SketchyDynamics: A Library for the Development of Physics Simulation Applications with Sketch-Based Interfaces

Sketch-based interfaces provide a powerful, natural and intuitive way for users to interact with an application. By combining a sketch-based interface with a physically simulated environment, an application offers the means for users to rapidly sketch a set of objects, like if they are doing it on piece of paper, and see how these objects behave in a simulation. In this paper we present SketchyDynamics, a library that intends to facilitate the creation of applications by rapidly providing them a sketch-based interface and physics simulation capabilities. SketchyDynamics was designed to be versatile and customizable but also simple. In fact, a simple application where the user draws objects and they are immediately simulated, colliding with each other and reacting to the specified physical forces, can be created with only 3 lines of code. In order to validate SketchyDynamics design choices, we also present some details of the usability evaluation that was conducted with a proof-of-concept prototype

BeatBox: End-user Interactive Definition and Training of Recognizers for Percussive Vocalizations

Interactive end-user training of machine learning systems has received significant attention as a tool for personalizing recognizers. However, most research limits end users to training a fixed set of application-defined concepts. This paper considers additional challenges that arise in end-user support for defining the number and nature of concepts that a system must learn to recognize. We develop BeatBox, a new system that enables end-user creation of custom beatbox recognizers and interactive adaptation of recognizers to an end user’s technique, environment, and musical goals. BeatBox proposes rapid end-user exploration of variations in the number and nature of learned concepts, and provides end users with feedback on the reliability of recognizers learned for different potential combinations of percussive vocalizations. In a preliminary evaluation, we observed that end users were able to quickly create usable classifiers, that they explored different combinations of concepts to test alternative vocalizations and to refine classifiers for new musical contexts, and that learnability feedback was often helpful in alerting them to potential difficulties with a desired learning concept

Contex-aware gestures for mixed-initiative text editings UIs

This is a pre-copyedited, author-produced PDF of an article accepted for publication in Interacting with computers following peer review. The version of record is available online at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/iwc/iwu019[EN] This work is focused on enhancing highly interactive text-editing applications with gestures. Concretely, we study Computer Assisted Transcription of Text Images (CATTI), a handwriting transcription system that follows a corrective feedback paradigm, where both the user and the system collaborate efficiently to produce a high-quality text transcription. CATTI-like applications demand fast and accurate gesture recognition, for which we observed that current gesture recognizers are not adequate enough. In response to this need we developed MinGestures, a parametric context-aware gesture recognizer. Our contributions include a number of stroke features for disambiguating copy-mark gestures from handwritten text, plus the integration of these gestures in a CATTI application. It becomes finally possible to create highly interactive stroke-based text-editing interfaces, without worrying to verify the user intent on-screen. We performed a formal evaluation with 22 e-pen users and 32 mouse users using a gesture vocabulary of 10 symbols. MinGestures achieved an outstanding accuracy (<1% error rate) with very high performance (<1 ms of recognition time). We then integrated MinGestures in a CATTI prototype and tested the performance of the interactive handwriting system when it is driven by gestures. Our results show that using gestures in interactive handwriting applications is both advantageous and convenient when gestures are simple but context-aware. Taken together, this work suggests that text-editing interfaces not only can be easily augmented with simple gestures, but also may substantially improve user productivity.This work has been supported by the European Commission through the 7th Framework Program (tranScriptorium: FP7- ICT-2011-9, project 600707 and CasMaCat: FP7-ICT-2011-7, project 287576). It has also been supported by the Spanish MINECO under grant TIN2012-37475-C02-01 (STraDa), and the Generalitat Valenciana under grant ISIC/2012/004 (AMIIS).Leiva, LA.; Alabau, V.; Romero Gómez, V.; Toselli, AH.; Vidal, E. (2015). Contex-aware gestures for mixed-initiative text editings UIs. Interacting with Computers. 27(6):675-696. https://doi.org/10.1093/iwc/iwu019S675696276Alabau V. Leiva L. A. Transcribing Handwritten Text Images with a Word Soup Game. Proc. Extended Abstr. Hum. Factors Comput. Syst. (CHI EA) 2012.Alabau V. Rodríguez-Ruiz L. Sanchis A. Martínez-Gómez P. Casacuberta F. On Multimodal Interactive Machine Translation Using Speech Recognition. Proc. Int. Conf. Multimodal Interfaces (ICMI). 2011a.Alabau V. Sanchis A. Casacuberta F. Improving On-Line Handwritten Recognition using Translation Models in Multimodal Interactive Machine Translation. Proc. Assoc. Comput. Linguistics (ACL) 2011b.Alabau, V., Sanchis, A., & Casacuberta, F. (2014). Improving on-line handwritten recognition in interactive machine translation. Pattern Recognition, 47(3), 1217-1228. doi:10.1016/j.patcog.2013.09.035Anthony L. Wobbrock J. O. A Lightweight Multistroke Recognizer for User Interface Prototypes. Proc. Conf. Graph. Interface (GI). 2010.Anthony L. Wobbrock J. O. N-Protractor: a Fast and Accurate Multistroke Recognizer. Proc. Conf. Graph. Interface (GI) 2012.Anthony L. Vatavu R.-D. Wobbrock J. O. Understanding the Consistency of Users' Pen and Finger Stroke Gesture Articulation. Proc. Conf. Graph. Interface (GI). 2013.Appert C. Zhai S. Using Strokes as Command Shortcuts: Cognitive Benefits and Toolkit Support. Proc. SIGCHI Conf. Hum. Fact. Comput. Syst. (CHI) 2009.Bahlmann C. Haasdonk B. Burkhardt H. On-Line Handwriting Recognition with Support Vector Machines: A Kernel Approach. Proc. Int. Workshop Frontiers Handwriting Recognition (IWFHR). 2001.Bailly G. Lecolinet E. Nigay L. Flower Menus: a New Type of Marking Menu with Large Menu Breadth, within Groups and Efficient Expert Mode Memorization. Proc.Work. Conf. Adv. Vis. Interfaces (AVI) 2008.Balakrishnan R. Patel P. The PadMouse: Facilitating Selection and Spatial Positioning for the Non-Dominant Hand. Proc. SIGCHI Conf. Hum. Factors Comput. Syst. (CHI). 1998.Bau O. Mackay W. E. Octopocus: A Dynamic Guide for Learning Gesture-Based Command Sets. Proc. ACM Symp. User Interface Softw. Technol. (UIST) 2008.Belaid A. Haton J. A syntactic approach for handwritten formula recognition. IEEE Trans. Pattern Anal. Mach. Intell. 1984;6:105-111.Bosch V. Bordes-Cabrera I. 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SketchyDynamics apoio à produção de sistemas baseados em interfaces caligráficas para a simulação da dinâmica de corpos rígidos

Mestrado em Engenharia Informática - Área de Especialização em Sistemas Gráficos e MultimédiaO paradigma de interação proporcionado pelas interfaces caligráficas constitui uma forma natural de interação humano-computador. Esta naturalidade deve-se, sobretudo, à semelhança que este estilo de interação possui com a utilização de um lápis sobre papel, tarefa comum e intuitiva. Apesar disso é ainda pouco frequente o emprego de tais interfaces em aplicações informáticas, sendo o estilo de interação WIMP (Windows, Icons, Menus and Pointers) mais utilizado e favorecido. No entanto, antecipa-se um futuro no qual as interfaces caligráficas estarão cada vez mais presentes, pois é notório o surgimento de um número crescente não só de aplicações que adotam este estilo de interação, mas também de equipamentos que incentivam à sua utilização. Com base nesta premissa, é seguro afirmar a necessidade de investir nesta área, de modo a agilizar e acelerar a adoção do estilo de interação caligráfico e, assim, tornar a interação humano-computador num processo cada vez mais natural. O trabalho descrito neste documento visa um estudo à utilização das interfaces caligráficas orientada para a criação e controlo de um ambiente simulado. Mais concretamente, é apresentado o sistema SketchyDynamics, que integra um módulo de simulação da dinâmica de corpos rígidos em simbiose com uma interface caligráfica munida das ações necessárias para a manipulação da simulação. Recorrendo a este sistema, é facilitada a produção de aplicações que tirem partido destas funcionalidades, sem a necessidade de as reimplementar. É ainda descrita uma avaliação de técnicas de reconhecimento caligráfico realizada com o objetivo de determinar aquela que melhor se integraria no sistema desenvolvido. No âmbito desta avaliação são ainda apresentados alguns pormenores sobre a implementação dessas técnicas, bem como procedimentos que permitem uma maximização da sua eficácia. São também discutidos os resultados de uma avaliação de usabilidade conduzida com o propósito de validar o sistema SketchyDynamics do ponto de vista do utilizador. Os resultados desta avaliação mostram que este sistema foi bem-sucedido e que se encontra preparado para o utilizador final, não obstante a existência de margem para futuras melhorias.The interaction paradigm provided by sketch-based interfaces represents a natural method of human-computer interaction. This naturalness is largely due to the similarity that this interaction style has with the use of a pencil on a paper, an intuitive and common task. Despite that, the implementation of these interfaces on computer applications is still unusual, in favor of the WIMP (Windows, Icons, Menus and Points) interaction style. Nevertheless, we can predict a future where sketch-based interfaces will be increasingly more widespread, based on the recent emergence of not only applications that adopt this interaction style, but also equipment that encourage their use. With this premise in mind, it is safe to assert the need for investment in this area, in order to streamline and accelerate the adoption of the sketch-based interaction style and thus make the human-computer interaction a progressively more natural process. The work described in this document aims the study of the use of sketch-based interfaces in the creation and control of simulated environments. More specifically, we present the SketchyDynamics system, which incorporates a rigid body simulation module in symbiosis with a sketch-based interface provided with the necessary actions for the manipulation of the simulation. Using this system, we hope to ease the production of applications that take advantage of these features, without the need to implement them from scratch. An evaluation of various sketch recognition techniques, performed in order to find the one that best fits in the developed system, is also described. As part of this evaluation, we also present some details on the implementation of these techniques, as well as procedures that allow us to maximize their efficiency. Furthermore, we discuss the results of a usability evaluation that was conducted with the purpose of validating the SketchyDynamics system from the user’s point of view. The results of this evaluation suggest that, despite the existence of room for further improvements, the system was successful and is ready for final users

Perceptually-based language to simplify sketch recognition user interface development

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2007.This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.Includes bibliographical references (p. 473-495).Diagrammatic sketching is a natural modality of human-computer interaction that can be used for a variety of tasks, for example, conceptual design. Sketch recognition systems are currently being developed for many domains. However, they require signal-processing expertise if they are to handle the intricacies of each domain, and they are time-consuming to build. Our goal is to enable user interface designers and domain experts who may not have expertise in sketch recognition to be able to build these sketch systems. We created and implemented a new framework (FLUID - f acilitating user interface development) in which developers can specify a domain description indicating how domain shapes are to be recognized, displayed, and edited. This description is then automatically transformed into a sketch recognition user interface for that domain. LADDER, a language using a perceptual vocabulary based on Gestalt principles, was developed to describe how to recognize, display, and edit domain shapes. A translator and a customizable recognition system (GUILD - a generator of user interfaces using ladder descriptions) are combined with a domain description to automatically create a domain specific recognition system.(cont.) With this new technology, by writing a domain description, developers are able to create a new sketch interface for a domain, greatly reducing the time and expertise for the task Continuing in pursuit of our goal to facilitate UI development, we noted that 1) human generated descriptions contained syntactic and conceptual errors, and that 2) it is more natural for a user to specify a shape by drawing it than by editing text. However, computer generated descriptions from a single drawn example are also flawed, as one cannot express all allowable variations in a single example. In response, we created a modification of the traditional model of active learning in which the system selectively generates its own near-miss examples and uses the human teacher as a source of labels. System generated near-misses offer a number of advantages. Human generated examples are tedious to create and may not expose problems in the current concept. It seems most effective for the near-miss examples to be generated by whichever learning participant (teacher or student) knows better where the deficiencies lie; this will allow the concepts to be more quickly and effectively refined.(cont.) When working in a closed domain such as this one, the computer learner knows exactly which conceptual uncertainties remain, and which hypotheses need to be tested and confirmed. The system uses these labeled examples to automatically build a LADDER shape description, using a modification of the version spaces algorithm that handles interrelated constraints, and which also has the ability to learn negative and disjunctive constraints.by Tracy Anne Hammond.Ph.D

Pen-based Methods For Recognition and Animation of Handwritten Physics Solutions

There has been considerable interest in constructing pen-based intelligent tutoring systems due to the natural interaction metaphor and low cognitive load afforded by pen-based interaction. We believe that pen-based intelligent tutoring systems can be further enhanced by integrating animation techniques. In this work, we explore methods for recognizing and animating sketched physics diagrams. Our methodologies enable an Intelligent Tutoring System (ITS) to understand the scenario and requirements posed by a given problem statement and to couple this knowledge with a computational model of the student\u27s handwritten solution. These pieces of information are used to construct meaningful animations and feedback mechanisms that can highlight errors in student solutions. We have constructed a prototype ITS that can recognize mathematics and diagrams in a handwritten solution and infer implicit relationships among diagram elements, mathematics and annotations such as arrows and dotted lines. We use natural language processing to identify the domain of a given problem, and use this information to select one or more of four domain-specific physics simulators to animate the user\u27s sketched diagram. We enable students to use their answers to guide animation behavior and also describe a novel algorithm for checking recognized student solutions. We provide examples of scenarios that can be modeled using our prototype system and discuss the strengths and weaknesses of our current prototype. Additionally, we present the findings of a user study that aimed to identify animation requirements for physics tutoring systems. We describe a taxonomy for categorizing different types of animations for physics problems and highlight how the taxonomy can be used to define requirements for 50 physics problems chosen from a university textbook. We also present a discussion of 56 handwritten solutions acquired from physics students and describe how suitable animations could be constructed for each of them

Combining appearance and context for multi-domain sketch recognition

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2012.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 99-102).As our interaction with computing shifts away from the traditional desktop model (e.g., towards smartphones, tablets, touch-enabled displays), the technology that drives this interaction needs to evolve as well. Wouldn't it be great if we could talk, write, and draw to a computer just like we do with each other? This thesis addresses the drawing aspect of that vision: enabling computers to understand the meaning and semantics of free-hand diagrams. We present a novel framework for sketch recognition that seamlessly combines a rich representation of local visual appearance with a probabilistic graphical model for capturing higher level relationships. This joint model makes our system less sensitive to noise and drawing variations, improving accuracy and robustness. The result is a recognizer that is better able to handle the wide range of drawing styles found in messy freehand sketches. To preserve the fluid process of sketching on paper, our interface allows users to draw diagrams just as they would on paper, using the same notations and conventions. For the isolated symbol recognition task our method exceeds state-of-the-art performance in three domains: handwritten digits, PowerPoint shapes, and electrical circuit symbols. For the complete diagram recognition task it was able to achieve excellent performance on both chemistry and circuit diagrams, improving on the best previous results. Furthermore, in an on-line study our new interface was on average over twice as fast as the existing CAD-based method for authoring chemical diagrams, even for novice users who had little or no experience using a tablet. This is one of the first direct comparisons that shows a sketch recognition interface significantly outperforming a professional industry-standard CAD-based tool.by Tom Yu Ouyang.Ph.D

Combining representations for improved sketch recognition

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2009.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 89-96).Sketching is a common means of conveying, representing, and preserving information, and it has become a subject of research as a method for human-computer interaction, specifically in the area of computer-aided design. Digitally collected sketches contain both spatial and temporal information; additionally, they may contain a conceptual structure of shapes and sub shapes. These multiple aspects suggest several ways of representing sketches, each with advantages and disadvantages for recognition. Most existing sketch recognitions systems are based on a single representation and do not use all available information. We propose combining several representations and systems as a way to improve recognition accuracy. This thesis presents two methods for combining recognition systems. The first improves recognition by improving segmentation, while the second seeks to predict how well systems will recognize a given domain or symbol and combine their outputs accordingly. We show that combining several recognition systems based on different representations can improve the accuracy of existing recognition methods.by Sonya J. Cates.Ph.D

Contributions to Pen & Touch Human-Computer Interaction

[EN] Computers are now present everywhere, but their potential is not fully exploited due to some lack of acceptance. In this thesis, the pen computer paradigm is adopted, whose main idea is to replace all input devices by a pen and/or the fingers, given that the origin of the rejection comes from using unfriendly interaction devices that must be replaced by something easier for the user. This paradigm, that was was proposed several years ago, has been only recently fully implemented in products, such as the smartphones. But computers are actual illiterates that do not understand gestures or handwriting, thus a recognition step is required to "translate" the meaning of these interactions to computer-understandable language. And for this input modality to be actually usable, its recognition accuracy must be high enough. In order to realistically think about the broader deployment of pen computing, it is necessary to improve the accuracy of handwriting and gesture recognizers. This thesis is devoted to study different approaches to improve the recognition accuracy of those systems. First, we will investigate how to take advantage of interaction-derived information to improve the accuracy of the recognizer. In particular, we will focus on interactive transcription of text images. Here the system initially proposes an automatic transcript. If necessary, the user can make some corrections, implicitly validating a correct part of the transcript. Then the system must take into account this validated prefix to suggest a suitable new hypothesis. Given that in such application the user is constantly interacting with the system, it makes sense to adapt this interactive application to be used on a pen computer. User corrections will be provided by means of pen-strokes and therefore it is necessary to introduce a recognizer in charge of decoding this king of nondeterministic user feedback. However, this recognizer performance can be boosted by taking advantage of interaction-derived information, such as the user-validated prefix. Then, this thesis focuses on the study of human movements, in particular, hand movements, from a generation point of view by tapping into the kinematic theory of rapid human movements and the Sigma-Lognormal model. Understanding how the human body generates movements and, particularly understand the origin of the human movement variability, is important in the development of a recognition system. The contribution of this thesis to this topic is important, since a new technique (which improves the previous results) to extract the Sigma-lognormal model parameters is presented. Closely related to the previous work, this thesis study the benefits of using synthetic data as training. The easiest way to train a recognizer is to provide "infinite" data, representing all possible variations. In general, the more the training data, the smaller the error. But usually it is not possible to infinitely increase the size of a training set. Recruiting participants, data collection, labeling, etc., necessary for achieving this goal can be time-consuming and expensive. One way to overcome this problem is to create and use synthetically generated data that looks like the human. We study how to create these synthetic data and explore different approaches on how to use them, both for handwriting and gesture recognition. The different contributions of this thesis have obtained good results, producing several publications in international conferences and journals. Finally, three applications related to the work of this thesis are presented. First, we created Escritorie, a digital desk prototype based on the pen computer paradigm for transcribing handwritten text images. Second, we developed "Gestures à Go Go", a web application for bootstrapping gestures. Finally, we studied another interactive application under the pen computer paradigm. In this case, we study how translation reviewing can be done more ergonomically using a pen.[ES] Hoy en día, los ordenadores están presentes en todas partes pero su potencial no se aprovecha debido al "miedo" que se les tiene. En esta tesis se adopta el paradigma del pen computer, cuya idea fundamental es sustituir todos los dispositivos de entrada por un lápiz electrónico o, directamente, por los dedos. El origen del rechazo a los ordenadores proviene del uso de interfaces poco amigables para el humano. El origen de este paradigma data de hace más de 40 años, pero solo recientemente se ha comenzado a implementar en dispositivos móviles. La lenta y tardía implantación probablemente se deba a que es necesario incluir un reconocedor que "traduzca" los trazos del usuario (texto manuscrito o gestos) a algo entendible por el ordenador. Para pensar de forma realista en la implantación del pen computer, es necesario mejorar la precisión del reconocimiento de texto y gestos. El objetivo de esta tesis es el estudio de diferentes estrategias para mejorar esta precisión. En primer lugar, esta tesis investiga como aprovechar información derivada de la interacción para mejorar el reconocimiento, en concreto, en la transcripción interactiva de imágenes con texto manuscrito. En la transcripción interactiva, el sistema y el usuario trabajan "codo con codo" para generar la transcripción. El usuario valida la salida del sistema proporcionando ciertas correcciones, mediante texto manuscrito, que el sistema debe tener en cuenta para proporcionar una mejor transcripción. Este texto manuscrito debe ser reconocido para ser utilizado. En esta tesis se propone aprovechar información contextual, como por ejemplo, el prefijo validado por el usuario, para mejorar la calidad del reconocimiento de la interacción. Tras esto, la tesis se centra en el estudio del movimiento humano, en particular del movimiento de las manos, utilizando la Teoría Cinemática y su modelo Sigma-Lognormal. Entender como se mueven las manos al escribir, y en particular, entender el origen de la variabilidad de la escritura, es importante para el desarrollo de un sistema de reconocimiento, La contribución de esta tesis a este tópico es importante, dado que se presenta una nueva técnica (que mejora los resultados previos) para extraer el modelo Sigma-Lognormal de trazos manuscritos. De forma muy relacionada con el trabajo anterior, se estudia el beneficio de utilizar datos sintéticos como entrenamiento. La forma más fácil de entrenar un reconocedor es proporcionar un conjunto de datos "infinito" que representen todas las posibles variaciones. En general, cuanto más datos de entrenamiento, menor será el error del reconocedor. No obstante, muchas veces no es posible proporcionar más datos, o hacerlo es muy caro. Por ello, se ha estudiado como crear y usar datos sintéticos que se parezcan a los reales. Las diferentes contribuciones de esta tesis han obtenido buenos resultados, produciendo varias publicaciones en conferencias internacionales y revistas. Finalmente, también se han explorado tres aplicaciones relaciones con el trabajo de esta tesis. En primer lugar, se ha creado Escritorie, un prototipo de mesa digital basada en el paradigma del pen computer para realizar transcripción interactiva de documentos manuscritos. En segundo lugar, se ha desarrollado "Gestures à Go Go", una aplicación web para generar datos sintéticos y empaquetarlos con un reconocedor de forma rápida y sencilla. Por último, se presenta un sistema interactivo real bajo el paradigma del pen computer. En este caso, se estudia como la revisión de traducciones automáticas se puede realizar de forma más ergonómica.[CA] Avui en dia, els ordinadors són presents a tot arreu i es comunament acceptat que la seva utilització proporciona beneficis. No obstant això, moltes vegades el seu potencial no s'aprofita totalment. En aquesta tesi s'adopta el paradigma del pen computer, on la idea fonamental és substituir tots els dispositius d'entrada per un llapis electrònic, o, directament, pels dits. Aquest paradigma postula que l'origen del rebuig als ordinadors prové de l'ús d'interfícies poc amigables per a l'humà, que han de ser substituïdes per alguna cosa més coneguda. Per tant, la interacció amb l'ordinador sota aquest paradigma es realitza per mitjà de text manuscrit i/o gestos. L'origen d'aquest paradigma data de fa més de 40 anys, però només recentment s'ha començat a implementar en dispositius mòbils. La lenta i tardana implantació probablement es degui al fet que és necessari incloure un reconeixedor que "tradueixi" els traços de l'usuari (text manuscrit o gestos) a alguna cosa comprensible per l'ordinador, i el resultat d'aquest reconeixement, actualment, és lluny de ser òptim. Per pensar de forma realista en la implantació del pen computer, cal millorar la precisió del reconeixement de text i gestos. L'objectiu d'aquesta tesi és l'estudi de diferents estratègies per millorar aquesta precisió. En primer lloc, aquesta tesi investiga com aprofitar informació derivada de la interacció per millorar el reconeixement, en concret, en la transcripció interactiva d'imatges amb text manuscrit. En la transcripció interactiva, el sistema i l'usuari treballen "braç a braç" per generar la transcripció. L'usuari valida la sortida del sistema donant certes correccions, que el sistema ha d'usar per millorar la transcripció. En aquesta tesi es proposa utilitzar correccions manuscrites, que el sistema ha de reconèixer primer. La qualitat del reconeixement d'aquesta interacció és millorada, tenint en compte informació contextual, com per exemple, el prefix validat per l'usuari. Després d'això, la tesi se centra en l'estudi del moviment humà en particular del moviment de les mans, des del punt de vista generatiu, utilitzant la Teoria Cinemàtica i el model Sigma-Lognormal. Entendre com es mouen les mans en escriure és important per al desenvolupament d'un sistema de reconeixement, en particular, per entendre l'origen de la variabilitat de l'escriptura. La contribució d'aquesta tesi a aquest tòpic és important, atès que es presenta una nova tècnica (que millora els resultats previs) per extreure el model Sigma- Lognormal de traços manuscrits. De forma molt relacionada amb el treball anterior, s'estudia el benefici d'utilitzar dades sintètiques per a l'entrenament. La forma més fàcil d'entrenar un reconeixedor és proporcionar un conjunt de dades "infinit" que representin totes les possibles variacions. En general, com més dades d'entrenament, menor serà l'error del reconeixedor. No obstant això, moltes vegades no és possible proporcionar més dades, o fer-ho és molt car. Per això, s'ha estudiat com crear i utilitzar dades sintètiques que s'assemblin a les reals. Les diferents contribucions d'aquesta tesi han obtingut bons resultats, produint diverses publicacions en conferències internacionals i revistes. Finalment, també s'han explorat tres aplicacions relacionades amb el treball d'aquesta tesi. En primer lloc, s'ha creat Escritorie, un prototip de taula digital basada en el paradigma del pen computer per realitzar transcripció interactiva de documents manuscrits. En segon lloc, s'ha desenvolupat "Gestures à Go Go", una aplicació web per a generar dades sintètiques i empaquetar-les amb un reconeixedor de forma ràpida i senzilla. Finalment, es presenta un altre sistema inter- actiu sota el paradigma del pen computer. En aquest cas, s'estudia com la revisió de traduccions automàtiques es pot realitzar de forma més ergonòmica.Martín-Albo Simón, D. (2016). Contributions to Pen & Touch Human-Computer Interaction [Tesis doctoral no publicada]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/68482TESI