Character recognition method, apparatus and device

• US 10,146,429 B2
• Filed: 09/13/2016
• Issued: 12/04/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 06/10/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Dixon, Ryan S.
• Primary Examiner(s): POLO, GUSTAVO D
• Application Number:
  US15/264,040
• Publication Number:
  US 20170357429A1
• Time in Patent Office: 812 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04883 for inputting data by handwriting, e.g. gesture or text
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 11/206 Drawing of charts or graphs
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/1423 the instrument generating sequences of position coordinates corresponding to handwriting preprocessing or recognising digital ink G06V30/32
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/2268 using stroke segmentation

Abstract

Some embodiments of the invention provide a novel method for recognizing characters that are input through touch strokes on a touch-sensitive sensor (e.g., a touch-sensitive display screen or a touch-sensitive surface) of a device (e.g., a mobile device, a remote control, a trackpad, etc.). In some embodiments, the sensor has a space-constrained area for receiving the touch input. In some embodiments, the method places no limitations on where the user can write in the space provided by the device. As such, successive characters might not follow each other in the space. In fact, later characters might overlap earlier characters or they might appear before earlier characters.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

providing multiple touch-sensitive affordances on a touch-sensitive space of a device, the touch-sensitive affordances comprising a constrained writing region;

detecting a touch input outside of the constrained writing region that subsequently enters the constrained writing region; and

generating an input character based on a character recognition of the touch input from both outside and inside of the constrained writing region.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein generating the input character comprises:

determining that the touch input follows within a threshold amount of time a previous touch input that was used to generate another input character; and

based on said determination, providing the detected touch input from both outside and inside of the constrained writing region to a character recognizing engine to translate the touch input from both outside and inside of the constrained writing region to the input character.

3. The method of claim 2 further comprising:

based on said determination, foregoing providing the touch input to a handler for one of the multiple touch-sensitive affordances that is outside of the constrained writing region.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein generating the input character comprises:

providing the detected touch input to a handler for one of the multiple touch-sensitive affordances that is outside of the constrained writing region;

from the handler, receiving a rejection of the touch input; and

responsive to receiving the rejection, providing the touch input from both outside and inside of the constrained writing region to a character recognizing engine to translate the touch input from both outside and inside of the constrained writing region to the input character.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein generating the input character comprises:

generating a graph having a plurality of nodes and a plurality of edges between the nodes, each node corresponding to at least one touch-input stroke'"'"'s touch-down event or one touch-input stroke'"'"'s touch-up, each edge between a pair of nodes representing one or more characters;

for each respective edge in the graph, defining a set of candidate characters represented by the respective edge; and

identifying a plurality of characters written in the touch-sensitive space by selecting a path through the edges of the graph.

6. The method of claim 5 further comprising:

for each respective edge in the graph, associating a score for each candidate character; and

wherein identifying the plurality of characters comprises selecting the path through the edges of the graph that produces a best score based on the score of a selected character for each respective edge on the path.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the plurality of edges comprises a single-stroke edge between a pair of adjacent nodes in the graph for representing one or more single stroke characters, and a multi-stroke edge between a pair of non-adjacent nodes in graph representing one or more multi-stroke characters.

8. The method of claim 5, wherein generating the graph comprises using spatial, temporal, and stroke count constraints to define edges between nodes in the graph.

9. The method of claim 5, wherein defining the set of candidate characters for each edge comprises using spatial, temporal, and language constraints to limit the candidate characters to include in the set.

10. The method of claim 5, wherein each of the plurality of nodes corresponds to a touch-up of a prior stroke and a touch-down of a subsequent stroke.

11. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

identifying a series of characters input on the touch-sensitive space of the device;

determining that the identified series of characters includes an improper combination of at least one upper case character and one lower case character; and

responsive to the determining, presenting the series of characters with at least one of the inputted characters having a modified character case.

12. A device comprising:

at least one processing unit;

a non-transitory machine readable medium storing a program for execution of at least one processing unit, the program comprising sets of instructions for;

providing multiple touch-sensitive affordances on a touch-sensitive space of the device, the touch-sensitive affordances comprising a writing region;

detecting a touch input outside of the writing region that subsequently enters the writing region; and

generating an input character based on a character recognition of the detected touch input outside and inside of the writing region.

13. The device of claim 12, wherein the set of instructions for generating the input character comprises sets of instructions for:

determining that the detected touch input outside and inside of the writing region follows within a threshold amount of time a previous touch input that was used to generate another input character; and

based on said determination, providing the detected touch input outside and inside of the writing region to a character recognizing engine to translate the touch input outside and inside of the writing region to the input character.

14. The device of claim 12, wherein the set of instructions for generating the input character comprises sets of instructions for:

providing the detected touch input outside and inside of the writing region to a handler for one of the multiple touch-sensitive affordances that is outside of the writing region;

from the handler, receiving a rejection of the touch input; and

responsive to receiving the rejection, providing the detected touch input outside and inside of the writing region to a character recognizing engine to translate the touch input outside and inside of the writing region to the input character.

15. The device of claim 12, wherein the set of instructions for generating the input character comprises sets of instructions for:

generating a node graph having a plurality of nodes and a plurality of edges between the nodes, each node corresponding to at least one touch-input stroke'"'"'s touch-down event or one touch-input stroke'"'"'s touch-up, each edge between a pair of nodes representing one or more characters;

for each respective edge in the node graph, defining a set of candidate characters represented by the respective edge; and

identifying a plurality of characters written in the touch-sensitive space by selecting a path through the edges of the node graph.

16. The device of claim 15, wherein the program further comprises a set of instructions for associating, for each respective edge in the node graph, a score for each candidate character, wherein the set of instructions for identifying the plurality of characters comprises a set of instructions for selecting the path through the edges of the node graph that produces a best score based on the score of a selected character for each respective edge on the path.

17. The device of claim 12, wherein the program further comprises sets of instructions for:

identifying a series of characters input on the touch-sensitive space of the device;

determining that the identified series of characters includes an improper combination of at least one upper case character and one lower case character; and

presenting the series of characters with at least one of the inputted characters having a modified character case.

18. A non-transitory machine readable medium storing a program for execution of at least one processing unit, the program comprising sets of instructions for:

providing multiple touch-sensitive affordances on a touch-sensitive space of a device, the touch-sensitive affordances comprising a writing region;

detecting a touch input that begins outside of the writing region and subsequently enters the writing region; and

generating an input character based on a character recognition of the touch input that begins outside of the writing region and subsequently enters the writing region.

19. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 18, wherein the set of instructions for generating the input character comprises sets of instructions for:

determining that the touch input follows within a threshold amount of time a previous touch input that was used to generate another input character; and

based on said determination, providing the detected touch input to a character recognizing engine to translate the touch input to the input character.

20. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 18, wherein the set of instructions for generating the input character comprises sets of instructions for:

providing the detected touch input to a handler for one of the multiple touch-sensitive affordances that is outside of the writing region;

from the handler, receiving a rejection of the touch input; and

providing the touch input to a character recognizing engine to translate the touch input to the input character.