Paper Reading # 3: Pen + Touch = New Tools

Reference Information: Pen + Touch = New Tools by Ken Hinckley, Koji Yatani, Michel Pahud, Nicole Coddington, Jenny Rodenhouse, Andy Wilson, Hrvoje Benko, and Bill Buxton.
UIST 2010 New York, New York. 

Author Bios: Ken Hinckley is a Principal Researcher at Microsoft Research who received his PhD from the University of Virginia.

Koji Yatani is working on his PhD at the University of Toronto.

Michel Pahud earned his PhD from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. He is under the employ of Microsoft Research.

Nicole Coddington received her Bachelor's degree in Visual Communication from the University of Florida and currently works for HTC as a senior interaction designer.

Jenny Roddenhouse earned a Bachelor's degree in Industrial Design from Syracuse University. She is now a Microsoft experience designer.

Andy Wilson received his Bachelor's from Cornell University and went on to earn both his Master's and PhD from the MIT Media Lab. He is a senior researcher for Microsoft.

Hrvoje Benko earned his PhD from Columbia University and is a researcher at Microsoft Research.

Bill Buxton holds a Bachelor's degree in Music from Queen's University. He is a Principal Researcher at Microsoft Research.

Summary

• Hypothesis: It was proposed that unimodal pen, unimodal touch, and the new features resulting from the combination of pen and touch would enhance user experience by incorporating natural tendencies. 
• Methods: Initially, a design study was conducted that evaluated how the eight participants worked with a pen and paper notebook. After the design study, another study involving eleven participants was conducted to test the techniques derived from the results of the design study.
• Results: From the design study, the researchers observed that the participants generally had clearly defined roles for pen and touch. The following testing showed that the testers adapted quickly to unimodal pen/touch. Although they had to be told some of the functions of combining pen and touch, it was not difficult for them to learn those functions.
• Contents: The designs of a prototype Microsoft Surface application, Manual Deskterity, is described in this paper. A study with pen and paper provided insight into behaviors involving the use of touch and pen. Afterward, testing of the demo application was conducted. It was stressed that the pen would be for writing, touch would be for manipulation, and the combination of the two would yield new possibilities. These included stapling, cutting (as with an X-acto  knife), creating carbon copies, and brushing (where the user can make a brushing tool out of whatever is on the page).

Discussion
So, of course I found this to be very similar to the previous reading. The difference in focus is clear, though. This paper was more conceptual since it did not seem to produce anything definite, which was stated a couple times by the authors. Although I don't think their hypothesis was truly justified, the results of the studies did not refute it. Overall, people are used to having pens solely for writing and using touch for manipulation. Thus, it comes as no surprise that applying that concept to Manual Deskterity would only be logical and naturally accepted. I see this as an improvement to current tablet software, but outside the artistic community, I am not sure how much use such a product would garner.