Microsoft Research presents paper on Simultaneous Pen + Touch

Posted by | 10/04/2010 | 4 Comments

Mary-Jo Foley at ZDNet reports that the Microsoft Research team behind Manual Deskterity is presenting the white paper on their work on Simultaneous Pen + Touch at the ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology.

As you may recall but likely have forgotten, the team released a video preview of their work back in April. The basic concept is that the current dual digitizer technology allows pen input OR touch input, but not both at the same time. Their project allows both to work in conjunction for effects that can be clumsy for one or the other. Or as they put it in their paper:

Based on our explorations we advocate a division of labor between pen and touch: the pen writes, touch manipulates, and the combination of pen + touch yields new tools.

The paper provides very useful background info to what you see in the video (re-posted below), as well as descriptions of the simultaneous pen + touch tools they show. I am particularly impressed by how they examined the usage of a paper notebook not simply for writing notes but also for scrapbooking and manipulation.

The paper makes passing mention of Courier, which MJF fawns over. What I found more interesting was the reference to Codex, which I did not realize was presented in a paper by Ken Hinckley and his team last year. So while the work was done on a Microsoft Surface, they are definitely looking at mobile implementations. Just hope we can see it in consumer form some time.

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Category: Software

About the Author (Author Profile)

My name is Mark Sumimoto; I am Sumocat. I dabble in all areas of mobile computing, but my focus is Windows-based Tablet PCs and pen input. They’ve been part of my arsenal since 2004, and I’m proud to have pioneered the field of ink blogging, earning a spot as a Microsoft MVP for Touch and Tablets in the process. My current tools include a Fujitsu Lifebook T900, TEGA v2, and iPhone 4. Email me: sumocat [at] notebooks.com
  • rainman

    ahh, courier… I must be the only one, but that is my personal gadget holy grail of the year.

  • http://www.jessebandersen.com Jesse B Andersen

    Well that looks way better than the usual MS Surface stuff which isn’t that useful. Some of those features could be used for artists. They could be zooming and panning with their left hand and painting with their right. It can be good as long as they pair it with a powerful tool like Photoshop.

    I have used pen + touch before with a Lenovo X201, but I have to move the stylus away enough from the screen and then use my fingers. Like I do here – http://www.lenovox201.com/2010/09/creating-blog.html

    Thanks for sharing this Mark!

  • Medic

    Where was this technology 5 years ago?

  • JasonJ

    Aspects of Manual Deskterity are already implicit in well-behaved Windows 7 pen-aware apps.

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