Person:

Gajos, Krzysztof

Decision-theoretic optimization is becoming a popular tool in the user interface community, but creating accurate cost (or utility) functions has become a bottleneck --- in most cases the numerous parameters of these functions are chosen manually, which is a tedious and error-prone process. This paper describes ARNAULD, a general interactive tool for eliciting user preferences concerning concrete outcomes and using this feedback to automatically learn a factored cost function. We empirically evaluate our machine learning algorithm and two automatic query generation approaches and report on an informal user study.

We present an automated transportation routing system, called “Opportunity Knocks,” whose goal is to improve the efficiency, safety and independence of individuals with mild cognitive disabilities. Our system is implemented on a combination of a Bluetooth sensor beacon that broadcasts GPS data, a GPRS-enabled cell-phone, and remote activity inference software. The system uses a novel inference engine that does not require users to explicitly provide information about the start or ending points of their journeys; instead this information is learned from users’ past behavior. Futhermore, we demonstrate how route errors can be detected and how the system helps to correct the errors with real-time transit information. In addition we present a novel solution to the problem of labeling positions with place names.

We present "look-to-talk", a gaze-aware interface for directing a spoken utterance to a software agent in a multi-user collaborative environment. Through a prototype and a Wizard-of-Oz (Woz) experiment, we show that "look-to-talk" is indeed a natural alternative to speech and other paradigms.

Child mortality is one of the most pressing health concerns almost 10 million children die worldwide each year before reaching their fifth birthday, mostly in low-income countries. To aid overburdened and undertrained health workers the World Health Organization (WHO) and United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) have developed clinical guidelines, such as the Integrated Management of Childhood Illness (IMCI) to help with the classification and treatment of common childhood illness. To help with deployment, we have developed an electronic version (e-IMCI) that runs on a PDA. From July to September 2007, we ran a pilot of e-IMCI in southern Tanzania. The system guides health workers step-by-step through the treatment algorithms and automatically calculates drug doses. Our results suggest that electronic implementations of protocols such as IMCI can reduce training time and improve adherence to the protocol. They also highlight several important challenges including varying levels of education, language and expertise, which could be most adequately addressed by implementing novel intelligent user interfaces and systems.

We present Supple, a novel toolkit which automatically generates interfaces for ubiquitous applications. Designers need only specify declarative models of the interface and desired hardware device and Supple uses decision-theoretic optimization to automatically generate a concrete rendering for that device. This paper provides an overview of our system and describes key extensions that barred the previous version (reported in [3]) from practical application. Specifically, we describe a functional modeling language capable of representing complex applications. We propose a new adaptation strategy, split interfaces, which speeds access to common interface features without disorienting the user. We present a customization facility that allows designers and end users to override Supple’s automatic rendering decisions. We describe a distributed architecture which enables computationally-impoverished devices to benefit from Supple interfaces. Finally, we present experiments and a preliminary user-study that demonstrate the practicality of our approach.

This white paper summarizes the position papers and questionnaires filled out by the participants of “The Many Faces of Consistency in Cross-Platform Design” workshop, to be held at CHI’2006. The whitepaper will serve as additional background and hopefully lay the framework for our discussions in the workshop. The goal is to synthesize the opinions from the position papers and questionnaires to give us all a clear idea of where we are all in agreement, where we differ substantially, and to identify any areas of discussion in which participants have no interest.

Human-centered computation is characterized by at least three features: it must be adaptive, reactive, and it must empower the user to configure and extend the behavior of the systems using her natural modes of interaction. In our previous work we have proposed systems that address the first two features. In this paper we present Alfred – a natural end user programming interface for Intelligent Environments.

Human-centered computation is characterized by at least three features: it must be adaptive, reactive, and it must empower the user to configure and extend the behavior of the systems using her natural modes of interaction. In our previous work we have proposed systems that address the first two features. In this paper we present Alfred – a natural end user programming interface for Intelligent Environments.