Gesture and Speech-Based Maps to Support Use of GIS for Crisis Management: A User Study

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) have the potential to provide critical support during crisis situations. Unfortunately, most GIS require expert knowledge to operate and do not support collaboration between decision makers. A human-centered systems approach was used to develop the prototype of a multimodal, dialog-assisted visual environment for geoinformation (DAVE_G) that will support collaborative crisis management by individuals without special GIS training. Since current research about multimodal map and GIS usage is at it’s beginning, an initial user study with the DAVE_G prototype was conducted. The goals of the study were to investigate the basic proof of concept, collect information about user performance, gather information about overall system usability, and solicit user reactions. The initial study indicates that novice users are able to learn generic GIS interaction functions using a speech and gesturebased interface in a fairly short time and feel comfortable applying them.