InkSeine is Microsoft Research’s concept car for pen-based user interfaces. You can Download InkSeine here.

We’re excited that OfficeLabs has chosen to include InkSeine among the projects highlighted on the site. The ability to have a pen-and-paper experience with a digital device gets a lot of people excited about the Tablet PC. But it’s no secret that a pen is not well suited to graphical interface mainstays, such as pull-down menus, scroll bars, and double-tapping.

What if, we asked ourselves, we could dump the whole legacy of the mouse & keyboard interface and start over with something that’s designed from the ground up to be used with a pen?

Well, it’s no longer an academic question. We did it. InkSeine is our best first shot at an answer. Check out the InkSeine Video to see some of the cool capabilities that it offers.

<iframe src="http://www.microsoft.com/video/en/us/player/embed/a0e0e78c-7860-4cb3-8009-3ea8f1215dbf" allowtransparency="true" width="430" height="326" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe><br/><table width="430"><tr><td align="left"><a href="http://www.microsoft.com/video/en/us/details/a0e0e78c-7860-4cb3-8009-3ea8f1215dbf?vp_evt=eref&vp_video=Discover+InkSeine+from+Microsoft+Research">Discover InkSeine from Microsoft Research</a></td><td align="right"><a href="mms://msvcatalog-5.wmod.llnwd.net/a2249/e1/ft/share1/c045/0/How-to-get-the-most-out-of-InkSeine.wmv">Watch as WMV</a></td></tr></table>

You can try it out if you own a Tablet PC, or an Ultra-Mobile PC (UMPC). You can even pick up a stand-alone tablet, such as the Wacom Bamboo, to use InkSeine on your desktop Vista computer.

The tabletscape has been buzzing with excitement about InkSeine as an application that showcases tablet computing. People mention many of the same things that they love about InkSeine over and over again:

·         Stroke-based Radial Menus. They’re fast, habit-forming, and just feel right with a pen.

·         Great Search Features. Fish for information from your local hard disk, or the web, straight from ink. It makes it fast and easy to get at all your stuff without leaving the comfortable pen-and-ink experience.

·         The Tool Ring. This is a semi-transparent round palette that always floats on top of your windows. You can touch down on it and circle to scroll through applications, or tap on the camera to take a snapshot from the screen and import it to your notes.

·         A Clean User Interface. InkSeine preserves almost the whole screen for inking. Rather than trying to do everything, InkSeine does a few things really well. It keeps menus and tool buttons to a bare minimum.

For truth in advertising, InkSeine does have its limitations. For example, there’s no scrolling in InkSeine- notebook pages always fit in one screen. If you want to add more information to a page that is full, you just create a new page - like a real paper notebook. Although, with InkSeine, you can lasso-select your handwriting and shrink it down to make more space on the page– try that with your Moleskine notebooks! Send us your feedback about this or any other aspect of InkSeine and let your voice be heard. We’re planning updates and improvements for the next version…

Join the growing community of avant-garde inkers who find that “it is such a joy to use an application where the box was built around the pen rather than making the pen fit the box” (with video review). Take a look at the unique features offered by InkSeine. The online comic-book tutorial shows you how to get started.

See the Twelve days of InkSeine to get some cool ideas for how you can use it.

For more inspiration see how creative inkers in the InkSeine community bring their ideas to life:

See the review of InkSeine done in InkSeine:

Or give your tablet inking a personal feel by trying out the sample custom page downloads for InkSeine:

Install InkSeine today. Then let it change how you use your tablet, one ink stroke at a time.

Thanks,

The InkSeine Team

PS: Please feel free to email us any and all of your thoughts about pen and ink – share your thoughts, ideas, or feedback about InkSeine and what you would like to see in the tablet computer user experience.