Apparatus and method for hand motion tracking and handwriting recognition

• US 20050083317A1
• Filed: 10/14/2004
• Published: 04/21/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 04/09/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: I.C. + Technologies Ltd.
• Original Assignee: I.C. + Technologies Ltd.
• Inventors: Vardi, Micha
• Granted Patent: US 7,394,460 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/179
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/03545 Pens or stylus
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0383 Signal control means within the pointing device
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/046 by electromagnetic means
• 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 30/228 of three-dimensional handwriting, e.g. writing in the air

Abstract

Apparatus and method for handwriting recognition including a hand-held device including at least one accelerometer providing an acceleration indicating output, computation circuitry receiving the acceleration indicating output and providing a velocity indicating output and a handwritten multiple character recognizer receiving the velocity indicating output and providing a multiple character recognition output indication.

Claims

1. Apparatus for handwriting recognition comprising:

a hand-held device comprising at least one accelerometer providing an acceleration indicating output;

computation circuitry receiving said acceleration indicating output and providing a velocity indicating output; and

a handwritten multiple character recognizer receiving said velocity indicating output and providing a multiple character recognition output indication.

2. Apparatus for handwriting recognition according to claim 1 and wherein said at least one accelerometer comprises a plurality of accelerometers providing outputs to acceleration processing circuitry, which provides said acceleration indicating output.

3. Apparatus for handwriting recognition according to claim 1 and wherein said computation circuitry is also operable to perform at least one of Calculator, Database, Personal Information Management (PIM) and Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) functionalities, including at least one of address and phone book, data-bank, calendar, time management, calculator, expenses tracking and management, “

to do list”

management, note and memo taking, dictionary, translator and speller, smart-card, magnetic card, credit-card, electronic-wallet, remote-control and smart key functionalities and to provide a computation output resulting therefrom.

4. Apparatus for handwriting recognition according to claim 1 and also comprising communication circuitry.

5. Apparatus for handwriting recognition according to claim 1 and also comprising at least one of a microphone, a speaker, an earphone, an audio interface, an audio processor, a digital signal processor, a display, an image processor, a control circuitry, a CPU, a MPU, a memory, a transceiver, an antenna, a baseband controller, a baseband interface, an Input/Output port, a wireless port, a Bluetooth output, an infra-red port, a serial port, a USB port and data acquisition circuitry.

6. Apparatus according to claim 4 and wherein said communication circuitry provides functionality for at least one of a telephone, paging, SMS, WAP, Email, Internet browsing and POTS functions.

7. Apparatus for handwriting recognition according to claim 1 and wherein said apparatus is employed as a writing implement.

8. Apparatus for handwriting recognition according to claim 1 and wherein said computation circuitry provides at least one of proportional normalization of velocity, identification of minimum motion points, normalization at least a portion of the acceleration indicating output to a level of an average of a first few samples of the acceleration indicating output, and determination a last intentional motion sample of the acceleration indicating output and eliminating samples following said last intentional motion sample of the acceleration indicating output.

9. Apparatus for handwriting recognition according to claim 1 and wherein said providing a multiple character recognition output indication comprises at least one of compressing said velocity indicating output;

separately analyzing information for the x and y velocity components;

analyzing the directions of the velocity;

calculating velocity thresholds;

digitizing velocity components;

comparing and matching between a digital dictionary and a digitized velocity record and using only part of the digitized velocity record;

comparing and matching between a digital dictionary and a few different representation forms of digitized velocity using a prioritization procedure which takes place in case of disagreement between different comparing and matching results;

filtering out short duration segments of the velocity components;

indicating velocity value changes and ignoring time durations between the changes;

performing a merger operation on velocity segments; and

binarizing velocity segments.

10. Apparatus for handwriting recognition and hand motion tracking comprising:

a hand-held device comprising at least one accelerometer providing an acceleration indicating output;

computation circuitry receiving said acceleration indicating output and providing a velocity indicating output;

a handwritten character recognizer receiving said velocity indicating output and providing a multiple character recognition output indication; and

a hand motion tracker receiving said velocity indicating output and providing a tracking output indication.

11. Apparatus for handwriting recognition and hand motion tracking according to claim 10 and wherein said at least one accelerometer comprises a plurality of accelerometers providing outputs to acceleration processing circuitry, which provides said acceleration indicating output.

12. Apparatus for handwriting recognition and hand motion tracking according to claim 10 and also comprising at least one of a microphone, a speaker, an earphone, an audio interface, an audio processor, a digital signal processor, a display, an image processor, a control circuitry, a CPU, a MPU, a memory, a transceiver, an antenna, a baseband controller, a baseband interface, an Input/Output port, a wireless port, a Bluetooth output, an infra-red port, a serial port, a USB port and data acquisition circuitry.

13. Apparatus for handwriting recognition and hand motion tracking according to claim 10 and wherein said apparatus is employed as a writing implement.

14. Apparatus for handwriting recognition and hand motion tracking according to claim 10 and wherein said computation circuitry provides at least one of proportional normalization of velocity, identification of minimum motion points, normalization at least a portion of the acceleration indicating output to a level of an average of a first few samples of the acceleration indicating output, and determination a last intentional motion sample of the acceleration indicating output and eliminating samples following said last intentional motion sample of the acceleration indicating output.

15. Apparatus for handwriting recognition and hand motion tracking according to claim 10 and wherein said providing a multiple character recognition output indication comprises at least one of

compressing said velocity indicating output;

separately analyzing information for the x and y velocity components;

analyzing the directions of the velocity;

calculating velocity thresholds;

digitizing velocity components;

comparing and matching between a digital dictionary and a digitized velocity record and using only part of the digitized velocity record;

comparing and matching between a digital dictionary and a few different representation forms of digitized velocity using a prioritization procedure which takes place in case of disagreement between different comparing and matching results;

filtering out short duration segments of the velocity components;

indicating velocity value changes and ignoring time durations between the changes;

performing a merger operation on velocity segments; and

binarizing velocity segments.

16. A method for handwriting recognition comprising:

providing an acceleration indicating output from a hand-held device;

receiving said acceleration indicating output and providing a velocity indicating output; and

receiving said velocity indicating output and providing a multiple character recognition output indication.

17. A method for hand handwriting recognition according to claim 16 and also comprising at least one of a computation related to the character recognition output indication, a database operation related to the character recognition output indication, communication of character recognition output indication and a control operation based on the character recognition output indication.

18. A method according to claim 16 and wherein said velocity indicating output is further proportionally normalized.

19. A method according to claim 16 and wherein said providing a velocity indicating output further comprises identification of minimum motion points.

20. A method according to claim 16 and wherein said providing a multiple character recognition output indication comprises compressing said velocity indicating output.