Mecel Populus goes MULTIMODAL!

Improving traffic safety is the number one priority for the entire automotive industry. Creating non-distracting, intuitive user interfaces is a key element for this, and Mecel is engaged in research to find optimal ways to design multimodal HMI solutions that combines voice based and traditional visual/haptic HMIs.

The project partners are Mecel AB, Talkamatic AB and the University of Gothenburg. The University of Gothenburg is represented by CLT (Center of Language Technology) and DTL (Dialogue Technology Lab), a research center for language technology and dialogue research. Talkamatic is a startup company developing and selling products for voice control, primarily to the automotive industry.

The project will integrate Mecel Populus and Talkamatic Dialogue Manager (Talkamatic's product for multimodal interaction management) in order to create a state-of-the-art platform for multimodal interfaces for practical experiments in simulators and in vehicles. One focus for the integration work is to retain the support for rapid development which both products feature.

Based on research findings regarding e.g. dialogue strategies, we intend to arrive at an improved multimodal HMI solution that can be shown to increase safety by reducing distraction, cognitive load and head-down time considerably compared to other solutions. More about the project here.