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Microsoft Tablet PC Technology

Thomas DoddsDeclan O’Gorman

David PicklesStephen Pond

An overview of Microsoft Tablet PC technology and current research

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Contents

• Motivations• History• Intended Uses• Current Technologies

– Handwriting, Applications• Future Trends

– Handwriting, Speech, Stitching, Longhorn• Summary• Questions

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MS Book & Pen 2002

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Motivation

• A combination of PDA and laptop

• The portability and easy interface of a PDA

• The compute power and compatibility of a laptop

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History

Dynabook (1968) “Wang Freestyle” operating system (1988)

GRidPad (1989) Palm pilot (1996)

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Tablet PC

• Fully fledged Windows based Notebook

• Available in two forms:

– “Convertibles” (Swivel Display notebook)

– “Pure Tablets” (Slates)

• Allows input via speech and stylus

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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

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Intended Uses

• Intended market– Enterprise – Educational sector

• Highly portable– Lightweight– Wifi / Bluetooth

• Interaction with other devices– Phone, PDA, etc.

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Current Technologies

Several Current technologies:– Handwriting– Applications– Hardware support– Data compression & storage

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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

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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

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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

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Tablet PC Applications

• Office – OneNote2003

• Input Panel

• Sketches and annotations

• Audio synchronised with documents

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Microsoft Journal

• Note taking on tablet

• Import graphics files

• Copy and paste ink

• Share notes

• Export to non tablets

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Sticky Notes

• Sticky Notes– Desktop– Supports Object Linking

& Embedding (OLE)

• Extends desktop metaphor

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Research Directions

Several Research Areas:– Handwriting– Speech– Stitching– Longhorn– Hardware improvements

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Handwriting - Reflow

• Writing in margins or sideways

• Layering issues when document is edited

• Is it text or a picture?

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Handwriting - Reflow

• Redmond Labs - Spatial Research

• Asia Labs - Temporal Research

• Best results through combining techniques

• AI Complete

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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

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Stitching

• File transfer between tablets

• Initiated by a simple gesture

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Longhorn

• Avalon system treats ink as “1st class citizen”

• Fully integrated into .NET framework

• Support for context and real-time analysis

• Word-list harvesting from emails/documents

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Summary

• Tablet PCs are here to stay

• Core technology needs to be refined

• Future challenges still to be overcome

• New interactions possible

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Questions?