Sam
Summary:
MathPad lets users draw mathematical expressions, symbols, and diagrams. Some diagrams can even be animated by the system! The authors suggest that allowing users to visualize their problems (which they will naturally do on pen and paper anyway) can help them in their sensemaking tasks.
As shown in the table above, basic gestures are used to inform MathPad of user intent for various items. Expressions are further converted to strings that can be evaluated by MatLab. MathPad also includes a nice set of computational functions that can aide users. And you can change your stroke color to help organize your work. It's the little things that count.
Discussion:
I did not go into much detail about MathPad, but do not let that in any way discredit it. The system sounds great! It also reminded me of Mechanix because the authors gave some consideration to usability and the aides they could provide to users. I think Mechanix takes it a step further in terms of features and freedom of drawing (recognition is off the chain), but MathPad sounds like a very smartly designed system all around. Good show.
This one is good system. I recommend to see his phd dissertation,which is awesome.
ReplyDeleteI think Latex should incorporate a tool like this one.
ReplyDelete