Inkstravaganza
Ink & Switch unveils "Inkstravaganza," a peek into their "Programmable Ink" research, featuring PlayBook—a malleable digital notebook designed to mimic paper with dynamic, composable behaviors. This story resonates with HN's fascination for innovative human-computer interfaces, presenting concepts like visual programming substrates and tangible computing with a touch of whimsy. It's an intriguing look at how future digital tools might merge physical intuition with computational power.
The Lowdown
Ink & Switch's "Inkstravaganza" newsletter showcases the latest advancements in their "Programmable Ink" research, centered around a holistic, malleable digital notebook called PlayBook. This project aims to replicate the intuitive feel of paper and pencil while embedding dynamic, composable computational behaviors. The team has been actively using PlayBook for over two years for diverse tasks like note-taking, brainstorming, and puzzle-solving, signifying its versatility and practicality in a research setting.
- Portemine: An exploration into propagator networks by Marcel Goethals, envisioned as a foundational computational substrate for PlayBook. These networks, useful for SAT and constraint solving, allow for visual/spatial representation and real-time execution visualization, potentially serving as an "assembly language" for higher-level visual programming systems.
- Gestures: PlayBook's innovative user input system prioritizes a paper-like experience, avoiding on-screen GUI elements. It leverages unique pen gestures, such as a "firm press" for tool switching, with its technical design detailed by Ivy Reese. This approach allows users to comfortably interact with the screen as they would with a physical clipboard.
- DrawDeck: A cryptic yet imaginative component involving "rune stones" and "scraps of paper" that collaboratively unfold computational processes in space and time. Described with evocative language, it hints at a tangible, perhaps even mystical, interaction model where objects communicate and influence digital outcomes.
- Dither Explorer: A tangential creation by Ivy Reese, this sandbox allows users to interactively experiment with error diffusion dither kernels in a board-game-like fashion, born from implementing image dithering for the Automerge website. This research embodies a vision where digital tools enhance, rather than replace, the tactile and intuitive aspects of physical interaction, pushing the boundaries of human-computer interface design and programmable matter.