This site confuses me - is this a concrete software product being built (or at least there are prototypes in production), or are these just a giant theory-crafting exercise?
I was confused too. There's no mention of current implementations. It's like half an encyclopedia article missing the good half. For example, TLDraw has it's own inking algorithm of pressure+velocity+path -> generated outlines comprised of bezier curves. InkCanvas in Microsoft implementations afaik is closed-source. Is there a standard library for ink for the pencil in macos? Or does everyone roll-their-own on the mac side?
Ink and switch is a research lab. As far as I'm aware, they're not a building any specific products, just exploring what is possible for human computer interactions
But are they building prototypes to validate their ideas in practice?
Yes, they also have some software you can use today, not just prototypes.
I had the same thought… that’s a lot of text and very few illustrations for an article about graphics.