Hands and Speech in Space: Multimodal Interaction with Augmented Reality interfaces

Augmented Reality (AR) is technology that allows virtual imagery to be seamlessly integrated into the real world. Although first developed in the 1960's it has only been recently that AR has become widely available, through platforms such as the web and mobile phones. However most AR interfaces have very simple interaction, such as using touch on phone screens or camera tracking from real images. New depth sensing and gesture tracking technologies such as Microsoft Kinect or Leap Motion have made is easier than ever before to track hands in space. Combined with speech recognition and AR tracking and viewing software it is possible to create interfaces that allow users to manipulate 3D graphics in space through a natural combination of speech and gesture. In this paper I will review previous research in multimodal AR interfaces and give an overview of the significant research questions that need to be addressed before speech and gesture interaction can become commonplace.