Ernesto Arroyo
General Interest in Contextual Awareness
Ernesto investigates the integration of sensing, reasoning and memory into everyday objects. His research focuses on creating
novel interfaces for devices that will assemble contextual knowledge from users, such as behaviors, preferences or
environmental information. He is also interested in applying the same concept into self-adaptive interfaces, that select the
appropriate sensorial modality based on the users preferred perceptual channel.
Before coming to MIT, he worked on instrumentation research projects at The National Astronomical Observatory of México. He
earned a bachelor's degree in computer science and engineering from the University of Baja California in 1999.
e-mail: earroyo-at -media.-mit.-edu
URL: http://www.media.mit.edu/~earroyo
MouseTrack: A Web-based Usability Tool
MouseTrack is a user interface analysis tool acting as a web logging system that tracks mouse movements on websites. This system includes a visualization
tool that displays the mouse cursor path followed by website visitors. It helps web site administrators run usability tests and analyze
the collected data. Practitioners can track any existing webpage by simply entering its URL. .
CHI 2006 work on progress paper:
MouseTrack: A Web-based Usability Tool
Project web page: http://ctxt.media.mit.edu/php5usertrack/
Gurgle: an Interactive Installation for MIT's Water Fountains
Gurgle is a simple, unobtrusive light fixture mounted on conventional wall-mounted drinking fountains without
modification to the existing structure. Gurgle is installed on the MIT campus in the infinite corridor.
Gurgle seeks to augment the dingy nook where most water fountains are placed with an inmersive multimedia experience.
People passing by the fountain are lured by a soft shimmering blue light in the niche. Once they begin to drink,
the entire fountain nook is transformed by watery reflections and the sound of a gurgling stream. Taking a sip from
the same old water fountain feels more like drinking from a bubbling creek. Gurgle turns a boring and often neglected
activity into a moment of true refreshment from the hustle and dehydration of everyday life
Project web page: http://web.media.mit.edu/~earroyo/gurgle/
WaterBot: A Persuasive Technology to Motivate Water Conservation
WaterBot is a persuasive water conservation device that presents “just-in-time"
context-sensitive feedback to users. Its goal is to motivate behavior change
regarding water conservation while using the bathroom sink. The system collects
water usage information from flow sensors and presents subtle prompts at the
point of behavior. These prompts are designed to be unobtrusive in the form of
illuminating water, graph bars and auditory feedback. WaterBot uses several
persuasive techniques, such as law of contrast, positive reinforcement, variable
schedule of reinforcement, social validation, scarcity, curiosity and challenge.
Master's Thesis Topic: Arbitrating Modalities of Interruption Using Ambient
Displays
This
thesis presents two experiments designed to test the effect of different
modalities when used as interruptions. A multimodal interface explores the use
of ambient displays in the context of interruption where visual and thermal
ambient displays acted as external interruption generators.
This
works shows and demonstrates that interruption modalities are perceived
differently, trigger different reactions and have a different disruptive effect
on memory. The thermal modality produced a larger decrease in performance than
the visual modality. Disruptiveness and performance measures agree that heat
causes more of a detrimental effect on performance than light when used as an
interruption.
This
thesis proposes to use users’ physiological responses as feedback for a
computer interface. Experiments in this thesis set the initial point for
understanding how to build interfaces that use modalities appropriately by
looking at the effect of different modalities when used as interruptions.
Interruptions are disruptive and inherent to current computer interfaces.
Properly selecting interruption modalities can control their disruptive effects.
