About Me
I am passionate about making information and technology accessible, enjoyable, and useful. I am currently a Scientist at Live Labs, where I investigate novel interactions and visualization techniques that will advance the state of the art of how we collect, experience and share information over the Internet.
I recently completed my Ph.D. in computer science at the University of Toronto, where I worked with Professor Ravin Balakrishnan at the Dynamic Graphics Project Lab in topics involving human-computer interaction, interaction design, information visualization and computer graphics.
Recent Publications
An Exploration of Pen Rolling for Pen-based Interaction.
Bi X., Moscovich T., Ramos G., Balakrishnan R., Hinckley K. To appear in the proceedings of the 21st annual ACM symposium on User interface software and technology (UIST).
We explore pen rolling as a supporting input modality for pen-based interaction. We have identified two important parameters: a) what separate intentional pen rolling for the purpose of interaction from incidental pen rolling caused by regular writing and drawing, and b) the range within which accurate and timely intentional pen rolling interactions can occur. We investigate the design space of rolling-based interaction techniques, through a number of scenarios where pen rolling interactions can be useful.
DimP: Video Browsing by Direct Manipulation 
Dragicevic P., Ramos G., Bibliowicz J., Nowrouzezahrai D., Balakrishnan
R. and Singh K.
To appear in the proceedings of
CHI 2008.
We present a method for browsing videos by directly dragging their content. This method brings the benefits of direct manipulation to an activity typically mediated by widgets. We show that this method can out-perform the traditional seeker bar in video browsing tasks that focus on visual content rather than time.
More detailed information about the project, can be found here. You can watch the 1 minute or the 4 minutes videos on 
.
OpenMessenger:
Gradual Initiation of Interaction for Distributed Workgroups
Birnholtz J., Gutwin C., Ramos G., Watson M. To appear in the proceedings of CHI 2008.
We have developed a prototype message system that adds the idea of gradual initiation of interaction to on-line communication. This system provides both multiple levels of awareness about people, and notification to those about whom information is being gathered. We argue that this system allows people to negotiate interaction in a richer fashion than is possible with any other current messaging system.
Pointing Lenses:
Facilitating Stylus Input through Visual- and Motor-Space Magnification
Ramos, G., Cockburn, A., Beaudouin-Lafon, M. Balakrishnan,
R. CHI 2007.
Pointing lenses help users acquire and select targets with a stylus by presenting them with an enlarged visual and interaction area. Our experimental results not only show that participants find all pointing lenses beneficial for targets smaller than 5 pixels, but they also suggest that this benefit may extend to larger targets as well.
Pressure Marks
Ramos, G., Balakrishnan,
R. CHI 2007.
Pressure marks are pen strokes where the variations in pressure make it possible to indicate both a selection and an action simultaneously. Pressure marks are a viable technique that allow users to perform faster selection-action interactions than with a combination of lassos and pigtails. Pressure marks can also be incorporated into a number of existing and new interaction techniques.