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Miscellaneous symbolic input

In this category, the entry of mathematical formulas or musical scores is considered. In both these types of graphical behavior there is an aspect of symbolical and structural information. This means that apart from a symbol identity like ``Greek alpha'', its geometrical relation to the other graphical objects plays an essential role. Interestingly, the entering of formulas is sometimes used as an example of the ease of Direct Manipulation. It has become clear however, that the correct entry of formulas with the pen is a tedious process, if rules for graphical style are not applied within the interface algorithm. As a worst case example, the user must enter four similar formulas with a tantalizing accurate positioning of subscripts and superscripts etc. four times, with the risk of very annoying spacing differences between these formulas. A combination of rule-based approaches, as in LaTeX, and the actual use of interactive pen input is the best solution to this problem. Finally, both in the automatic recognition of mathematical formulas and musical scores, context information is needed and is in practice actually used to solve shape classification ambiguities.



Esprit Project 8579/MIAMI (Schomaker et al., '95)
Thu May 18 16:00:17 MET DST 1995