ProjectProposal-JonathanYen

From CS160 User Interfaces Fa06

Note Compilation

Target User Group

College students and some working professionals who often need to take notes on a regular basis, but have little time to go back and hunt for misplaced information

Problem Description

Throughout daily life, we often find ourselves writing things down, but forgetting where we have written it or even that it was written down at some point. In general, college students have difficulty keeping things organized and have little time to search through notebooks and find some miniscule piece of information that evades them. Rather than scouring through pages to find a specific note, a student should be able to search through his or her notes just as easily as using grep. What this would require would be to catalog the user's notes into a database and tagging it with as much relevant information as possible, including when it was written and which page it was written on, as well as information about the content of the note.

Problem Context and Forces

Ideally, a student should have a tablet PC that makes it easier to keep all of their data digitally. However, tablet PCs are expensive for some students and still not perfect. Additionally, carrying around a laptop is considerably more weight than a paper notebook. Some students may also have classes that last throughout the entire duration of the day, and a laptop would not be able to last through every class due to short battery life. Most students use some sort of paper notebook and pen to keep track of their notes, and not all students are necessarily fast typers, so writing is important for many students. Sometimes students may need to collaborate with each other, and sharing notes over long distance does not work well, and so digital solutions are more preferable.

Solution Sketch

A student uses an Anoto pen and paper pad to take his or her notes. After synchronizing with the computer, the information is then processed for relevant keywords pertaining to the note and it is categorized and placed into a database for future retrieval. The user can draw in a set of gestures (user-defined or pre-defined) that denotes what type of information it is (lecture notes, a person's phone number, a date for a meeting, etc.), and this information would be used to help categorize the note. To retrieve the information, the user types in some keywords, which are then compared against the database for the best matches. Notes about meetings, for example, may be used in conjunction with more common calendars, like Google Calendar, and checked for any possible conflicts. Phone numbers and emails could be used with the user's favorite address book program.

Possibly related URLs: http://news.com.com/2061-10801_3-6003140.html http://syllabus.com/article.asp?id=8250