Paper Reading #2: Supporting medical communication with a multimodal surface computer

Comments

1. Bain Mullins:
 http://gspotblogspotblogspotblogspotblogspot.blogspot.com/2011/01/paper-reading-2-supporting-medical.html

2. Derek Landini:
http://dlandinichi.blogspot.com/2011/01/paper-reading-4-supporting-medical.html

Reference Information

Title: Supporting medical communication with a multimodal surface computer

Author: Anne Marie Piper, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA

Presentation Venue: CHI EA '10 Proceedings of the 28th of the international conference extended abstracts on Human factors in computing systems

Summary

The main concept conveyed in this paper has to do with the interaction between humans using a flat, table-top type of surface. This surface is able to receive tactile input from the users and is also able to convert speech to text. The researchers interacted with deaf individuals, as well as those who are hard of hearing and aging people.

The researchers discovered that the test subjects had an easier time overall conveying the ideas they were attempting to communicate with the assistance of the multimodal surface. They found that people who tended to be uncomfortable using standard computer interfaces had an easier time become acclimated to the use of this device.

The researchers intend to continue testing different applications to refine the interface and to device other uses for this technology.

Discussion

I really like the concept of this device. It reminds me of some displays seen in science fiction movies. I feel that some of the potential future applications are really exciting. Before I had even finished reading the paper, I thought how useful the speech to text feature could be if it was applied to language translation. To my relief, they addressed that in their final paragraph, though they didn't go into as much detail about it as I had hoped.

I think this could become a useful interface for the future. If applied to other surfaces, such as vertical surfaces on the wall, it could become a way to get interactive directions from a mapping computer system that is able to hear and understand a human's questions.

This could also be applied in a class room setting, where the surface of the student's desk is the multimodal surface. If the student does not understand the native language being spoken very well or even at all, they can have the translate feature on and still understand the topics being taught in the class. This would remove the need for translators that might slow down the lecture and break up the flow of the discussion.