Faculty Advisor
Ethan V. Munson

Grant
$19,716 on 6/13/97

Funding
Support for students and to purchase equipment.To develop estimates of the level of interactive performance that users require from operating systems and applications software.

User Perception of Latency (UPLATE) Abstract
Modern operating systems must provide high-quality support for interactive applications. By definition, an interactive system requires high efficiency both in actual performance of the system and in perceived performance by the user.

We are investigating how the speed of an interactive system's response to user events affects users' perception of performance. The research will use recently developed measurement tools to determine the limits of human perception for event response latency and the effect of latency on user satisfaction. The goal of this research is develop estimates of the level of interactive performance that users require from operating system and application software. It is our hope that these estimates will allow system designers to focus their attention on those aspects of performance that users care about most.

Current Status as of 3/98
We expect to begin our first case studies with human subjects in March 1998. We also have a fair amount of software development work remaining.

Web Site
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