Unistrokes for computerized interpretation of handwriting
DCFirst Claim
1. A system for interpreting handwritten text comprisinga user interface including a manually manipulatable pointer for writing mutually independent unistroke symbols in sequential time order and a user controlled signaling mechanism for performing a predetermined, symbol independent, delimiting operation between successive unistroke symbols in said sequential order, some of said unistroke symbols being linear and others being arcuate, each of said unistroke symbols representing a predefined textual component said delimiting operation distinguishing said unistroke symbols from each other totally independent of without reference to their spatial relationship with respect to each other;
- a sensor mechanism coupled to said user interface for transforming said unistroke symbols into corresponding ordered lists of spatial coordinates in said sequential order;
a recognition unit coupled to respond to said sensor mechanism for convening said ordered lists of coordinates into corresponding computer recognizable codes in said sequential order, each of said codes representing a corresponding textual component;
a display; and
a character generator coupled to said recognition unit and to said display for writing the textual components defined by said codes on said display in a spatial order that corresponds to the sequential order of said codes.
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Abstract
To relax the graphical constraints on the precision of the handwriting that is required for accurate computerized interpretation of handwritten text, the text that is to be interpreted is written in accordance with this invention using symbols that are exceptionally well separated from each other graphically. These symbols preferably define an orthographic alphabet to reduce the time and effort that is required to learn to write text with them at an acceptably high rate. Furthermore, to accommodate "eyes-free" writing of text and the writing of text in spatially constrained text entry fields, the symbols advantageously are defined by unistrokes (as used herein, a "unistroke" is a single, unbroken stroke).
148 Citations
16 Claims
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1. A system for interpreting handwritten text comprising
a user interface including a manually manipulatable pointer for writing mutually independent unistroke symbols in sequential time order and a user controlled signaling mechanism for performing a predetermined, symbol independent, delimiting operation between successive unistroke symbols in said sequential order, some of said unistroke symbols being linear and others being arcuate, each of said unistroke symbols representing a predefined textual component said delimiting operation distinguishing said unistroke symbols from each other totally independent of without reference to their spatial relationship with respect to each other; -
a sensor mechanism coupled to said user interface for transforming said unistroke symbols into corresponding ordered lists of spatial coordinates in said sequential order; a recognition unit coupled to respond to said sensor mechanism for convening said ordered lists of coordinates into corresponding computer recognizable codes in said sequential order, each of said codes representing a corresponding textual component; a display; and a character generator coupled to said recognition unit and to said display for writing the textual components defined by said codes on said display in a spatial order that corresponds to the sequential order of said codes. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
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10. A machine implemented method for interpreting handwritten text comprising
writing said text in sequential time order using an alphabet of mutually independent unistroke symbols to spell out said text at an atomic level, each of said unistroke symbols conforming to a respective graphical specification that includes a stroke direction parameter, some of said unistroke symbols having graphical specifications that differ from each other essentially only on the basis of their respective stroke direction parameters, some of said unistroke symbols being linear and others being arcuate; -
entering a predetermined, symbol independent delimiter between successive ones of said unistroke symbols in said time order, said delimiter distinguishing successive unistroke symbols from each other without reference to and totally independently of their spatial relationship with respect to each other; capturing the stroke direction of each of said unistroke symbols as an ordered list of coordinates; disambiguating said unistroke symbols from each other based upon predetermined criteria, including the stroke directions of the respective symbols. - View Dependent Claims (11)
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12. A handwriting recognition process for pen computers, said process comprising the steps of
correlating unistroke symbols with natural language alphanumeric symbols, each of said unistroke symbols being fully defined by a single continuous stroke that conforms geometrically and directionally to a predetermined graphical specification, some of said unistroke symbols being linear and others being arcuate; -
entering user written unistroke symbols into buffer memory in sequential time order, successive ones of said unistroke symbols being delimited from each other by a predetermined, symbol independent delimiting operation, said delimiting operation distinguishing successive unistroke symbols from each other without reference to and totally independently of their spatial relationship with respect to each other; reading out said unistroke symbols from buffer memory in sequential time order to provide buffered unistroke symbols; translating each buffered unistroke symbol that correlates with a natural language symbol into said natural language symbol; and outputting any natural language symbols that are produced by such translating to a utilization device. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15)
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16. A machine implemented handwriting recognition process comprising the steps of
correlating natural language symbols with unistroke symbols, where each of said unistroke symbols is fully defined by a single continuous stroke that conforms geometrically and directionally to a predetermined graphical specification, at least certain of said unistroke symbols being arcuate; -
writing user selected unistroke symbols in sequential time order while performing a predetermined, symbol independent delimiting operation for delimiting successive ones of said unistroke symbols from each other, said delimiting operation distinguishing successive unistroke symbols from each other without reference to and totally independently of the spatial relationship of said unistroke symbols with respect to each other; detecting said selected unistroke symbols; and translating the detected unistroke symbols that are written into said machine into a corresponding natural language representation.
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Specification