iNkDraw: physical ink-based interface for capturing and manipulating drawings on digital display

This paper introduces a new drawing interface named iNkDraw for capturing ink marks on a digital display drawn using physical ink such as dry erase markers. By using ink-based FTIR, the interface directly detects the ink location on the drawing surface, thus any ink-oriented interactions are intrinsically supported -- e.g. controlling the thickness and faintness of lines by varying pen/brush movement, erasing the drawings by wiping the ink off with a cloth or even with a finger. Furthermore, iNkDraw can distinguish between drawing and touch, which allows users to digitally manipulate the captured drawings using pointers and menus. Several applications using the interface have been implemented. Limitations on using physical ink as an interfacing medium are also discussed.