MathDeck

 Every so often, I check out the latest in math news just to see what is happening around the world and I stumbled across something called MathDeck.  No, it is not a deck of cards students use to help learn formulas. Instead it is an easy to use search engine designed to create, edit, or look up formulas on the internet.

The idea behind this web based application is to make mathematical notation both interactive and easy to share.  It was created by an interdisciplinary team made up of both faculty and students at Rochester Institute of Technology.  MathDeck is free and available to the public.

MathDeck allows people to enter mathematical formulas using handwriting, an uploaded typeset image containing the formula, or text. The application uses image processing and machine learning to help the program identify the images and handwriting so people can enter complex mathematical formulas easily.

In order to write the program, they had to develop an understanding of how people input and searched for equations and create a way to distinguish the formula's nuances among multiple meanings and contexts.  The developers had to implement a way for the program to understand the nuances so the search was faster and more accurate.

Part of the area to work in allows the person to type in either the name of a formula or the formula itself and if you hit the search button, it sends you to the appropriate place on google. The work area allows you to handwrite the formula in using the curser and a finger on the tract pad.  

I typed in the Pythagorean theorem using the ^ symbol for power and then clicked on it so the formula ended up in the work area and the edit formula area.  Once can also click on the text box in the work area, and then click and drag it to the dialog box at the top of the page and it shows up in all three areas.

The authors included an auto finish function in the program to help make suggestions based on the symbols or key words much like your phone does as you type text messages.  If the person is searching for a formula that is considered an entity, there is a corresponding card in the area below the work area.

this list of entities came up when I typed in the Pythagorean theorem.  If you hit the expand button, it gives you a definition from wikipedia or wiktionary.  These are all preloaded.  If on the other hand, you want to make a card for one of these formulas, you use the my cards section.  

At the bottom it keeps a list of what you've looked for and has several different keyboards beginning with common formulas and goes on to the Greek Alphabet, Relational, Binary, Delimiters, and Accents.

Rochester Institute of Technology has said they plan to work on improving it to better recognize handwriting, find equations in Pdf's and make the searching better. So they are not finished.  Head off to it and give it an exploration.  Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.  Have a great day.