Brown University and Microsoft Research are launching a three-year research alliance to create innovative software for pen-based computers such as Tablet PCs. The goal of the alliance – the first of its kind in the nation – is to make using computers easier for scientists, artists and others who routinely use handwriting and sketching to create and communicate.
Brown and Microsoft unveiled plans Monday for the Microsoft Center for Research on Pen-Centric Computing, which looks to promote and fund research aimed at improving pen-based operation of Tablet PCs, Pocket PCs and other personal digital assistants, electronic whiteboards and conventional desktop computers. The center is the first academic research program in the nation dedicated to pen-centric computing innovation.
Seifert Systems Invests in Energy Efficiency to Strengthen Operations
For manufacturers, energy is more than just another operating expense. It plays a critical role…
Learn More
Through the three-year joint research and education alliance, Microsoft Research and Brown will explore and develop new ways to use pen-like styluses to operate computing devices. Under the alliance, Microsoft Research will invest $1.2 million over the next three years.
“Pen-based computing has the potential to alter the way students and teachers interact,” said Rick Rashid, senior vice president of research at Microsoft Corp. “And together with Brown, we will create new ways of combining the pen and the computer to positively affect not only the educational process but our working methods and our culture.”
With the goal of driving innovations that will serve the academic community as a whole, researchers at Brown will investigate new ways for computers to recognize and interpret handwritten input. Faculty, students and research staff will also create and test new software that recognizes notations in mathematics, chemistry, art and design, and other fields that have well-developed notational styles. The software would allow the data to be stored as digital ink and shared as handwriting, sketches or text. Programs will also allow for instantaneous data transformations – for example, turning the symbolic notation of a sketched molecule into a 3-D model of that molecule that the user can view from any vantage point.
Andries van Dam, Brown’s vice president for research and a founding member and first chair of the Department of Computer Science, will serve as director of the new center.
For more than a decade, Brown researchers have designed and tested gesture-recognition software, including prototype applications that recognize music, mathematics and chemistry notations. Microsoft has provided partial funding for these initial efforts.
