iAnnotate: Digital Ink Annotation on the Web

1. iAnnotate: Digital Ink Annotation on the Web Nilanthi Seneviratne Meghavi Doshi

2. Concepts • Annotation • Digital Annotation • Ink vs. Text Annotation

3. Motivation • Need to save the content in a desktop application format to annotate and save the information • Sharing information found in a webpage • Share a link as well as a description • Need to switch between the description and the web page • Easy Information Sharing • Big Picture – a system where annotations are interpreted and indexed for easy searching

4. Project • Allow digital ink annotation on the web browser • Save and retrieve the annotation • Basic Reflow of the annotation • Convert this implementation into an Internet Explorer extension

5. Converting to an IE extension • Two methods: • Adds an ink canvas to the browser – not plausible because it would be two different projects instead of one. • Uses Nilanthi’s code – path taken

6. Converting to an IE extension • Attempts: • Inserting a Silverlight object into the extension

7. Converting to an IE extension • Attempts: • Inserting a Silverlight application into the extension • The application is readable only – so cannot assign a host or source • Inserting Nilanthi’s code into the extension • Ability to add correct references since this is not a “Silverlight project” in VS 2008 • Is there another way?

8. Digital Ink Annotation • Silverlight object added to the webpage • Transparent • Detects mouse/pen movement to display ink

9. Saving and Retrieving • Serialises the annotation as an XML string • Server saves this into a file • Retrieves the annotation by de-serialising the XML string • Displays it on the overlay

10. Basic Reflow of the Annotation • Groups the annotation as per the bounding box • Anchors the annotation to the closest HTML element • So while re-rending it, the annotation is placed where the HTML element appears

11. Evaluation • Planning to do a Usability Test on the project developed so far. • One pilot test • Three tests to identify major problems • Fix those problems • Four more tests for the final evaluation

12. Conclusion • Ink annotation is possible on web browsers • Basic framework is fairly consistent across several platforms • May or may not be possible to add a Silverlight object/application through an IE extension. • A great learning experience • How to tackle difficult problems • How to research relevant subjects • Learnt how to work in .Net enviornment, C#, IE extension and Silverlight

13. Questions?