This paper presents a novel software framework for the development and research in the area of multimodal human-computer interaction (MHCI) systems. The proposed software framework, which is called the HCI^2 Framework, is built upon publish / subscribe (P/S) architecture. It implements a shared-memory-based data transport protocol for message delivery and a TCP-based system management protocol. The latter ensures that the integrity of system structure is maintained at runtime. With the

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... of 'bridging modules', the HCI^2 Framework is interoperable with other software frameworks including Psyclone and ActiveMQ. In addition to the core communication middleware, we also present the integrated development environment (IDE) of the HCI^2 Framework. It provides a complete graphical environment to support every step in a typical MHCI system development process, including module development, debugging, packaging, and management, as well as the whole system management and testing. The quantitative evaluation indicates that our framework outperforms other similar tools in terms of average message latency and maximum data throughput under a typical single PC scenario. To demonstrate HCI^2 Framework's capabilities in integrating heterogeneous modules, we present several example modules working with a variety of hardware and software. We also present an example of a full system developed using the proposed HCI^2 Framework, which is called the CameGame system and represents a computer game based on hand-held marker(s) and low-cost camera(s).