
xiangc [at] microsoft.com
Microsoft Research Cambridge
Roger Needham Building
7 JJ Thomson Avenue
Cambridge CB3 0FB
United Kingdom
I am an associate researcher in the Computer-Mediated Living Group at Microsoft Research Cambridge and a research fellow at Corpus Christi College in the University of Cambridge. My research is on Human-Computer Interaction (HCI). My work spans a variety of areas in HCI, such as novel interaction technologies beyond desktop computing, computer-supported cooperative activities, user performance modeling, and applications of computer vision techniques in HCI.
Before joining Microsoft, I also worked at other research labs such as in IBM, Intel, and Siemens. I received my PhD from the the Department of Computer Science at University of Toronto, supervised by Prof. Ravin Balakrishnan. For earlier information please visit my my old homepage at University of Toronto.
PEER-REVIEWED PUBLICATIONS
New Interaction Technologies and Techniques
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Feng Wang, Xiang Cao, Xiangshi Ren, Pourang Irani. (2009). Detecting and leveraging finger orientation for interaction with direct-touch surfaces. Proceedings of UIST 2009, ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology. p. 23-32.

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Nicolas Villar, Shahram Izadi, Dan Rosenfeld, Hrvoje Benko, John Helmes, Jonathan Westhues, Steve Hodges, Eyal Ofek, Alex Butler, Xiang Cao, Billy Chen. (2009). Mouse 2.0: Multi-touch meets the mouse. Proceedings of UIST 2009, ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology. p. 33-42. UIST 2009 Best Paper Award. Video

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Xiang Cao, Andrew D. Wilson, Ravin Balakrishnan, Ken Hinckley, Scott E. Hudson. (2008). ShapeTouch: Leveraging contact shape on interactive surfaces. Proceedings of TABLETOP 2008, IEEE International Workshop on Tabletops and Interactive Surfaces. p. 139-146. Video

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Xiang Cao, Clifton Forlines, Ravin Balakrishnan. (2007). Multi-user interaction using handheld projectors. Proceedings of UIST 2007, ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology. p. 43-52. Video

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Xiang Cao, Ravin Balakrishnan. (2006). Interacting with dynamically defined information spaces using a handheld projector and a pen. Proceedings of UIST 2006, ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology.p. 225-234. Video

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Xiang Cao, Ravin Balakrishnan. (2005). Evaluation of an online adaptive gesture interface with command prediction. Proceedings of GI 2005, Graphics Interface Conference. p. 187-194. GI 2005 Best Student Paper Award.

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Xiang Cao, Ravin Balakrishnan. (2003). VisionWand: Interaction techniques for large displays using a passive wand tracked in 3D. Proceedings of UIST 2003, ACM Symposium on User Interface Software & Technology. p. 193-202. One of 3 papers invited to the UIST reprise session at ACM SIGGRAPH 2004. Video

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Xiang Cao, Baining Guo. (2002). Real-time tracking and imitation of facial expression. Proceedings of ICIG 2002, SPIE International Conference on Image and Graphics. p. 910-918.

Playing, Creating, and Communicating in the Social Context
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Xiang Cao, Siân E. Lindley, John Helmes, Abigail Sellen. (2010 - in press). Telling the whole story: Anticipation, inspiration and reputation in a field deployment of TellTable. To appear in CSCW 2010, ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work. Project Page

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Xiang Cao, Abigail Sellen, A.J. Bernheim Brush, David Kirk, Darren Edge, Xianghua Ding. (2010 - in press). Understanding family communication across time zones. To appear in CSCW 2010, ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work.

- David Kirk, Abigail Sellen, Xiang Cao. (2010 - in press). Home video communication: Mediating ‘closeness’. To appear in CSCW 2010, ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work.

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John Helmes, Xiang Cao, Siân E. Lindley, Abigail Sellen. (2009 - in press). Developing the story: Designing an interactive storytelling application. To appear in ITS 2009, ACM International Conference on Interactive Tabletops and Surfaces. Project Page

- Xiang Cao, Michael Massimi, Ravin Balakrishnan. (2008). Flashlight jigsaw: An exploratory study of an ad-hoc multi-player game on public displays. Proceedings of CSCW 2008, ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work. p. 77-86.

Studying and Modeling User Performance
- Minghui Sun, Xiangshi Ren, Xiang Cao. (2009). Effects of multimodal error feedback on human performance in steering tasks. Proceedings of FIT 2009, Forum on Information Technology. p. 51-56. FIT 2009 Paper Award.

- Xiaolei Zhou, Xiang Cao, Xiangshi Ren. (2009). Speed-accuracy tradeoff in trajectory-based tasks with temporal constraint. Proceedings of INTERACT 2009, IFIP Conference on Human-Computer Interaction. p. 906-919.

- Xiang Cao, Jacky Jie Li, Ravin Balakrishnan. (2008). Peephole pointing: Modeling acquisition of dynamically revealed targets. Proceedings of CHI 2008, ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. p. 1699-1708. CHI 2008 Best Paper Honorable Mention.

- Xiang Cao, Shumin Zhai. (2007). Modeling human performance of pen stroke gestures. Proceedings of CHI 2007, ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. p. 1495-1504.

OTHER PUBLICATIONS
Tech Report, Invited Paper, Poster, etc.
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Xiang Cao, Shumin Zhai. (2006). Modeling human performance of pen stroke gestures. IBM Research Report RJ10392. p. 1-12.
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Xiang Cao, Eyal Ofek, David Vronay. (2005). Evaluation of alternative presentation control techniques. Extended Abstracts of CHI 2005, ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. p. 1248-1251.
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Xiang Cao, Ravin Balakrishnan. (2004). VisionWand: Interaction techniques for large displays using a passive wand tracked in 3D. ACM Transactions on Graphics, 23(3). Proceedings of SIGGRAPH 2004 Conference (Invited reprise of UIST 2003). p. 729.
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Xiang Cao, Guangyou Xu. (2000). Segmentation and tracking of semantic objects in video. Proceedings of NCMT 2000, National Conference of Multimedia Technology (in Chinese)
Theses
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Xiang Cao. (2008). Handheld projector interaction. Ph. D. Thesis. Department of Computer Science, University of Toronto.
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Xiang Cao. (2004). An exploration of gesture-based interaction. M. Sc. Thesis. Department of Computer Science, University of Toronto.
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Xiang Cao. (2000). Segmentation and tracking of semantic objects in video. B. Eng. Thesis. Department of Computer Science and Technology, Tsinghua University.
PROFESSIONAL SERVICES
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Program co-chair. IEEE International Conference on Information and Automation (ICIA) 2010.
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Jury member, Austrian research funding program on Research and Innovation for Information Technologies (FIT-IT) 2009.
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Demonstrations co-chair. ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology (UIST) 2009.
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Demonstrations co-chair. ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology (UIST) 2008.
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Member of governing body, visiting fellows committee, and computer committee. Corpus Christi College, University of Cambridge.
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Academic supervisor for undergraduate computer science students at University of Cambridge.
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Reviewer for numerous conferences and journals, e.g. CHI, UIST, CSCW, TOCHI, SIGGRAPH ...
RESEARCH SUPERVISIONS
- Yan Xu. Research intern at Microsoft Research Cambridge. 2009.
- Boon Yew Chew. Master's thesis at University College London, co-supervised with Jennifer A. Rode and Abigail Sellen. 2009.
- Serena Kao. Undergraduate research assistant at University of Toronto. 2008.
- Clarissa Mak. Undergraduate research assistant at University of Toronto. 2008.
- Jacky Jie Li. Undergraduate research assistant at University of Toronto. 2007.
- Janek Lasocki-Biczysko. Undergraduate research assistant at University of Toronto, co-supervised with Tomer Moscovich. 2007.
- Shuo Zhao. Research intern at Siemens Ltd., China. 2005.



