Creation , Presentation , Capture , and Replay of Freehand Writings in e - Lecture Scenarios

Modelling freehand writing in all its capacitive expressiveness and stylised apotheosis is highlighted in this paper. We derive the necessary requirements for freehand writing representation from observations made in e-learning scenarios where the representation of ink data describing the dynamics of freehand writings as natural parameters is useful. We show that random real-time access for recorded data streams (ink-files) is crucial in order to guarantee the synchronous real-time replay with other data streams. Our examination of the various ink data formats led us to believe that W3C's InkML standard contains the necessary sustenance for both simple and elaborate data layouts. We describe our tool, CrePCaR, which supports the Creation, Presentation, Capture, and Replay of freehand writings. It yields an experimental environment for studying the effects of varying parameters that influence the random real-time access facility of ink-files. 1. Introduction The arrival of pen computing, equipped with better screens and electronic ink capturing systems, has made natural handwriting the trendiest way for human-computer interaction. Presently, a large variety of pen-based input devices are available. They range from palm-sized screens (hand-helds), to standard and portable screen sizes (tablet PCs and Wacom-Cintiq tablets) [10, 16], to the impressive wall-sized interactive displays (composed of several serially mounted SMART boards). From the historical-chronological point of view, digital handwriting was initially only desired to be recognised – ink-data creation or representation was not the main focus. Nowadays, tools that support the creation, presentation, capture, and replay of freehand writings in various styles are especially useful for e-learning scenarios. In 1995 the " Classroom 2000 " project was launched in an attempt to sustain both teaching and learning at universities by introducing automated supports for recording lectures [1]. At about the same time the AOF-project (Authoring On the Fly) was started with a similar objective [11, 12]. Multimedia educational contents are produced " on the fly " as by-products of live presentations in classrooms by capturing data streams generated during live-events. Digital ink-traces generated on presenters' boards and on students' own devices are considered as crucial parts in the process of producing and using e-lectures in these projects. It is now quite common to write directly on screens using pen-based input devices. It appears that we are not far from realizing the dream to have a computer that looks like paper, feels like paper, but is better than paper. The medium of the electronic pen and digital …