Pen Computing, Digital Ink, and Research for the Tablet PC

Digital Ink is a new, rich data type linked to a powerful underlying Tablet PC API that enables many functions previously difficult, impossible, or simply unavailable to computer users. The applications and research directions examined in this session of the 2005 Microsoft Research Faculty Summit represent the latest thinking and efforts to reduce the gap between the digital world and the paper world, open up entirely new metaphors for expression and gestures for collaboration, and provide innovative 3-D drawing paradigms, among other capabilities.

Ken Hinckley and François Guimbretière discuss a number projects they have worked on both separately and together. These include, but are not limited to:

  • Stich, an interaction test bed for discovering rapid and intuitive interaction techniques for pen-enabled computing in which they use gestures to enable file sharing as well as a number of other activities
  • Scriboli, which proposes the fundamental building blocks of a grammar for pen input by linking together object, verb, and indirect object in fast, fluid, unambiguous commands.

They also discuss other projects, such as PapierCraft and HoverWidgets, and the latest work with CrossY, a crossing-based drawing application.

Hod demos his very powerful, intuitive, and easy-to-use design tool, 3D Accelerator, which enables a robust array of capabilities for designing three-dimensional objects, and which allows rapid, intuitive prototyping of design ideas that can then be reality-tested—interactively and in real time.

Speaker Details

Ken Hinckley is a principal researcher in the Adaptive Systems and Interaction Group at Microsoft Research. His research on sensors, mobile devices, pen computing, and pen + touch interaction has been widely covered in the press and tech blogs (for example, MIT Technology Review, The Wall Street Journal, Gizmodo, Engadget, and Slashdot). Ken holds a PhD in computer science from the University of Virginia where he studied spatial interaction with Randy Pausch, now famous as the late author of “The Last Lecture.”

François Guimbretière is an assistant professor at the University of Maryland Human-Computer Interaction Lab (HCIL). His research interests focus on pen computing. In the paper world, he is studying how new technologies can be used to bridge the gap between the digital world and the paper world. In the digital world, he is studying how new design for pen-based computer such as CrossY, a crossing-based drawing application. He is also conducting research on how to help people understand and compare very large trees such as phylogenies. More information can be found at http://www.cs.umd.edu/~francois.

Date:
Speakers:
François Guimbretière, Hod Lipson, and Ken Hinckley
Affiliation:
HCIL, University of Maryland; Microsoft Research