Blog #2: Hands-on Math

Paper Title: Hands-on Math: A page-based multi-touch and pen desktop for technical work and problem solving

Authors: Robert Zeleznik, Andrew Bragdon, Ferdi Adeputra, Hsu-Sheng Ko

Author Bios:
Robert "Coach-Z" Zeleznik is a Director at the Research Department for the Computer Graphics Group (Brown University).

Andrew Bragdon is a Ph.D. student at Brown University, department of Computer Science. He is currently developing methods of making computing tasks more fluid, natural and cognitively lightweight.

Ferdi Adeputra is a former student of Brown University, department of Computer Science, currently employed at Goldman Sachs. His works apart from Hands-on Math include Code Bubbles, where he proposed a novel user interface that is based on collections of lightweight editable fragments (called bubbles).

Hsu-Sheng Ko is a former student of Brown University, department of Computer Science, whose publishes include FLUX - A Tilting Multi-Touch and Pen Based Surface, where FLUX is an interactive touch-sensitive tilting surface that can be used either as a digital presentation whiteboard and other interactive surfaces.

Presentation Venue: Proceedings of the 23rd Annual Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology (UIST 2010)

Summary Section:
Paper Hypothesis: The papers' core hypothesis is that if CAS (Computer Algebra Systems) tools were driven by direct, multi-touch manipulation and digital ink within a free-form note-taking environment, students and even scientists might learn and work more efficiently.
How the hypothesis was tested: The hypothesis was tested using a qualitative pilot evaluation and usability discussion of the prototype system as a whole. The hybrid tabletop solution that were designed by the authors in order to blend the whiteboard-like interactions with resizeable pages was tested using several gestures such as the bezel and folding gestures. These gestures helped them test the creation and deletion of pages, and to test page management within a page respectively.
Result of the hypothesis: The 9 participants that were recruited from the undergraduate student population of Brown University were very positive about the potential of the system. They all found the virtual papers to be as comfortable as natural paper, and they were also enthusiastic about the panning bar. The system was remarked as "cool" and was reported to be helpful to them to organize their pages into distinct regions.
General summary: The participants approved the potential of the system but they faced a few difficulties in operating certain features of the same.

Discussion:
Significance of the paper: This paper has huge significance on society as a whole as it provides features that can lead to a minor technological advancements in the usage of technology in order to solve and tutor math. One of the most important features it provides is it uses virtual paper, which if used even to a mediocre extent can save a lot of paper and thereby a lot of trees in the environment. The system also contributes novel bi-manual and gestural techniques for managing and writing on virtual note pages in addition to direct manipulation techniques for algebraically transforming mathematical expressions.
Faults of the work: The participants faced various problems which included difficulties in: page creation and deletion, pinching, multitouch dragging and zooming.
Interesting future work: This technology can be implemented in touch devices such as touch phones and touch pads in order to make mathematical computations easier and faster.