GeeAir: A universal multimodal remote control device for home appliances

In this paper, we present a handheld device called GeeAir for remotely controlling home appliances via a mixed modality of speech, gesture, joystick, button, and light. This solution is superior to the existing universal remote controllers in that it can be used by the users with physical and vision impairments in a natural manner. By combining diverse interaction techniques in a single device, the GeeAir enables different user groups to control home appliances effectively, satisfying even the unmet needs of physically and vision-impaired users while maintaining high usability and reliability. The experiments demonstrate that the GeeAir prototype achieves prominent performance through standardizing a small set of verbal and gesture commands and introducing the feedback mechanisms.