Caluã de Lacerda Pataca

Picture of myself. I am a white male with a shaved head, dark-rimmed black glasses, and a short beard.

Olá! I’m a Ph.D. candidate and Fulbright fellow in the Computing and Information Sciences Program at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT). I am co-advised by Matt Huenerfauth and Roshan Peiris in my research, which deals with speech accessibility and captioning technology. I am also a member of the Center for Accessibility and Inclusion Research Lab (CAIR).

Previously, I obtained a master’s degree in Computer Engineering at the University of Campinas, working with Paula Costa on speech-modulated typography. My thesis can be found here.

I am also a co-founder of Preface, a design studio from Campinas, Brazil. Since 2007, we have worked with clients from many sectors, with a particular focus on educational projects. For my work as a designer there, I have won some awards.

Research interests

My research centers on developing innovative approaches to captions to bridge the gap between how expressive spoken speech is and how the current state of captioning renders text in a dull and ambiguous manner. With a focus on the perspectives of Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing users, I investigate various forms of captions, including affective, prosodic, and haptic, and how they can be used to enhance the expressive quality of captioned content. This research falls within the domains of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and Computing Accessibility, and seeks to improve both live and pre-recorded content, such as online meetings and movies, to provide a more inclusive and engaging experience for all viewers.

Publications

Patents

News

  • June 18, 2025 🎉 We had two (out of three) accepted for this year's ASSETS conference.
  • January 16, 2025 🎉 Happy that we had one paper (out of three 😔) (conditionally) accepted for this year's CHI.
  • June 24, 2024 💪 Successfully defended my dissertation proposal.
  • April 16, 2024 🇺🇸 Had a great time attending CHI 2024!
  • January 18, 2024 🎉 Two papers we submitted for CHI 2024 were (conditionally) accepted.
  • November 6, 2023 🇸🇪 I had a great time at the Haptics for Symposium, at the University of Borås, in Sweden, where I presented and showcased my ‘Enhancing Affective Captions with Haptic Feedback’ project.
  • October 23, 2023 🇺🇸 I attended my first (in-person) ASSETS!
  • April 23, 2023 🇩🇪 I attended my first CHI!
  • January 13, 2023 🎉 A paper we submitted for CHI 2023 was (conditionally) accepted.
  • October 7, 2022 🇺🇸 I presented a poster at the AI@RIT summit.
  • August 3, 2022 🎉 A paper we submitted for ASSETS 2022 was accepted.
  • May 19, 2022 🏛️ My master's thesis, defended in March 2021 but on hold because of a patent application, is now available.
  • May 11, 2022 💪 Passed my RPA exam.
  • May 3, 2022 🎉 The paper I wrote with Paula Costa, Hidden bawls, whispers, and yelps: can text convey the sound of speech, beyond words?, has been accepted for an upcoming issue of the IEEE Transactions on Affective Computing.

Miscellaneous

  • May 22, 2023 The University of Campinas Gazette published an article about the research I did during my master's degree. Also included was a fun short Instagram reels preview of the work.
  • March 6, 2023 Philipp Sokolov published a humerous take on prosodic typography that featured our work.
  • December 9, 2022 Martin Anderson published an article about our ‘Hidden Bawls’ paper.