Sunday, February 17, 2008

Have you heard of InkSeine?

Here is information about a new prototype for tablet pc's that has been made available for testing. InkSeine is being developed by a small team at Microsoft Research. The application is for demonstration purposes only, and not on track to become a real Microsoft product you can buy.

Here's what InkSeine can do:
• Serve as a virtual pad of paper. You can scribble and writes notes, draw pictures and doodle. Words can be recognized, and used as commands or search terms.
• Search. You can search the Web, your e-mail or your Tablet PC right from the "pad of paper" using pen gestures. For example, just write your search term longhand, circle it, flick your wrist in the right direction and the search is launched.
• Select and embed "clippings" -- images, document or Web page parts, etc.
• Drag and drop links into notes.
• Create insta-icons (with automatic, in-page links) by just snapping a picture of any portion of any screen, including the document or Web page you're linking to.

InkSeine has user interface innovations, such as "radial menus" and pen gestures that make it one of those applications you have to see to understand, so check out a video on it at http://youtube.com/watch?v=bWi6vtSK7N4. If you have a Tablet PC or other pen system running either XP or Vista (preferably Vista), you should download it at http://research.microsoft.com/InkSeine/install.html

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is a great app! I started using it on my tablet and the search features and creative user interface really showcase the tablet. A great way to sell tablets and be more productive. Thanks for the tip Arlin!

theritzman said...

I wonder if Microsoft is basing the technology on their OneNote product? I find OneNote very productive, given its integration to Outlook.