex problems, such as signature verification or calligraphic animation, requiring full dynamic information. As a platform-neutral format for digital ink, InkML can support collaborative or distributed applications in heterogeneous environments, such as courier signature verification to distance education. The specification is the product of four years of work by a cross-sector working group with input from Apple, Corel, HP, IBM and Motorola, as well as invited experts from academia and other sources. InkML provides a range of features to support real-time ink streaming,
Following the publication of EMMA and InkML for Recommendations, the Working Group will be maintaining the specifications; that is, responding to questions and requests on the public mailing list and issuing errata as needed. The Working Group will also consider publishing additional versions of the specification, depending on such factors as feedback from the user community and any requirements generated for EMMA and InkML by the Multimodal Architecture and Interfaces work and the Multimodal Authoring work.
The following documents are expected to become W3C Recommendations:
The following document is a note, which may be folded into an informative appendix of the Multimodal Architecture and Interfaces specification:
The following notes may be revised depending upon the interest of the working group members:
This Working Group is chartered to last until 31 January 2009. The first face to face meeting after re-chartering will be held in May or June 2007.
Here is a list of milestones identified at the time of re-chartering. Others may be added later at the discretion of the Working Group. The dates are for guidance only and subject to change.
| Note: The group will document significant changes from this initial schedule on the group home page. | ||||||
| Specification | FPWD | LC | CR | PR | Rec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Multimodal Architecture and Interfaces | Completed | December 2007 | June 2008 | December 2008 | February 2009 | |
| EMMA | Completed | Completed | January 2007 | August 2007 | September 2007 | |
| InkML | Completed | Completed | September 2007 | March 2008 | April 2008 | |
These are W3C activities that may be asked to review documents produced by the Multimodal Interaction Working Group, or which may be involved in closer collaboration as appropriate to achieving the goals of the Charter.
This is an indication of external groups with complementary goals to the Multimodal Interaction activity. W3C has formal liaison agreements with some of them, e.g. OMA and VoiceXML Forum.
To be successful, the Multimodal Interaction Working Group is expected to have 10 or more active participants for its duration. Effective participation to Multimodal Interaction Working Group is expected to consume one work day per week for each participant; two days per week for editors. The Multimodal Interaction Working Group will allocate also the necessary resources for building Test Suites for each specification.
In order to make rapid progress, the Multimodal Interaction Working Group consists of several subgroups, each working on a separate document. The Multimodal Interaction Working Group members may participate in one or more subgroups.
Participants are reminded of the Good Standing requirements of the W3C Process.
To become a participant of the Working Group, a representative of a W3C Member organization must be nominated by their Advisory Committee Representative as described in the W3C Process. The associated IPR disclosure must further satisfy the requirements specified in the W3C Patent Policy (5 February 2004 Version).
Experts from appropriate communities may also be invited to join the working group, following the provisions for this in the W3C Process.
Working Group participants are not obligated to participate in every work item, however the Working Group as a whole is responsible for reviewing and accepting all work items.
Face to face meetings will be arranged 3 to 4 times a year. The Chair will make Working Group meeting dates and locations available to the group in a timely manner according to the W3C Process. The Chair is also responsible for providing publicly accessible summaries of Working Group face to face meetings, which will be announced on www-multimodal@w3.org.
This group primarily conducts its work on the Member-only mailing list w3c-mmi-wg@w3.org (archive). Certain topics need coordination with external groups. The Chair and the Working Group can agree to discuss these topics on a public mailing list. The archived mailing list www-multimodal@w3.org is used for public discussion of W3C proposals for Multimodal Interaction Working Group and for public feedback on the group's deliverables.
Information about the group (deliverables, participants, face-to-face meetings, teleconferences, etc.) is available from the Multimodal Interaction Working Group home page.
All proceedings of the Working Group (mail archives, telecon minutes, face-to-face minutes) will be available to W3C Members. Summaries of face-to-face meetings will be sent to the public list.
As explained in the Process Document (section 3.3), this group will seek to make decisions when there is consensus. When the Chair puts a question and observes dissent, after due consideration of different opinions, the Chair should record a decision (possibly after a formal vote) and any objections, and move on.
This charter is written in accordance with Section 3.4, Votes of the W3C Process Document and includes no voting procedures beyond what the Process Document requires.
This Working Group operates under the W3C Patent Policy (5 February 2004 Version). To promote the widest adoption of Web standards, W3C seeks to issue Recommendations that can be implemented, according to this policy, on a Royalty-Free basis.
For more information about disclosure obligations for this group, please see the W3C Patent Policy Implementation.
This is a draft charter for review by the W3C Membership.
This charter for the Multimodal Interaction Working Group has been created according to section 6.2 of the Process Document. In the event of a conflict between this document or the provisions of any charter and the W3C Process, the W3C Process shall take precedence.
Please also see the previous charter for this group.
Note: This charter was modified on 26 November 2007 to included the informative note in section 4.1 referring readers to the home page of the group for updated milestone information.
Copyright© 2007 W3C ® (MIT , ERCIM , Keio), All Rights Reserved.
$Date: 2007/11/26 23:18:30 $