1 / 23 Microsoft Tablet PC Technology Thomas Dodds Declan O’Gorman David Pickles Stephen Pond An overview of Microsoft Tablet PC technology and current research

2 / 23 Contents Motivations History Intended Uses Current Technologies –Handwriting, Applications Future Trends –Handwriting, Speech, Stitching, Longhorn Summary Questions

3 / 23 MS Book & Pen 2002

4 / 23 Motivation A combination of PDA and laptop The portability and easy interface of a PDA The compute power and compatibility of a laptop

5 / 23 History Dynabook (1968) “Wang Freestyle” operating system (1988) GRidPad (1989) Palm pilot (1996)

6 / 23 Tablet PC Fully fledged Windows based Notebook Available in two forms: –“Convertibles” (Swivel Display notebook) –“Pure Tablets” (Slates) Allows input via speech and stylus

7 / 23 Windows XP Tablet PC Edition Pen Services for Win 3.11 and 95 offered rudimentary writing support Windows XP Tablet PC edition is a superset of Windows XP professional Provides support for handwriting and speech recognition Provides a suite of tools for inputting data

8 / 23 Intended Uses Intended market –Enterprise –Educational sector Highly portable –Lightweight –Wifi / Bluetooth Interaction with other devices –Phone, PDA, etc.

9 / 23 Current Technologies Several Current technologies: –Handwriting –Applications –Hardware support –Data compression & storage

10 / 23 Hand Writing Recognition PDA’s required users to learn a new symbol set for entering text using the stylus Tablet PCs improved this by allowing people to write characters in cursive –Still not perfect character recognition

11 / 23 Hand Writing Benefits Keyboard redundant allowing for thinner, lighter tablets Ease of use –Natural –Flexible (write or draw) Retainable as ink For some character sets, e.g. Chinese it is much better to handwrite then have a keyboard character mapping

12 / 23 Text Input Aids Context Rules can be applied to aid the computer in recognising the strokes made with the stylus Real time conversion –Select from a list of suggested texts Support applications with Input Panel

13 / 23 Tablet PC Applications Office –OneNote2003 Input Panel Sketches and annotations Audio synchronised with documents

14 / 23 Microsoft Journal Note taking on tablet Import graphics files Copy and paste ink Share notes Export to non tablets

15 / 23 Sticky Notes –Desktop –Supports Object Linking & Embedding (OLE) Extends desktop metaphor

16 / 23 Research Directions Several Research Areas: –Handwriting –Speech –Stitching –Longhorn –Hardware improvements

17 / 23 Handwriting - Reflow Writing in margins or sideways Layering issues when document is edited Is it text or a picture?

18 / 23 Handwriting - Reflow Redmond Labs - Spatial Research Asia Labs - Temporal Research Best results through combining techniques AI Complete

19 / 23 Speech Recognition On going research done by Whisper Research project (Windows Highly Intelligent SPEech Recognizer) Aims to improve acoustic and language modelling algorithms Increase support for non-english languages

20 / 23 Stitching File transfer between tablets Initiated by a simple gesture

21 / 23 Longhorn Avalon system treats ink as “1 st class citizen” Fully integrated into.NET framework Support for context and real-time analysis Word-list harvesting from s/documents

22 / 23 Summary Tablet PCs are here to stay Core technology needs to be refined Future challenges still to be overcome New interactions possible

23 / 23 Questions?