Hello, my name is Richard Zanibbi. This is the CHI2021 Interactivity Demo for MathDeck created by researchers from RIT and University at Buffalo (USA).
The motivation for this work is making it easier to enter formulas.
For non-experts, LaTeX can be challenging because of the commands needed for symbols and structures.
But even for expert users, it would be easier to manipulate small subexpressions directly in formula images, rather than in LaTeX strings.
Editing complex formulas is tricky, so we want to use search to reduce entry effort.
Whether through autocompletion when entering formulas, or searching for formulas by name (e.g., 'Eisenstein Prime') and getting their LaTeX directly.
We have three main design goals, summarized in the slide shown.
We want a flexible combination of entry using LaTeX and formula images. For very simple formulas, typing LaTeX is easy (e.g., '2+2').
We also want to support building formulas from small pieces, and allow formula information to be discovered, annotated, and saved.
For editing, we have a panel on the right showing the formula LaTeX at all times, and the rendered formula appears on a canvas, and may be edited through insertion, replacement, and deletion operations.
Let's look at an example of inserting directly into a formula. Here we have an incomplete Pythagorean theorem, and we can insert the missing exponent by clicking on a control point and typing.
We can also replace subexpressions. Let's replace 'a+b=c' by 'x+y=z' using LaTeX, without changing exponents.
We can build formulas in pieces using formula 'chips' and tabs on the canvas.
Let's download a formula as a .jpg image, and then drag that file onto MathDeck to create a chip. No OCR is needed because LaTeX is saved in the .jpg file.
Canvas tabs let us edit multiple formulas at once, and combine them. Here we convert a tab to a chip, and then drag it onto the LaTeX panel to insert it.
The 'deck' at the bottom of the application has three views. The first contains the 'Wikicards' that contain names, chips, and descriptions.
The second view shows formulas that the user creates along with 'favorited' formulas.
The third view has a standard symbol palette, with chips holding common symbols and subexpressions.
Here is an example of searching Wikicards by formula. In the 'cards' view, we see cards for formulas with content similar to the formula on the canvas. We can hide or expand card descriptions as desired.
We can also search Wikicards by title, here interactively filtering as we type 'eisen.'
In conclusion, we've illustrated how MathDeck addresses our three design goals. Cards can be saved as well as chips, although we could not show this for time.
Abishai Dmello created the formula concept cards. We thank the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and NSF for their support. Thank you very much for your time.