Maria Karam, PhD
RESEARCH
My work at Ryerson University is as a Post Doctoral Fellow with the the Centre for Learning Technologies group (The CLT). The CLT conducts research in several domains of accessible and assistive technologies including enhanced captioning and video descriptions.
My primary role is as researcher for the ASID project, which seeks to provide enhanced sensory information for users who are Deaf or hard of hearing (HOH), as well as for the hearing population, towards universally designed entertainment systems.
ASID: Alternative Sensory Information Displays.
We are designing a Model Human Cochlea, which is a sensory substitution technique that aims to provide a higher resolution of audio vibrations through vibrotactile stimuli than is available through touch. The model posits that, by dividing up audio vibrations into smaller bands of frequencies, people will better be able to cognitively process the information presented through the vibrations than is currently possible using only a single source of audio. More details can be found on the project web site.
Additional projects
The Coffee Lab
A public usability lab where I am currently testing out new ways of conducting usability studies on novel interactive technologies. You can find one of the Emoti-Chairs on display at the coffee lab, with the new software interface we have developed to control the chair and the sounds that are presented through it. Visitors to the coffee lab are encouraged to try out the software, become familiar with its features and use it at their leasure. This is a novel approach to user testing in that we are working towards developing an infrastructure for supportin "in the wild" usability studies for off-the-desktop style interactions, including crossmodal displays, ubiquitous, and pervasive style comptuer interactions.
We are also running tests on the iGesture software at the Coffee Lab: a system developed at University of Southampton for supporting configurable distance style interactions with computer vision recognized gestures. Visitors are encouraged to try out the software, and to take part in several short studies we are developing for further work in the domain of public usability.
The Coffee Lab is located @ the Centre of Gravity in the Sideshow Cafe: 1300 Gerrard St. East.
Teaching
I currently teach a course on Multimedia in Business (ITM445), which focuses on the application of human computer interaction techniques and design methodologies towards building a solid understanding of mutlimedia in the context of businness applications.
Contact Information
Email: maria.karam at ryerson.ca
Phone: 416-979-5000, x7620
Office: 55 Dundas St. W. , Suite 3-176 in TRSM
Publications
Karam, M. "A framework for gesture-based human computer interactions: A guide for researchers and designers.” ISBN: 3-639-19439-X. VDM VERLAG DR. MÜLLER, 2009.
Karam, M. and Russo, F. and Fels, D. Designing the Model Human Cochlea: An Ambient crossmodal audio-tactile display. (2008) In press: IEEE Transactions on haptics: Special issue on ambient haptic systems.
Karam, M. and Nespoli, G. and Russo, F. and Fels, D.I. 2008. Modelling Perceptual Elements of Music in a Vibrotactile Display for Deaf Users: A Field Study. In Proceedings of The Second International Conferences on Advances in Computer-Human Interactions (ACHI 2009). February 1-7, 2009 - Cancun, Mexico
Karam, M. and Lee, J. C. and Rose, T. and Quek, F. and McCrickard, S. Comparing Gestures and Touch for Notification System Interactions. In Proceedings of The Second International Conferences on Advances in Computer-Human Interactions (ACHI 2009). February 1-7, 2009 - Cancun, Mexico
Karam, M., Russo, F., Branje, C., Price, E., and Fels, D. I. 2008. Towards a model human cochlea: sensory substitution for crossmodal audio-tactile displays. In Proceedings of Graphics interface 2008 (Windsor, Ontario, Canada, May 28 - 30, 2008). 267-274.
Karam, M. and Fels D.I. (2007) Designing a Model Human Cochlea: Issues and Challenges in Crossmodal Audio to Touch Displays. Invited Paper: Workshop on Haptic in Ambient Systems. Feburary, 2008. Quebec City, QC.
Karam, M, and Terry Payne, and Esther David (2007). Evaluating BluScreen: Usability for Intelligent Pervasive Displays. ICPCA 07: Second International Conference on Pervasive Computing and Applications. 18 - 23.
(2006) PhD Thesis: A framework for research and design of gesture-based human-computer interactions. PhD, ECS, University of Southampton.
(2006) Ambient Gestures. Technical Report ECSTR-IAM06-001, Intelligence, Agents, Multimedia Group, University of Southampton.
(2006) Investigating User Tolerance for Errors in Vision-Enabled Gesture-Based Interactions. In Proceedings of AVI (in press), Venice, Italy.
(2005) iGesture: A Platform for Investigating Multimodal, Multimedia Gesture-based Interactions. Technical Report ECSTR-IAM05-013, ECS, University of Southampton.
(2005) A study on the use of semaphoric gestures for secondary task interactions. CHI '05: CHI '05 extended abstracts on Human factors in computing systems pp. 1961-1964.
(2005) A Taxonomy of Gestures in Human Computer Interactions. Technical Report ECSTR-IAM05-009, Electronics and Computer Science, University of Southampton.
(2004) Preview Cues: Enhancing Access to Multimedia Content. Technical Report, School of Electronics and Computer Science, University of Southampton.
(2003) Audio Preview Cues: Interaction Aides for Exploration of Online Music and Beyond (Poster). In Proceedings of HCI International 2003, Crete, Greece.
(2003) Audio Preview Cues: Support for Exploration of Music Information Spaces. Technical Report ECSTR-IAM03-004, Electronics and Computer Science, University of Southampton.
(2003) Listen to the Music: Audio Preview Cues for Exploration of Online Music.. In Proceedings of Interact 2003 - Bringing the Bits Together, Zurich, Switzerland.
(2003) mSpace: interaction design for user-determined, adaptable domain exploration in hypermedia. In Proceedings of AH 2003: Workshop on Adaptive Hypermedia and Adaptive Web Based Systems, pp. 217-235, Nottingham, UK. De Bra, P., Eds.