scriboli

The Pigtail delimiter splits the user’s gesture into a lasso, which here selects the ink, and a mark, which here chooses the Copy command from 8 possibilities.

Scriboli is the name of our pen interaction test bed that we used to experimentally compare delimiters for pen gestures. A delimiter is “something different” in the input stream that a computer can use to determine the structure of input phrases. We have studied four techniques for delimiting a selection-action gesture phrase consisting of lasso selection plus marking-menu-based command activation. Multistroke uses one pen stroke for lasso selection, and a second stroke for marking. Timeout uses dwelling with the pen to split a single pen gesture into a lasso plus a mark. Button uses a button press to signal when to delimit the gesture. Pigtail is a novel technique that uses a small loop to delimit the gesture (see above). Pigtail supports integrated scope selection, command activation, and direct manipulation all in a single fluid pen gesture.

In collaboration with Ken Hinckley (principal investigator), Gonzalo Ramos, and Francois Guimbretiere