The development of the multimodal information kiosk

The paper presents results of the research and the design of hardware part of a test bench of an information enquiry system with multimodal user interface (“multimodal information kiosk”). The test bench combines standard input/output devices (sensory monitor, keyboard, stereo speakers) and input devices for contactless human-computer interaction (video-camera, microphones). For distant recognition of speech commands of Russian a microphone array is applied that allows to locate a source of useful audio signal and eliminate acoustic noises. A portable video-camera is applied for vision-based tracking person's position inside the kiosk working area. The developed kiosk prototype to be used for creation of the model of information enquiry system and studies of cognitive aspects of interaction between a user and the system by different communication modalities.