Tech Shout!

iCampus is a research collaboration between Microsoft Research and MIT. iCampus has introduced Natural Interaction (Magic Paper), which is a brilliant technology that lets computer tools capture and understand ideas that are captured in pencil on paper. Still don’t understand this brilliant invention? Read on.

Natural Interaction enables a new form of interaction with software, making it possible to describe things by sketching, gesturing, and talking about them in a way that seems so natural, yet it is the computer’s job to understand the messy freehand sketches.

Once the sketch is understood, the information it contains can be handed off to other applications for simulation, design checking, design completion, or even refinement. Microsoft has included this technology for its Tablet PC, and describes it as a motion simulator for the Tablet PC that demonstrates physics by using objects that are drawn by the user.

Features of Natural Interaction are as follows:

Has been implemented in a variety of domains, including simple 2-D mechanical devices and UML software diagrams

Deals with the noise inherent in hand-drawn sketches

Uses a variety of knowledge sources to resolve ambiguity

Provides modeless interaction for both sketching and editing

Allows ideas to be evaluated early in the design cycle