IntelligentPad Overview
-What is IntelligentPad?-

Two answers: IntelligentPad is a new-era software architecture. IntelligentPad is an integrated media architecture that supports data composition by drag-and-drop operations.

1.IntelligentPad as a software architecture IntelligentPad allows any computer software resource to be expressed as a pad. As well as being able to display and edit graphics, movies and texts using pads, previously hidden facilities such as communication, search or calculation can be given visual form in the same way. Thus, rather than being conscious of any program/data distinction, users can handle all software resources simply as software components. By combining pads, much as one might assemble children's building blocks, you can express information display layout and the composition of functions to form a program. Furthermore, an object built up of many pads (a composite pad) can be re-used in whole or in part for assembling other composite pads. Pad assembly by drag-and-drop manipulation is an intuitive process that does not require programming experience and knowledge, and is easily picked up by young and old alike.

2. IntelligentPad as a media architecture Since IntelligentPad has the mechanisms prerequisite to object assembly and disassembly built in, it fulfils the basic requirements for acting as an information medium, such as duplication, composition, decomposition and transmission. Pads include the security functions needed to protect the value of their information, such as license enforcement, confidentiality and a charging mechanism. They also support facilities relevant to information management and search. Software resources of any kind, once realized as pads, can therefore be treated as a new type of media object that can be uniformly protected, managed and searched. In other words, we can say that IntelligentPad is a medium offering the means to store any software resource in pads, and providing uniform functions such as editing, charging, protection, and management. To be able to handle arbitrary forms of information in a unified manner is of great benefit to users. In the IntelligentPad system you can not only create multimedia documents by synthesizing design elements such as images, movies, sound and text, but by the same form of pad manipulation you can also assemble diverse kinds of software facility. This allows, for example, the assembly of interactive multimedia titles in a process that is both intuitive and efficient. In addition, for design resources that are currently at risk of uncontrolled copying over the Internet, wrapping them up as pads allows the resources to be made available with the protection of services such as user charging and license enforcement. We believe that IntelligentPad is the first media architecture to fulfill all the requirements for uniform handling of information.