I was a research scientist in the Computational User Experiences (CUE) Group at MSR from 2007-2012. My research background is in Human-Computer Interaction, with an emphasis on interface design and interaction techniques for mobile devices, and particularly those that support one-handed thumb interaction with touchscreens. My most recent research explored the use of mobile devices to help people learn about and manage their health. I have also investigated ways to improve cross-device (mobile to PC, and PC to PC) user experiences.
Project Areas
Mobile Health
Applications
I most recently investigated ways that mobile devices can help people learn about and manage various aspects of their health. (Patient Friendly Medical Information Displays, AnatOnMe, AffectAura)
Cross-Device User Experiences
We have explored interfaces and infrastuctures for supporting activities that cross the boundaries between users multiple PCs and mobile phones. (Project Page)
Mobile Phone Interaction
Techniques
Mobile phones impose unique constraints upon computing activities which inspire the development of novel ways to interact with data and devices. (Project Page)
- Shahriyar Amini, A.J. Bernheim Brush, John Krumm, Jaime Teevan, and Amy Karlson, Trajectory-Aware Mobile Search, in CHI 2012, ACM, May 2012
- Laura Pfeifer Vardoulakis, Amy K. Karlson, Dan Morris, Greg Smith, Justin Gatewood, and Desney Tan, Using Mobile Phones to Present Medical Information to Hospital Patients, in CHI 2012, ACM, 2012
- Daniel McDuff, Amy Karlson, Ashish Kapoor, Asta Roseway, and Mary Czerwinski, AffectAura: An Intelligent System for Emotional Memory, in CHI 2012, ACM, 2012
- Jaime Teevan, Amy Karlson, Shahriyar Amini, A.J. Bernheim Brush, and John Krumm, Understanding the Importance of Location, Time, and People in Mobile Local Search Behavior, in Mobile HCI 2011, ACM, September 2011
- Hong Lu, A.J. Brush, Bodhi Priyantha, Amy Karlson, and Jie Liu, SpeakerSense: Energy Efficient Unobtrusive Speaker Identification on Mobile Phones, in The Ninth International Conference on Pervasive Computing (Pervasive 2011), June 2011
- Tao Ni, Amy Karlson, and Daniel Wigdor, AnatOnMe: Facilitating Doctor-Patient Communication Using a Projection-Based Handheld Device, in Proceedings of CHI 2011, Association for Computing Machinery, Inc., May 2011
- Amy K. Karlson, Greg Smith, and Bongshin Lee, Which Version is This?: Improving the Desktop Experience within a Copy-Aware Computing Ecosystem, in Proceedings of CHI 2011, Association for Computing Machinery, Inc., May 2011
- A. J. Bernheim Brush, Amy K. Karlson, James Scott, Raman Sarin, Andy Jacobs, Barry Bond, Oscar Murillo, Galen Hunt, Mike Sinclair, Kerry Hammil, and Steven Levi, User Experiences with Activity-Based Navigation on Mobile Devices, in Proceedings of MobileHCI 2010, Association for Computing Machinery, Inc., September 2010
- Bongshin Lee, Nathalie Henry Riche, Amy K. Karlson, and Sheelagh Carpendale, SparkClouds: Visualizing Trends in Tag Clouds, IEEE, 2010
- David Dearman, Amy K. Karlson, Brian Meyers, and Benjamin Bederson, Multi-Modal Text Entry and Selection on Mobile Devices , in GI 2010, Association for Computing Machinery, Inc., 2010
- Amy K. Karlson, Shamsi T. Iqbal, Brian Meyers, Gonzalo Ramos, Kathy Lee, and John C. Tang, Mobile Taskflow in Context: A Screen Shot Study of Smartphone Usage, in Proceedings of CHI 2010, Association for Computing Machinery, Inc., 2010
- Shaun K. Kane, Amy K. Karlson, Brian R. Meyers, Andy Jacobs, Paul Johns, and Greg Smith, Exploring Cross-Device Web Use on PCs and Mobile Devices, in INTERACT 2009, Springer Verlag, August 2009
- Adrienne Andrew, Amy K. Karlson, and A.J. Bernheim Brush, Investigating the Use of Voice and Ink for Mobile Micronote Capture, in INTERACT 2009, Springer Verlag, August 2009
- Amy K. Karlson, Brian R. Meyers, Andy Jacobs, Paul Johns, and Shaun K. Kane, Working Overtime: Patterns of Smartphone and PC Usage in the Day of an Information Worker, in Pervasive Computing, Springer Verlag, May 2009
- Amy K. Karlson, A.J. Bernheim Brush, and Stuart Schechter, Can I Borrow Your Phone? Understanding Concerns When Sharing Mobile Phones, in Proceedings of CHI 2009, Association for Computing Machinery, Inc., April 2009
- Amy K. Karlson and Benjamin B. Bederson, One-handed touchscreen input for legacy applications, in Proceedings of CHI 2008, Association for Computing Machinery, Inc., 2008
- Amy K. Karlson and Benjamin B. Bederson, ThumbSpace: Generalized One-Handed Input for Touchscreen-Based Mobile Devices , in Proceedings of Interact 2007, Springer Verlag, 2007
- Jerry Alan Fails, Amy K. Karlson, Layla Shahamat, and Ben Shneiderman, A Visual Interface for Multivariate Temporal Data: Finding Patterns of Events across Multiple Histories, in Proceedings of VAST 2006, IEEE Computer Society, 2006
- Amy Karlson, George Robertson, Daniel Robbins, Mary Czerwinski, and Greg Smith, FaThumb: A facet-based interface for mobile search, in Proceedings of CHI 2006, ACM Press, January 2006
- Pekka Parhi, Amy K. Karlson, and Bejamin B. Bederson, Target size study for one-handed thumb use on small touchscreen devices, in Proceedings of MobileHCI 2006, Association for Computing Machinery, Inc., 2006
- Amy K. Karlson, Benjamin B. Bederson, and John SanGiovanni, AppLens and launchTile: two designs for one-handed thumb use on small devices, in Proceedings of CHI 2005, Association for Computing Machinery, Inc., 2005
- Matthieu Trudeau, Tawan Udtamadilok, Amy K. Karlson, and Jack T. Dennerlein, Thumb motor performance varies by movement orientation, direction, and device size during single-handed mobile phone use., in The Journal of Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, Sage, February 2012
- Andy Cockburn, Amy K. Karlson, and Benjamin B. Bederson, A Review of Overview+Detail, Zooming, and Focus+Context Interfaces, in ACM Computing Surveys, Association for Computing Machinery, Inc., 2008
- Amy Karlson, Greg Smith, Brian Meyers, George Robertson, and Mary Czerwinski, Courier: A Collaborative Phone-Based File Exchange System, no. MSR-TR-2008-05, 2008
- Amy K. Karlson, Benjamin B. Bederson, and Jose Contreras-Vidal, Understanding One Handed Use of Mobile Devices, in Handbook of Research on User Interface Design and Evaluation for Mobile Technology, pp. 86-101, IGI Global, 2007
Interns
- Laura Pfeifer Vardoulakis, Northeastern University (Summer 2011)
- Tao Ni, Virginia Tech (Summer 2010)
- Dave Dearman, Univeristy of Toronto (Summer 2009)
- Shaun Kane, University of Washington (Summer 2008)
- Adrienne Andrew, University of Washington (Spring 2008)
Short Bio
I hold a B.A. and an M.S. in Computer Science from Johns Hopkins University, and an M.S. and Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Maryland, College Park. At the University of Maryland, College Park, I was a member of the Human Computer Interaction Lab, and was advised by Dr. Ben Bederson. Prior to earning my Ph.D., I worked for several years as a research scientist in the Milton Eisenhower Research Center of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory.
