Annotation of Web content is becoming a widespread activity by which
users appropriate and enrich information available on the Net. MADCOW
(Multimedia Annotation of Digital Content Over the Web) is a system for
annotating HTML pages that provides a uniform interactive paradigm to make
annotations on text, images and video. MADCOW has also recently included
novel features for groups and group annotations with reference to ontological domains,
but interaction with the MADCOW client is currently limited to the use
of common input devices (e.g., keyboard, mouse), requiring a precise selection
of the portions to be annotated. In this paper we present a sketch-based interface,
which can be used to annotate not only content but also aspects relative
to the presentation of the information. While interacting with a standard Web
browser, users can draw free-hand geometrical shapes (e.g., circles, rectangles,
closed paths) for selecting specific parts of the Web pages to be annotated. The
interaction mode depends on the adopted input device. For example, users interacting
with touch-screen devices (e.g., smartphones, tablets) can draw shapes
with their fingers, but in principle any device able to detect sketching gestures
can be supported (e.g., graphic tablets, optical pens). The paper discusses interaction
aspects together with an overview of the system architecture. Finally,
preliminary experimental tests and some considerations on the usability are also
reported.
 

Conference Title

Inter-Academia 2015, 14th International Conference on Global Reasearch and Education

Conference Country

Palestine

Conference Date

Sept. 28, 2015 - Sept. 28, 2015

Conference Sponsor

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