The Use of Voice and Head-Tracking for Hands-Free Human-Computer Interaction

Abstract

This Practitioner Paper discusses the second in a series of studies examining the Voice Head Integrated Control (VHIC) suite, which combines use of voice commands and a head-tracking device as an alternative to the mouse and keyboard. This VHIC system is currently being investigated as a hands-free interface for accessing digitized aircraft technical manuals. The present study was conducted to validate the voice command vocabulary and provide an initial evaluation of the VHIC hardware. Aircraft maintainers from the 445^th C-141 Air Force Reserve Unit served as subjects. The current study made use of the fully functioning VHIC system, complete with head-tracking and voice recognition capabilities. User strategies followed on-screen interface characteristics and the user's experience level with computers. Several error categories were tracked and subjective feedback was collected. A series of recommendations are presented which address the strategic application of the VHIC system in an aircraft maintenance environment.

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