Nilanthi Seneviratne

Meghavi Doshi

iAnnotate: Digital Ink Annotation on the Web

ConceptsAnnotationDigital Annotation

Ink vs. Text Annotation

MotivationNeed to save the content in a desktop

application format to annotate and save the information

Sharing information found in a webpageShare a link as well as a descriptionNeed to switch between the description and

the web pageEasy Information SharingBig Picture – a system where annotations

are interpreted and indexed for easy searching

ProjectAllow digital ink annotation on the web

browserSave and retrieve the annotationBasic Reflow of the annotationConvert this implementation into an

Internet Explorer extension

Converting to an IE extensionTwo methods:

1. Adds an ink canvas to the browser – not plausible because it would be two different projects instead of one.

2. Uses Nilanthi’s code – path taken

Converting to an IE extensionAttempts:

Inserting a Silverlight object into the extension

Converting to an IE extensionAttempts:

Inserting a Silverlight application into the extensionThe application is readable only – so cannot assign a

host or sourceInserting 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?

Digital Ink AnnotationSilverlight object added to the webpage

TransparentDetects mouse/pen movement to display ink

Saving and RetrievingSerialises the annotation as an XML stringServer saves this into a file

Retrieves the annotation by de-serialising the XML string

Displays it on the overlay

Basic Reflow of the AnnotationGroups 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

EvaluationPlanning to do a Usability Test on the

project developed so far.One pilot testThree tests to identify major problemsFix those problemsFour more tests for the final evaluation

ConclusionInk annotation is possible on web browsersBasic framework is fairly consistent across

several platformsMay or may not be possible to add a

Silverlight object/application through an IE extension.

A great learning experienceHow to tackle difficult problemsHow to research relevant subjects

Learnt how to work in .Net enviornment, C#, IE extension and Silverlight

Questions?