Paper Reading #2: Hands-on math

References:
Robert Zeleznik,  Andrew Bragdon, Ferdi Adeputra, and Hsu-Sheng Ko. "Hands-on math: a page-based multi-touch and pen desktop for technical work and problem solving". UIST '10 Proceedings of the 23rd annual ACM symposium on User interface software and technology.  ACM New York, NY, USA ©2010.

Author Bios:
Robert Zeleznik received both his bachelor's and master's in Computer Science at Brown University. He has worked as a consultant for Sun Microsystems, SpaceTec, and E-Quill Corp. He is now the director of research at Brown University, in the computer graphics group.

Andrew Bragdon is a second year Ph.D. student of Computer Science at Brown University. His main interests lie in human-computer interaction, more specifically "developing methods of making computing tasks more fluid, natural and cognitively lightweight."

Ferdi Adeputra received his degree in Applied Mathematics - Computer Science at Brown University.

Hsu-Sheng Ko also received his degree from Brown University.

Summary:

• Hypothesis -  A method of integrating virtual paper with high-level mathematical computing will allow users to quickly and more efficiently solve problems.
• Method - The technology developed (Hands-on math) used a multi-touch desktop combined with an infrared lightpen. It made use of gestures with the non-dominant hand combined with tap-based commands with the pen in order to write, evaluate, and manipulate mathematical expressions. It also allowed a user to have many virtual sheets of paper upon which to work. These sheets were of an unfixed length and could be arranged at will on a desktop of unlimited size. This allowed users to keep the flow of one equation while being able to refer to another equation side-by-side. Gestures were used to manipulate sheets and equations. Manipulating equations included moving around or factoring out variables, simplifying and condensing expressions, substitution, and much more.
  
  
  During the research, subjects were told to use the technology to help with a problem related to their field of work (ie, physics, math, chemistry etc). The results of the test were subject evaluations of the technology and its usefulness, as well as its ease of use. 
• Results - The results of the experiment did not contradict their hypothesis. On the whole, subjects were in agreement that this technology would help them with their studies. They particularly liked the fact that they could still work out the math step-by-step, where other computing software gave just an answer. They all found that being able to freely write equations and subsequently be able to manipulate its form and representations was very powerful. There were mixed feelings on the gestures and multi-touch functionality, but on the whole it was simple enough to learn.
• Contents - The contents of this paper were mostly over the functionality of Hands-on math itself. It discussed the reasons for both hand-gesture and pen input were integral to their system. They also explained how the pages and desktop as a whole worked. They finally explored the methods by which they may improve this technology and how changing certain properties of the software might heighten usability and user-friendliness. 

Discussion
This technology seemed to me like it would be an extremely useful application for many areas, especially school. While in professions it may not be as useful to go through equations step by step (as that would increase the time to solve problems and take away from productivity levels), it would be a very powerful tool for learning. When learning higher-level math, it may take up to several pages to finish a single problem if each step is shown. However, with this technology the user could efficiently take the same amount of space for calculation without the hassle of a notebook or a lot of free-floating papers. It also would help with eliminating "stupid mistakes" during the learning process. For higher level math students, there are many instances where they may make a stupid mistake that makes a problem unsolvable. With this technology, it would prevent the stupid mistake and allow the user to learn what they were intended to learn without wasting unneeded time on catching stupid errors. While students do need to learn how to not make these stupid mistakes, they should be able to learn without worrying about that, and learn to deal with that when they already know the material and are reviewing or studying (say for a test). I personally would love to have this technology, although I don't believe I would have much use for it anymore. It just seems like it would be fun to play around with at this point!