The digital pen as a human computer interface

The paper begins with an explanation ofpen Comprrting jroni the User Interface perspective. The major Hardware coniponent of a Pen Conipriter (its Digitizing tablet) and its major Sofhvare component (its Handwriting recognition engine) ore both analyzed in terms ofhow a mer perceives, interacts with and makes use of them. The performance ofthese hvo major components is also discussed in terms of what their contribrrtion is towards providing the use? with a virrnal pen & paper e,vperience. they wav in which they do this. as well as how ivell they do it. The results of on e.rperinient condiicted in 1995 to investigate the relationship behveeii H WXperforniance and user satisfaction are analyzed and,formd to suggest that the pen interface is wore suited to pointing and dragging task than to t a t entnj. and thus user satisfaction is application dependent. A physical and device-level' cognitive mode/ for pen-based systems is developed by adapting the Keystroke-level niodel (by Card. Neivell and Moran). where if is proposed that the pen is a better input device than the mouse in terms of speed. Finally, the results of an e,rpcrinient conducted in I991 to compare the pei:forniance of' input devices in pointing and dragging tasks are analyzed and ,found to snpport the proposal ... index Terms PEN, STYLUS, HCI, COGNITIVE.