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+\documentclass[a4paper]{scrartcl}
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+\usepackage{amssymb, amsmath} % needed for math
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+\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc} % this is needed for umlauts
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+\usepackage[english]{babel} % this is needed for umlauts
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+\usepackage[T1]{fontenc} % this is needed for correct output of umlauts in pdf
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+\usepackage[margin=2.5cm]{geometry} %layout
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+\usepackage{hyperref} % links im text
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+\usepackage{color}
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+\usepackage{framed}
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+\usepackage{enumerate} % for advanced numbering of lists
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+\usepackage{csquotes}
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+\usepackage{ifxetex,ifluatex}
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+\usepackage{etoolbox}
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+\usepackage[svgnames]{xcolor}
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+\usepackage{tikz}
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+\usepackage{framed}
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+\usepackage{parskip}
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+\usepackage{cite}
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+\usepackage{fancyref}
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+\usepackage{mystyle}
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+\clubpenalty = 10000 % Schusterjungen verhindern
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+\widowpenalty = 10000 % Hurenkinder verhindern
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+
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+\hypersetup{
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+ pdfauthor = {Martin Thoma},
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+ pdfkeywords = {Bachelor proposal, LaTeX, handwriting recognition},
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+ pdftitle = {Proposal for a Bachelor of Science Thesis:\\Interactive on-line handwriting recognition of mathematical formulae}
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+}
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+
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+%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
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+
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+\begin{document}
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+ \title{Proposal for a Bachelor of Science Thesis:\\Interactive on-line handwriting recognition of mathematical formulae}
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+ \author{Martin Thoma}
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+ \maketitle
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+\section{The problem backgound}
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+ There are people who don't know how to write even
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+ simple mathematical formulae with \LaTeX{} like
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+ \[\pi/\alpha=\sum_{n=-\infty}^\infty \frac{\sin^2 (c+n)\alpha}{(c+n)^2}=\int_{-\infty}^\infty \frac{\sin^2 (c+n)\alpha}{(c+n)^2}\, \text{d}n\]
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+ or who need much time to do so. Currently, there are several online
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+ services, programms and apps that help to write mathematical
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+ formulae, but all programms I know have serious disadvantages:
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+ \begin{itemize}
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+ \item \href{http://detexify.kirelabs.org/classify.html}{detexify.kirelabs.org}
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+ recognizes \textbf{only symbols},
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+ \item the formel editor of LibreOffice Writer 3.6 as showen
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+ in \Fref{fig:libre-office-3.6} offers some
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+ guidiance by grouping common operations while showing
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+ a WYSIWYG editor, but it has \textbf{no handwriting recognition}.
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+ Another drawback is the fact that it is \textbf{not available
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+ as an online service}, so you have to install LibreOffice
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+ which might not be possible on all devices.
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+ \item The \enquote{Daum Equation Editor} (see \Fref{fig:daum-editor}) is available online
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+ and offers guidiance through the creation of equations,
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+ but does not offer handwriting recognition. Although
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+ it might be OpenSource, the \textbf{source code is difficult to
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+ find}. This means if you want to improve the recognition,
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+ it is not possible. It also makes use of Adobe Flash
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+ which is not available on many smartphones and tablet
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+ computers.
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+ \item Maple seems to offer handwritten symbol recognition (\href{http://www.maplesoft.com/products/maple/features/handwritten.aspx}{source}),
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+ but on the one hand I was not able to test that, because
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+ it is \textbf{not available for free}. On the other hand you
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+ have to install additional software, it seems not to be
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+ available for tablet computers and it does only recognize
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+ single symbols.
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+ \item Wolfram Mathematica seems to be able to do complete
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+ formula recognition at least for simple formulae (\href{http://reference.wolfram.com/mathematica/tutorial/HandwrittenMathRecognition.html}{source})
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+ by using Microsofts \href{http://windows.microsoft.com/en-ph/windows7/use-math-input-panel-to-write-and-correct-math-equations}{Math Input Panel},
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+ but this is neither OpenSource nor available as an
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+ online service. Additionally it is not
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+ available for Linux systems, so I can't test it.
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+ \end{itemize}
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+
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+ A more comprehensive list can be found at \href{https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formula_editor}{https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formula\_editor}.
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+ A problem of some of the projects presented there is that they
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+ require the client to execute Java Applets which is a security
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+ risk.
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+
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+ \begin{figure}[h]
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+ \centering
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+ \includegraphics*[width=5cm, keepaspectratio]{figures/libreoffice-writer.png}
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+ \caption{LibreOffice Writer 3.6 - Formel Editor}
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+ \label{fig:libre-office-3.6}
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+ \end{figure}
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+
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+ \begin{figure}[h]
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+ \centering
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+ \includegraphics*[width=15cm, keepaspectratio]{figures/daum-editor.png}
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+ \caption{Daum Equation editor}
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+ \label{fig:daum-editor}
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+ \end{figure}
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+\break
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+\section{The problem statement}
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+ What I would like to have is an interactive on-line handwriting
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+ recognition service, that is available as a web service which makes
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+ use of touchscreens. Additionally, it should be for free and
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+ OpenSource, the source code should be easy to find and documented.
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+ This means:
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+ \begin{itemize}
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+ \item \textbf{Service}: The program can be accessed over the web, so
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+ that the user does only have to have a modern browser.
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+ As a consequence, the software could be used with any
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+ device that has a touch screen.
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+ \item \textbf{On-line handwriting recognition}: The service
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+ starts recognizing while the user enters a formula.
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+ \item \textbf{Interactive}: The service offers symbols and constructs
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+ to the user before the user starts typing. These suggestions
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+ might chage depending on what the user has typed before.
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+ \item \textbf{OpenSource}: Any license in this list: \href{http://opensource.org/licenses}{http://opensource.org/licenses}
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+ \item \textbf{Easy to find}: Ideally, the project should have
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+ an own domain that contains the source code, the service
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+ and documentation. But it might be enough to provide
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+ an email address to a developer within the top of
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+ of the source code of the delivered HTML document.
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+ \end{itemize}
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+
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+\section{Significance}
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+For me as a Linux user, there no software that I can test and which
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+offers on-line, interactive math handwriting recognition. But the
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+need of such a software is there.
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+
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+But there are more reasons why this bachelor's thesis matters:
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+Projects like \LaTeX{}, Linux, Apache or FireFox have shown that
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+OpenSoure software can enrich the develpment in specific areas. The
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+\enquote{Browser Wars} might be the most famous result of an active
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+OpenSource community. Internet Explorer 6 had
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+a market share of over 80\% in 2003. Prequels of Firefox and the Mozilla
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+foundation already existed, but Firefox 1.0 was released not until
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+November 2004. After that, Firefox and other open browsers added many
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+features that Internet Explorer had to compete with, like tabbed browsing,
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+HTML4 standard conformance, support of the \texttt{<canvas>} tag and
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+speed of HTML rendering and JavaScript execution.\footnote{\href{http://www.evolutionoftheweb.com/}{www.evolutionoftheweb.com} offers a graphical overview. Although supporting standards like HTML4 or CSS~2 is not done with one version, but rather an incremental process.} Some of these
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+questions are interesting for science such as many problems related
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+to layouts and just-in-time compilation (JIT). With OpenSource software
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+that makes it easy to find its source and offers good documentation,
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+researchers can simply try their ideas without being blocked by
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+having to try to access the source code.
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+
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+Additionally, such a project might give researchers more time to
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+concentrate on the tasks they really want to do rather than spending
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+hours by learning \LaTeX{}.
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+
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+\section{Time schedule}
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+\begin{itemize}
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+ \item[70h] Literature research about on-line handwriting recognition
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+ techniques and gamification.
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+ \item[5h] Defining browsers and devices that should get supported
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+ and required client side software like HTML5, CSS 3
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+ and ECMAScript (better known as JavaScript). Also,
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+ required input methods like touchscreens and stylus
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+ should be mentioned.
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+ \item[20h] Writing use cases. This is includes writing example
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+ formula that the user shoud type and the system should
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+ be able to recognize; finding people with different
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+ knowledge of \LaTeX{} and from different fields who
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+ want to participate in user tests.
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+ \item[60h] Implementing the core of the application: Handwriting
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+ recognition of digits and symbols by using only
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+ HTML, CSS and on the client side. This includes implementing
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+ a way for the user to enter new symbols and to correct the
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+ symbol that was suggested by the recognition system.
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+ \item[20h] Introduce testers that already know \LaTeX{} to the
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+ current system. At this point, the system does only do
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+ symbol recognition. The testers should train it,
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+ insert symbols like $a-z, A-Z, 0-9, \alpha-\omega, A-\Omega, \cdot, \circ, \dots$
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+ \item[10h] Get feedback by the users. This feedback will not be included
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+ in the thesis, but the improvements will get documented.
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+ \item[60h] Finding structures and ways how to enter them. Examples
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+ of structures that can be nested are sums:
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+ \begin{verbatim}\sum_{<some structure>}^{<another strcuture>} <a third structure>\end{verbatim}
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+ Implement the recognition of those strucutres.
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+ \item[30h] Observe \enquote{fresh} testers while they try to use
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+ the system.
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+ \item[70h] Improving the software to fix problems that were found
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+ with user tests
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+ \item[50h] Fix bugs, improve code quality and readability as well
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+ as documentation.
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+ \item[45h] Usability testing: Try Hallway testing. The results
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+ of these tests get documented and will be part of the
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+ bachelor's thesis. If possible, I would like
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+ to let the testers use their own devices.
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+ \item[10h] Mentioning open questions and ideas how they could be
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+ analyzed with the service that was created.
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+\end{itemize}
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+
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+\section{Outline}
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+I have described in which steps I would like to write the software,
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+but almost all points include writing the bachelor's thesis document.
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+A first draft of the outline could be like this:
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+
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+\begin{enumerate}
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+ \item Introduction
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+ \item Definitions
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+ \begin{enumerate}
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+ \item Hardware: What is available and what is the distribution?
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+ \item Software: What is available and what is the distribution?
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+ \item Support of standards like HTML, CSS, ECMA-Script, Flash, Cookies, ...
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+ \item Choice of hardware, software and standards that should get supported as well as the choice of Libraries and the required server-side software
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+ \item Application to the domain of math recognition
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+ \end{enumerate}
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+ \item On-line handwriting techniques
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+ \begin{enumerate}
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+ \item Description of techniques in general
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+ \item Application to the domain of math recognition
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+ \end{enumerate}
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+ \item Gamification techniques
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+ \begin{enumerate}
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+ \item Description of techniques in general
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+ \item Application to the domain of math recognition in the web
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+ \end{enumerate}
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+ \item Software Project
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+ \begin{enumerate}
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+ \item Structure of the code
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+ \item Availability of documentation
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+ \item Availability of the service
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+ \end{enumerate}
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+ \item Summary
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+ \begin{enumerate}
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+ \item Future Work
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+ \end{enumerate}
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+\end{enumerate}
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+\break
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+
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+\renewcommand\refname{Related Literature}
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+\nocite{*}
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+\bibliographystyle{itmalpha}
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+\bibliography{literatur}
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+
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+This literature list is only a list that seems to make sense to me
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+by now. As I proceed I might find more usefull sources for the different
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+topics. So I might add, but also remove elements from this list.
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+Especially for gamification I might read documents from
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+\href{http://gamification-research.org/}{gamification-research.org}.
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+\end{document}
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Martin Thoma
