MirrorPad: A Touchpad for Direct Pen Interaction on a Laptop

Abstract

There are needs for pen interaction on a laptop, and the market sees many pen-enabled laptop products. Many of them can be transformed into tablets when pen interaction is needed. In a real situation, however, users use multiple applications simultaneously, and such a convertible feature may not be useful. We introduce MirrorPad, a novel interface device contained in a laptop for direct pen interaction. It is both a normal touchpad and a viewport for pen interaction with a mirrored region on the screen. MirrorPad allows users to perform pen annotation work and keyboard work interspersed in the same workflow while the device remains in the laptop-like configuration.