Metawidgets in the multimodal interface

Conference · Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 1991

OSTI ID:6253915

Blattner, M M ^[1]; Glinert, E P; Jorge, J A; Ormsby, G R ^[2]

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1. Lawrence Livermore National Lab., CA (United States) Anderson (M.D.) Cancer Center, Houston, TX (United States)
2. Rensselaer Polytechnic Inst., Troy, NY (United States). Dept. of Computer Science

We analyze two intertwined and fundamental issues concerning computer-to-human communication in the multimodal interfaces: the interplay between sound and graphics, and the role of object persistence. Our observations lead us to introduce metawidgets as abstract entities capable of manifesting themselves to users as image, as sound, or as various combinations and/or sequences of the two media. We show examples of metawidgets in action, and discuss mechanisms for choosing among alternative media for metawidget instantiation. Finally, we describe a couple of experimental microworlds we have implemented to test out some of our ideas. 17 refs., 7 figs.

• Research Organization: Lawrence Livermore National Lab., CA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE; National Science Foundation (NSF); PORTU; USDOE, Washington, DC (United States); National Science Foundation, Washington, DC (United States); Government of Portugal, Lisbon (Portugal)
• DOE Contract Number: W-7405-ENG-48
• OSTI ID: 6253915
• Report Number(s): UCRL-JC-108649; CONF-9105285-1; ON: DE92002595; CNN: CDA-8805910; CDA-9015249; BIC-342/M
• Resource Relation: Conference: CHI 92, Monterey, CA (United States), 3-7 May 1991
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS//MATHEMATICS, COMPUTING, AND INFORMATION SCIENCE
INTERACTIVE DISPLAY DEVICES
MAN-MACHINE SYSTEMS
COMMUNICATIONS
COMPUTER ARCHITECTURE
COMPUTER GRAPHICS
EQUIPMENT INTERFACES
COMPUTER OUTPUT DEVICES
COMPUTER-GRAPHICS DEVICES
DISPLAY DEVICES
990200* - Mathematics & Computers