Multimodal Presentation of Biomedical Data

Insights into multidimensional phenomena, characteristic for biomedical applications, necessitates human-computer interfaces beyond standard graphical user interfaces (GUIs). Information overload in one sense, such as multiple dynamically changing windows in GUIs, may cause fatigue and reduced attention. Multimodal presentations use different sensory modalities in addition to visual presentation, such as audio and tactile feedback, to further engage human perceptual and cognitive skills. Multimodal presentation is a promising new direction toward increased perceptual bandwidth of human-computer interaction. Moreover, multimodal communication is natural feature of human communication. Therefore, most users prefer multimodal computer interaction. However, design of multimodal systems is a complex issue, and system designers must keep in mind that the nature of human perception and sensory interactions could also create false perceptions. In this chapter, we present a survey of the main presentation modalities and their characteristics, outline system design using available tools and platforms, and introduce examples of multimodal biomedical applications.