Reading #30: Tahuti: A Geometrical Sketch Recognition System for UML Class Diagrams (Hammond)

Comments

Jonathan

Summary

Sketch recognition is important because of it empowers the user with computer edition tools yet having a natural interface as in pen and paper. A clear application of this neat combination is Tauthi. In this work Hammond and Davis present a tool for drawing and editing UML diagrams using a pen input device. The work compares this implementation for drawing UML diagrams with a popular UML design application (Rational Rose) and with a popular drawing application (paint). The program offers two main modes, one where the strokes are beautified after recognition and one where the strokes are preserved as drawn by the user. The results show that users prefer the use of interpreted tauthi over paint and rational rose.
The software relies on several recognition techniques that are explained in the paper, such as corner finding, filtering, text detection (not recognition yet but planned as future work), grouping and others. The interface uses strokes both for drawing and for editing commands such as delete and move. Depending on the viewmode the strokes are edited accordingly to maintain consistency of the diagram.

Discussion

For us computer scientists that have to deal with UML diagrams, this is a magnificent application. I associated sketch recognition with diagram drawing since it is a domain were drawing with a marker in a blackboard feels much more natural. I usually draw UML first in a piece of paper or blackboard and then “beautify it” by doing it in Rose, Poseidon or any other UML tool. With this application however it may not longer be the case since hand drawings can be easily transformed into nice UML diagrams. However to make this a reality we still have path to cover not only in the UI and the recognizers but also in the available hardware, digital blackboards and notebooks are available now, but still are usually not affordable or present imprecise recognition. But I think this is a big step in the right direction.