By Dr Ing. Jason Gauci
The Institute of Aerospace Technologies at the University of Malta recently completed a research and innovation project – called TOUCH-FLIGHT 2 – which focused on the application of speech recognition and voice commands to the cockpit of commercial aircraft. More specifically, the project investigated how pilots can use pre-defined voice commands to perform various tasks, such as adjusting the aircraft’s speed and altitude; switching radio frequencies; modifying the flight plan; and completing checklists. The project also investigated how voice commands can be used in conjunction with other modes of interaction (such as touch screen gestures) to provide the pilots with a multimodal interface.
The Institute of Aerospace Technologies at the University of Malta recently completed a research and innovation project – called TOUCH-FLIGHT 2 – which focused on the application of speech recognition and voice commands to the cockpit of commercial aircraft. More specifically, the project investigated how pilots can use pre-defined voice commands to perform various tasks, such as adjusting the aircraft’s speed and altitude; switching radio frequencies; modifying the flight plan; and completing checklists. The project also investigated how voice commands can be used in conjunction with other modes of interaction (such as touch screen gestures) to provide the pilots with a multimodal interface.
The benefits of voice commands – such as the ability to issue commands hands-free while using one’s hands to perform other tasks – were demonstrated through evaluations with eight airline pilots, who provided feedback on various aspects of the system, including command phraseology, recognition rate, and response time.
The TOUCH-FLIGHT 2 project was carried out as a collaboration between the University of Malta and QuAero ltd., a local aviation consultancy company. The project partners are now seeking to protect the novel aspects of the project – related to the definition of the voice commands – and have filed a patent application in the US to this effect.
The TOUCH-FLIGHT 2 project was financed by the Malta Council for Science & Technology, for and on behalf of the Foundation for Science and Technology, through the FUSION: R&I Technology Development Programme.
