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generic approach to design such pen-based sys-
tems. It aims at interpreting the strokes eagerly,
that is, directly as the user composes his docu-
ments. The main component of this approach is
a formalism modelling how each symbol of the
document can be interpreted: its originality is
the coupling of a global vision of the analysed
document in order to model in which structural
context an element can be identified, with a lo-
cal vision of this element in order to interpret its
shape and that of its components. This formal-
ism can be adapted to a large panel of structured
documents. In order to emphasize its genericity,
we have presented how it can be applied to in-
terpret documents with various notations, such
as traditional musical scores, plainchant scores,
drum tablatures and finally stringed-instrument
tablatures.
Future trends will aim at exploiting such pen-
based systems at a larger scale, in order to offer an
access to this technology to a larger public. People
from various domains can potentially be interested
in pen interaction. First, thanks to its aspect of
play, pen-based software for pedagogue purposes
will facilitate the initiation and learning of music
and its notations. Pedagogy concerns the learning
of music theory, the intuitive and instantaneous
composition (e.g., harmonisation exercises), ear
formation exercises (e.g., musical dictations), and
so forth. Examples of potentially interested targets
are music schools, conservatoires, and universities.
Secondly, pen-based music software is of great
interest for composers and arrangers, whether
they are amateurs or professionals. Such systems
can be very useful in the process of composition
itself (archiving of the drafts and of new ideas)
as well as for the deposit of scores to author-
composer society.
As far as the prototypes we have developed
are concerned, many improvements can be
achieved in order to make them more usable
systems. Of course, we will have to add new
symbols in the classical music notation system,
for instance articulations (staccato, bow strokes,
etc.), expressions, all the clefs, ties, and so forth.
A composition on at least the two staves of the
piano is often used: it will thus be conceivable.
Thanks to the formalism associated to our method,
such improvements will be straightforward.
It will be essential to be able to hear the mu-
sic and so for instance to propose an output
in the MIDI format. The play of the music
can be done, on the one hand, incrementally,
that is, each time a new hand-drawn note is
recognized, or, on the other hand, once the
document is finished, that is, with the rhythm.
A main step would be to couple pen-based systems
with more traditional, keyboard and mouse-based
musical editing software. Then, the user could
exploit the advantages of both: on the one hand,
he could draw musical notations from very differ-
ent domains in a very intuitive and user-friendly
way, as he usually does on paper, and, on the other
hand, he could benefit of all the functionalities of
classical software, such as the verification of the
coherency of the notations, the formatting of the
documents (e.g., the alignment of its elements),
and so forth. Of course, pen-based systems could
propose to save the documents in very widespread
formats, such as MusicXML, in order to use them
afterwards in any software able to deal with a file
in such a format.
Finally, we will also have to define well-for-
malized test protocols in order to evaluate the
usability and the user-friendliness of such pen-
based prototypes.
acknoWledgment
The authors would like to thank Guy Lorette,
Professor at the University of Rennes 1, from the
IMADOC (IMAges and DOCuments) team of the
IRISA (Institut de Recherche en Informatique et
Systèmes Aléatoires) for his contribution to this
work and his precious advices.
This project partially benefits from the finan-
cial support of the Brittany Region.
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