Multimodal Interaction

"In Ten myths of multimodal interaction (Communications of the ACM, Vol. 42 , No. 11, pp. 74 - 81, 1999), Sharon Oviatt describes common myths about multimodal interaction (i.e. interacting with a computer using more different input/outputs, like mouse/voice/keyboards or more recent technologies). The myths she is describing are quite relevant to lots of HCI research:

Myth #1: If you build a multimodal system, users will interact multimodally.
Myth#2: Speech and pointing is the dominant multimodal integration pattern.
Myth #3: Multimodal input involves simultaneous signals.
Myth #4: Speech is the primary input mode in any multimodal system that includes it.
Myth #5: Multimodal language does not differ linguistically from unimodal language.
Myth #6: Multimodal integration involves redundancy of content between modes.
Myth #7: Individual error-prone recognition technologies combine multimodally to produce even greater unreliability.
Myth #8: All users’ multimodal commands are integrated in a uniform way
Myth #9: Different input modes are capable of transmitting comparable content.during periods of blank staring.
Myth #10: Enhanced efficiency is the main advantage of multimodal systems"

From a post by Nicolas Nova at Pasta & Vinegar
http://tecfa.unige.ch/perso/staf/nova/blog/2005/12/29/myths-of-multimodal-interaction/