Dr. Luis Alberto Guerrero Blanco

Dr. Luis Alberto Guerrero Blanco

Formación académica

 Universitaria:

  • Doctor en Ciencias de la Ingeniería, mención Computación, diciembre 1999.

Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile

Tesis: Un Framework para la Construcción de Aplicaciones Colaborativas

  • Magister Scientiae en Computación, mención Ciencias de la Computación, Noviembre 1994

Instituto Tecnológico de Costa Rica, Cartago, Costa Rica

Tesis: Un framework para el desarrollo de aplicaciones colaborativas en Web. Cartago, Costa Rica.

  • Bachillerato en Computación e Informática, Diciembre 1989

Universidad de Costa Rica, San José, Costa Rica

Otros:

  • Inglés conversacional (intermedio y avanzado). Centro Cultural Chileno-Norteamericano, Diciembre de 1999.
  • Redacción Académica en Inglés, Upper Level. Instituto English for Life (para profesores de la Universidad de Chile), Diciembre de 2007.

Experiencia laboral

  • Profesor, Escuela de ciencias de la Computación e Informática, Universidad de Costa Rica.Presente.
  • Académico Jornada Completa, Departamento de Ciencias de la Computación, Universidad de Chile. Desde 1999.
  • Asesor en Computación, Organización Panamericana de la Salud / Organización Mundial de la Salud (OPS/OMS). Desde Enero de 1995 hasta Diciembre de 1995. Washington, EEUU.
  • Administrador de Redes, Organización Panamericana de la Salud / Organización Mundial de la Salud (OPS/OMS). Desde Enero de 1993 hasta Diciembre de 1994. San José, Costa Rica.
  • Director, Departamento de Computación. Diginet S.A. (empresa de desarrollo de software). Desde Enero de 1992 hasta Diciembre de 1992. San José, Costa Rica.
  • Profesor, Colegio Universitario de Alajuela. Desde Marzo de 1992 hasta Noviembre de 1992.
  • Profesor, Universidad de Costa Rica. Desde Enero de 1989 hasta Diciembre de 1991.

Proyectos

Publicaciones

Tool UTAUT Applied to Measure Interaction Experience with NAO Robot

Descripción:

This research described the utilization of the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) to evaluate a high-level interactive scenario of using Nao Robot in the role of co-presenting in an educative context. Describing the registered result of construct such as Intention of Use, Perceived Enjoyment (PE), Perceived Sociability (PS), and Trust.

The study also describes the process of elaboration of this interaction. Multiple User-Centered Design techniques applied to the Human Interaction Robot field. Also, describes how the interaction of the robot with the participant was accomplished by using Wizard of Oz techniques.

Tipo de publicación: Conference Paper

Publicado en: Lecture Notes in Computer Science

NAO as a Copresenter in a Robotics Workshop - Participant’s Feedback on the Engagement Level Achieved with a Robot in the Classroom

Descripción:

Robotics, combined with computer science and human-centered studies, can have a substantial impact in areas such as education and innovation. Robots have proven to be a good tool to gain and maintain users’ involvement in different activities. In education, robots can be used as teaching assistants to improve participation, enhance concentration or just to get students’ attention. In this research, we involved an NAO, a humanoid robot, in a workshop presentation with the aim of measuring the impact of this technique on the level of engagement showed by the participants. The robot was programmed to simulate speech and gesticulate while it talked to apply the Wizard of Oz technique.

Tipo de publicación: Conference Paper

Publicado en: Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing

Social Robotics Guidelines

Descripción:

Human interactions are affected by society's norms and cultural criteria. Individuals expect certain behaviors from other people, who have an obligation to act according to the expected behavior in the cultural and social context that surrounds them. Giving robots the ability to interact with humans, in human terms, is a great open challenge. People are willing to accept robotic systems in everyday life when robots engage in socially desirable (correct) behaviors with benevolent interaction styles (safe physical interaction). In addition, allowing robots to reason in social situations, involves a set of social norms that generate expectations, which can improve the dynamics of interactions between humans and robots, and the processes of selfassessment of robot behavior. In this article, we present a set of requirements for a more secure and socially correct physical interaction the robot with people, which is dependent on cultural criteria.

Tipo de publicación: Conference Paper

Publicado en: 2019 IV Jornadas Costarricenses de Investigación en Computación e Informática (JoCICI)

Evaluating the Nao Robot in the Role of Personal Assistant: The Effect of Gender in Robot Performance Evaluation

Descripción:

By using techniques such as the Wizard of Oz (WoZ) and video capture, this paper evaluated the performance of the Nao Robot in the role of a personal assistant, which was valuated alongside the impact of the assigned gender (male/female) in the perceived performance of the robot assistant. Within a sample size of 39 computer sciences students, this study assessed criteria such as: perceived enjoyment, intention to use, perceived sociability, trust, intelligence, animacy, anthropomorphism, and sympathy, utilizing testing tools such as Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) and Godspeed Questionnaire (GSQ). These methods identified a significant effect of the gender assigned to the robot in variables such as intelligence and sympathy.

Tipo de publicación: Journal Article

Publicado en: Proceedings

Standardized Questionnaires for User Experience Evaluation: A Systematic Literature Review

Descripción:

Standardized questionnaires are one of the methods used to evaluate User Experience (UX). Standardized questionnaires are composed of an invariable group of questions that users answer themselves after using a product or system. They are considered reliable and economical to apply. The standardized questionnaires most recognized for UX evaluation are AttrakDiff, UEQ, and meCUE. Although the structure, format, and content of each of the questionnaires are known in detail, there is no systematic literature review (SLR) that categorizes the uses of these questionnaires in primary studies. This SLR presents the eligibility protocol and the results obtained by reviewing 946 papers from four digital databases, of which 553 primary studies were analyzed in detail. Different characteristics of use were obtained, such as which questionnaire is used more extensively, in which geographical context, and the size of the sample used in each study, among others.

Tipo de publicación: Journal Article

Publicado en: 13th International Conference on Ubiquitous Computing and Ambient ‪Intelligence UCAmI 2019‬

Smart Meeting Room Management System Based on Real-Time Occupancy

Descripción:

This paper proposes the creation of a smart meeting room through the incorporation of a PIR sensor and an AWS IoT button that allows the booking system to reflect a more precise availability of meeting rooms according to the actual occupancy status. The Internet of Things (IoT) devices are controlled using a Wi-Fi module that allows them to connect to the REST web service and to integrate with the open source Meeting Room Booking System (MRBS). In order to evaluate the system a storyboard evaluation was conducted with 47 participants. All participants filled out the User Experience Questionnaires (UEQ), described the product using three words and expressed their opinion through open comments. Finally, 19 participants took part in a real-life simulation of the smart meeting room and evaluated the system using the UEQ questionnaire. Based on the positive acceptance reflected in the evaluations, results show that the proposed system is considered very attractive and useful by the participants.

Tipo de publicación: Conference Paper

Publicado en: 2019 IV Jornadas Costarricenses de Investigación en Computación e Informática (JoCICI)

User Experience Comparison of Intelligent Personal Assistants: Alexa, Google Assistant, Siri and Cortana

Descripción:

Natural user interfaces are becoming popular. One of the most common natural user interfaces nowadays are voice activated interfaces, particularly smart personal assistants such as Google Assistant, Alexa, Cortana, and Siri. This paper presents the results of an evaluation of these four smart personal assistants in two dimensions: the correctness of their answers and how natural the responses feel to users. Ninety-two participants conducted the evaluation. Results show that Alexa and Google Assistant are significantly better than Siri and Cortana. However, there is no statistically significant difference between Alexa and Google Assistant.

Tipo de publicación: Journal Article

Publicado en: 13th International Conference on Ubiquitous Computing and Ambient ‪Intelligence UCAmI 2019‬

Exploratory Analysis of Research Publications on Robotics in Costa Rica Main Public Universities

Descripción:

The article presents the main robotic trends linked to the publications of the institutional repositories of the five main Costa Rican public universities: Tecnológico de Costa Rica, University of Costa Rica, National University, State Distance University, and National Technical University. The publications were obtained after using the keyword ‘robotics’ in the search engines of each repository. This procedure generated 241 results, of which only 55 were relevant, according to the application of five selection criteria. The analysis of the publications involved the categorization of nine general variables and the counting of their frequencies. The results obtained indicate that the publications cover a period of 14 years, in which male participation predominates and the presence of the Tecnológico de Costa Rica and the University of Costa Rica. The main robotic fields detected correspond to educational, autonomous, and industrial robotics.

Tipo de publicación: Book Chapter

Publicado en: Advances in Human Factors in Robots, Unmanned Systems and Cybersecurity

UX Evaluation with Standardized Questionnaires in Ubiquitous Computing and Ambient Intelligence: A Systematic Literature Review

Descripción:

Standardized questionnaires are well-known, reliable, and inexpensive instruments to evaluate user experience (UX). Although the structure, content, and application procedure of the three most recognized questionnaires (AttrakDiff, UEQ, and meCUE) are known, there is no systematic literature review (SLR) that classifies how these questionnaires have been used in primary studies reported academically. This SLR seeks to answer five research questions (RQs), starting with identifying the uses of each questionnaire over the years and by geographic region (RQ1) and the median number of participants per study (how many participants is considered enough when evaluating UX?) (RQ2). This work also aims to establish whether these questionnaires are combined with other evaluation instruments and with which complementary instruments are they used more frequently (RQ3). In addition, this review intends to determine how the three questionnaires have been applied in the fields of ubiquitous computing and ambient intelligence (RQ4) and also in studies that incorporate nontraditional interfaces, such as haptic, gesture, or speech interfaces, to name a few (RQ5). Methods. A systematic literature review was conducted starting from 946 studies retrieved from four digital databases. The main inclusion criteria being the study describes a primary study reported academically, where the standardized questionnaire is used as a UX evaluation instrument in its original and complete form. In the first phase, 189 studies were discarded by screening the title, abstract, and keyword list. In the second phase, 757 studies were full-text reviewed, and 209 were discarded due to the inclusion/exclusion criteria. The 548 resulting studies were analyzed in detail. Results. AttrakDiff is the questionnaire that counts the most uses since 2006, when the first studies appeared. However, since 2017, UEQ has far surpassed AttrakDiff in uses per year. The contribution of meCUE is still minimal. Europe is the region with the most extended use, followed by Asia. Within Europe, Germany greatly exceeds the rest of countries (RQ1). The median number of participants per study is 20, considering the aggregated data from the three questionnaires. However, this median rises to 30 participants in journal studies while it stays in 20 in conference studies (RQ2). Almost 4 in 10 studies apply the questionnaire as the only evaluation instrument. The remaining studies used between one and five complementary instruments, among which the System Usability Scale (SUS) stands out (RQ3). About 1 in 4 studies analyzed belong to ubiquitous computing and ambient intelligence fields, in which UEQ increases the percentage of uses when compared to its general percentage, particularly in topics such as IoT and wearable interfaces. However, AttrakDiff remains the predominant questionnaire for studies in smart cities and homes and in-vehicle information systems (RQ4). Around 1 in 3 studies include nontraditional interfaces, being virtual reality and gesture interfaces the most numerous. Percentages of UEQ and meCUE uses in these studies are higher than their respective global percentages, particularly in studies using virtual reality and eye tracking interfaces. AttrakDiff maintains its overall percentage in studies with tangible and gesture interfaces and exceeds it in studies with nontraditional visual interfaces, such as displays in windshields or motorcycle helmets (RQ5).

Tipo de publicación: Journal Article

Publicado en: Advances in Human-Computer Interaction

User Experience in Communication and Collaboration Platforms: A Comparative Study Including Discord, Microsoft Teams, and Zoom

Descripción:

Due to the measures imposed to prevent the spread of the virus during the COVID-19 pandemic, how education and work communications are carried have changed. An increase in video conferencing and meeting applications is noticeable. In this research paper, we describe the results of a user experience evaluation of three widely used platforms: Discord, Microsoft Teams, and Zoom. Through the User Experience Questionnaire (UEQ) application, it was determined that Discord is better in aspects not related to tasks and provides an above-average UX. On the other hand, zoom excels when it comes to tasks, but in conjunction with Microsoft Teams, it delivers below-average UX.

Tipo de publicación: Book Chapter

Publicado en: Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems

A conceptual framework for smart device-based notifications

Descripción:

The amount of information available for a person at a given time is growing at a disproportioned rate. Moreover, smart devices are becoming more and more popular. To avoid that human’s attention becomes a bottleneck and improve the number of notifications delivered to users, we believe that smart devices could serve as notifications mechanisms. This paper summarizes and concludes the efforts of a research project focusing on the use of smart devices as notification mechanisms. The goal of the framework is to assist researchers and developers in the conceptualization of smart device-based notifications. Furthermore, this paper presents the results of three evaluations. First, it describes the results of a survey on the need for novel notification mechanisms and the utility of smart devices as notification delivery mechanisms. Second, the results of a quantitative assessment on the impact of notifications delivered through smart devices compared with notifications delivered through smartphones. Results show that smart devices are useful to deliver valuable information and the quantitative assessment discovered that there is no significant difference between smart devices and smartphones delivering notifications. Finally, the applicability of the framework was evaluated and considered useful by software developers.

Tipo de publicación: Journal Article

Publicado en: Journal of Ambient Intelligence and Humanized Computing

Conversational Design Patterns for a UX Evaluation Instrument Implemented by Voice

Descripción:

In recent years there has been an increase of voice interfaces, driven by developments in Artificial Intelligence and the expansion of commercial devices that use them, such as smart assistants present on phones or smart speakers. One field that could take advantage of the potential of voice interaction is in the self-administered surveys data collection, such as standardized UX evaluation questionnaires. This work proposes a set of conversational design patterns for standardized UX evaluation questionnaires that use semantic difference scales as a means of collecting quantitative information on user experience, as is the case of AttrakDiff and UEQ (User Experience Questionnaire). The presented design patterns seek to establish a natural conversation created in accordance with the user, the conservation of context between subsequent questions, the minimization of statements and with statement repair mechanisms not completely understood by the user or voice agent, as eliciting explanation of a concept or repetition.

Tipo de publicación: Book Chapter

Publicado en: Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems

Comparing Written and Voice Captured Responses of the User Experience Questionnaire (UEQ)

Descripción:

Standardized questionnaires are widely used instruments to evaluate UX and their capture mechanism has been implemented in written form, either on paper or in digital format. This study aims to determine if the UX evaluations obtained in the standardized UEQ questionnaire (User Experience Questionnaire) are equivalent if the response capture mechanism is implemented using the traditional written form (digitally) or if a conversational voice interface is used. Having a UX evaluation questionnaire whose capture mechanism is implemented by voice could provide an alternative to collect user responses, preserving the advantages present in standardized questionnaires (quantitative results, statistically validated, self-reported by users) and adding the ease of use and growing adoption of conversational voice interfaces. The results of the case study described in this paper show that, with an adequate number of participants, there are no significant differences in the results of the six scales that make up UEQ when using either of the two response capture mechanisms.

Tipo de publicación: Book Chapter

Publicado en: Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems

And How Enjoyable? Converting a User Experience Evaluation Questionnaire into a Voice Conversation

Descripción:

Voice interfaces have gained popularity, driven by the proliferation of intelligent assistants and the development of natural language processing. Given their progress, they could be used to implement self-reported instruments such as standardized user experience (UX) evaluation questionnaires, particularly in the response capture mechanism. This novel use of voice interfaces would make sense if the evaluations using the voice mechanism did not differ significantly from the evaluations carried out with the traditional written questionnaire. In addition, given different possible implementations of the voice mechanism, it must be analyzed whether the user experience is affected by the format of the instrument used. This paper compares two implementations of the User Experience Questionnaire in which the capture mechanism is implemented by voice. Results show that in both implementations the evaluations retain their validity, and that the use of conversational patterns improves the user experience and increases the quality of the answers, which present fewer inconsistencies.

Tipo de publicación: Conference Paper

Publicado en: Proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Ubiquitous Computing & Ambient Intelligence (UCAmI 2023)