Kinematic Templates: Guiding Cursor Movement in End-User Drawing Tools

Abstract

This thesis presents kinematic templates, end-user drawing tools that influence the mouse cursor's movement within specific areas of a digital canvas. Two types of kinematic templates influence the cursor's movement: passive and active templates. Passive templates modify existing movement received from a pointing device to change the cursor's speed or direction of one's stroke. Active templates add movement to the cursor without movement from the pointing device. Since templates are provided as user-specified regions, these regions can be associated with areas of detail and they can be overlapped as a means of function composition. [¶]

A kinematic template can be configured to improve upon one's freehand output without producing perfect output. Since templates do not necessarily prescribe geometric output, they constitute a visual composition aid that lies between unaided freehand drawing and drawing aids such as snapping constraints and perfect geometric primitives. [¶]

Since kinematic templates can improve upon the consistency of one's strokes, it is beneficial for drawing visual styles such as hatching (an artistic effect that adds depth to a drawing with uniform strokes drawn in close proximity) and repetitive patterns. Since kinematic templates do not prescribe a type of output, one can "fight against" a template's preferred path of movement and discover unexpected, serendipitous outcomes.