A recent trend in consumer and military electronics has been to allow operators the option to control thesystem via novel control methods. The most prevalent and available form of these methods is that of vocalcontrol. Vocal control allows for the control of a system by speaking commands rather than manuallyinputting them. This has implications not only for increased productivity, but also for optimizing safety aswell as for assisting the disabled population. Past research has examined the potential costs and benefits tothis novel control scheme with varying results. The purpose of this study was to further examine therelationship between modality of input, operator workload, and expertise. The results obtained indicatedthat vocal control may not be ideal in all situations as a method of input, as participants experiencedsignificantly higher amounts of workload than those in the manual condition. Additionally, expertise maybe more specific than previously thought, as participants in the vocal condition performed nearly identicalat the task regardless of gaming expertise. The implications of the findings for this study suggest that vocalcontrol be further examined as an effective method of user input, especially with regards to expertise andtraining effects.
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