Paper Reading #11: Hands-On Math: A page-based multi-touch and pen desktop for technical work and problem solving

Commentary

See what I have to say about ___'s and ___'s work.

References

Zelenik, R., et al. (2010). Hands-on math: a page-based multi-touch and pen desktop for technical work and problem solving. Proceeding of the Acm conference on user interface software and technology. New York: http://www.acm.org/uist/uist2010/.

Article Summary

The researchers for this paper present a fusing of two technologies that seem to complement each other well: pencil-and-paper mathematical calculations and a Computer Algebra System (CAS). They argue that pencil-and-paper provides a greater degree of freedom with respect to spatial interaction and is more intuitive because of the physical method of input. They do not discount the usefulness of a CAS in solving complex equations much more quickly and efficiently than could be done by hand, however. They have created a system which uses the Microsoft Surface system which combines these two interactions and interfaces, along with multitouch capabilities and multimodal input, i.e. light pen and fingers.

The researchers detail the capabilities of their system in depth. The system affords the user the ability to create and delete pages, pan across the virtual tabletop, access context-specific menus, and influence the context of gestures dependent on the combination of pen and touch inputs utilized. The researchers also implemented preexisting Software Development Kits (SDKs) to complete the mathematical operations. Overall, the results from a user study they conducted support their hypothesis, but offer many suggestions for future expansion as well. Specifically, users detailed what functionality they would have liked to see added to pages, e.g. growing or shrinking pages, or having data on one page accessible to all pages; and issues regarding the necessity of having both hands free for gesture input.

Discussion

I really like this design concept. I feel the exact same way as the researchers do about the affordances of pencil-and-paper and CAS. Personally, I can't wait until this happens:

Image courtesy of Niobium Labs

There is something that is just so inherently intuitive about touch interfaces: every interaction between ourselves and out=r physical world is through some form of manual manipulation. I'm glad that these types or interfaces are becoming more mainstream. That is all.