PocketPad: Using Handhelds and Digital Pens to Manage Data in Mobile Contexts

PocketPad is an information management system geared toward university students. The system is designed to support the capture, storage, browsing, editing and organization of handwritten notes via the complementary use of digital pens to capture information, handheld computers to browse and store prior information, and digital pens and handheld computers in combination to edit and organize information. Desktop computer software synchronizes the information from the digital pen and Pocket PC during editing and reorganization. Through the combined use of different hardware components supported by our software, we describe a system that bridges the paper-electronic information divide in mobile contexts. The system relies on human-in-the-loop techniques coupled with stroke timing to simplify coordination of content from different sources, rather than resorting to complex and often error-prone computer document recognition algorithms.