This paper reports an experiment into the design of crossmodal
icons which can provide an alternative form of output for mobile
devices using audio and tactile modalities to communicate information.
A complete set of crossmodal icons was created by encoding
three dimensions of information in three crossmodal auditory/
tactile parameters. Earcons were used for the audio and Tactons
for the tactile crossmodal icons. The experiment investigated
absolute identification of audio and tactile crossmodal icons when
a user is trained in one modality and tested in the other (and given
no training in the other modality) to see if knowledge could be
transferred between modalities. We also compared performance
when users were static and mobile to see any effects that mobility
might have on recognition of the cues. The results showed that if
participants were trained in sound with Earcons and then tested
with the same messages presented via Tactons they could recognize
85% of messages when stationary and 79% when mobile.
When trained with Tactons and tested with Earcons participants
could accurately recognize 76.5% of messages when stationary
and 78% of messages when mobile. These results suggest that
participants can recognize and understand a message in a different
modality very effectively. These results will aid designers of mobile
displays in creating effective crossmodal cues which require
minimal training for users and can provide alternative presentation
modalities through which information may be presented if the
context requires
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