stylus

Students, scientists and engineers have to choose between the flexible, free-form input of pencil and paper and the computational power of Computer Algebra Systems (CAS) when solving mathematical problems. Hands-On Math is a multi-touch and pen-based system which attempts to unify these approaches by providing virtual paper that is enhanced to recognize mathematical notations as a means of providing in situ access to CAS functionality. Pages can be created and organized on a large pannable desktop, and mathematical expressions can be computed, graphed and manipulated using a set of uni- and bi-manual interactions which facilitate rapid exploration by eliminating tedious and error prone transcription tasks. Analysis of a qualitative pilot evaluation indicates the potential of our approach and highlights usability issues with the novel techniques used.