Handwritten input in a restricted area

• US 6,408,092 B1
• Filed: 08/31/1998
• Issued: 06/18/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 08/31/1998
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Adobe Systems Incorporated (Adobe Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Adobe Systems Incorporated (Adobe Inc.)
• Inventors: Sites, Richard L.
• Primary Examiner(s): Couso, Jose L.
• Assistant Examiner(s): DESIRE, GREGORY M
• Application Number:
  US09/144,368
• Time in Patent Office: 1,387 Days
• Field of Search: 382/175-179, 382/186-189, 382/314, 345/158, 345/173, 345/473, 345/178-180, 345/47, 707/541
• US Class Current: 382/187
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04883 for inputting data by handwriting, e.g. gesture or text
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04886 by partitioning the display area of the touch-screen or the surface of the digitising tablet into independently controllable areas, e.g. virtual keyboards or menus
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/1423 the instrument generating sequences of position coordinates corresponding to handwriting preprocessing or recognising digital ink G06V30/32

Abstract

Methods and apparatus implementing a technique for processing handwritten marks made on a machine-readable tablet. The technique includes providing multiple regions for input on the tablet; receiving from a user handwritten marks made in a current region of the plurality of regions; receiving from the user an indication that the current region is complete and thereupon selecting a different one of the plurality of regions as the current region in which to receive handwritten marks made by the user, whereby marks are received in a sequence of at least two regions; and representing the handwritten input as the aggregate of the marks written in the sequence of regions in a writing direction, the marks in different input regions having positions with respect to each other defined by a logical concatenation of the regions on the sequence of regions. The input can be arbitrarily-long markings of any kind.

Claims

1. A method for processing handwritten input received as marks made on a machine-readable tablet, comprising:

providing a plurality of predefined regions for input on the tablet;

receiving from a user handwritten marks made in a current region of the plurality of predefined regions;

receiving from the user an indication that the marks in the current region are complete and thereupon providing a different one of the plurality of predefined regions as the current region in which to receive handwritten marks made by the user, whereby completed marks are received in a sequence of at least two regions;

repeating the acts of receiving marks and providing a different region until the user indicates that the handwritten input is complete, wherein a region can be reused as a current region without overwriting marks previously made by the user in the region when it was previously the current region; and

representing the handwritten input as a concatenation of the completed marks as written in the sequence of regions, the completed marks being concatenated in a writing direction, the completed marks having positions with respect to each other defined by a logical concatenation of their respective regions in the sequence in which regions were marked.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

defining a bounding box for each region and logically concatenating the bounding boxes to define the positions of the completed marks in different regions with respect to each other.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein:

each bounding box has a length in the writing direction, which length is defined dynamically to fit the marks made in the region.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein:

the bounding box for each region has a leading boundary, the position of which is fixed with respect to the region, and a trailing boundary, the position of which varies with respect to the region to accommodate the marks made in the region.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein:

representing the handwritten input comprises combining in an output stream mark data derived from each region as a chunk of data to form a sequence of chunks with the locations of bounding box boundaries being specified in the output stream.

6. The method of claim 5;

wherein;

the tablet is a display tablet integrating an input tablet and a display device;

the plurality of predefined regions consists of two predefined regions; and

the user indicates that the current one of the two regions is complete by making a mark in the other one of the two regions;

the method further comprising;

receiving handwritten marks at any place and in any arbitrary order within the current region;

displaying a recently-written portion of the handwritten marks at a reduced size in a reviewing area on the display device;

displaying on the display device the handwritten marks made by the user in the current region substantially simultaneously with the making of the marks;

clearing the display of the current region after the user indicates that the current region is complete;

storing the received handwritten marks as mark data in a memory operatively coupled to the tablet; and

combining the stored mark data from each region as a chunk in the output stream.

7. The method of claim 2, wherein:

each bounding box has a width perpendicular to the writing direction, which width is the same for all bounding boxes.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the regions have a writing direction but no other predefined structure with respect to the marks to be made within the regions.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the logical concatenation of regions comprises logically concatenating a trailing edge of one region to a leading edge of an immediately subsequent region.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein

the writing direction defines the direction in which groups of characters are written and read;

and

the writing direction is horizontal.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein

the writing direction defines the direction in which groups of characters are written and read;

and

the writing direction is vertical.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving handwritten marks at any place and in any arbitrary order within the current region.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

displaying a representation of the handwritten marks being made in the current region substantially simultaneously with the making of the marks.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

storing the handwritten marks as mark data in a memory operatively coupled to the tablet; and

combining the stored mark data to form the representation of the handwritten input.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein:

the mark data represents the marks made by the user as set of times and positions of a stylus on the tablet.

16. The method of claim 14, further comprising:

displaying a recently-written portion of the handwritten marks as made by the user and displaying the marks made by the user in the current region while marks are being made in the current region.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the tablet is a display tablet having an integrated display device, the method further comprising:

displaying on the display device both the recently-written portion of the handwritten marks as made by the user and the marks being made in the current region.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein displaying the recently-written portion of the handwritten marks comprises:

displaying the recently-written portion of the handwritten marks at a reduced size in a reviewing area on the display device.

19. The method of claim 1, wherein:

logical concatenation of the sequence of regions comprises logically trimming unmarked space from one end but not from the opposite end of each of the regions before logically concatenating the one end of the region with a sequentially neighboring region.

20. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the plurality of regions consists of two regions; and

the user indicates that the current one of the two regions is complete by making a mark in the other one of the two regions.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein the tablet is a display tablet having an integrated display device, the method further comprising:

displaying on the display device a representation of the handwritten marks being made in the current region substantially simultaneously with the making of the marks; and

clearing the display of the current region after the user indicates that the current region is complete.

22. The method of claim 1, wherein:

receiving handwritten marks in the current region includes receiving editing marks including marks denoting a modification of marks previously made in the current region.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein:

the modification is erasure.

24. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the handwritten input is a signature.

25. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the tablet has an active area with a length of less than about two and one-half inches in the writing direction.

26. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

displaying the handwritten input in lines that break at the region boundaries.

27. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of regions consists of a first region and a second region, the method further comprising:

receiving marks in the first region and the second region alternately and concatenating to an output stream mark data derived from each region as a chunk of data to form a sequence of chunks.

28. The method of claim 27, further comprising:

displaying the mark data in the output stream by reflowing the mark data in units of chunks in a display area.

29. The method of claim 28, wherein the display area is a rectangular area defined within an electronic document.

30. The method of claim 27, further comprising:

editing the sequence of chunks by deleting a chunk, by inserting a chunk, by replacing a chunk, by modifying a chunk, or by rearranging chunks.

32. The apparatus of claim 31, further comprising instructions operable for causing a programmable processor to perform the method of claim 30.

31. Apparatus comprising a storage medium tangibly embodying program instructions operable for causing a programmable processor to:

provide a plurality of predefined regions for input on the tablet;

receive from a user handwritten marks made in a current region of the plurality of predefined regions;

receive from the user an indication that the marks in the current region are complete and thereupon provide a different one of the plurality of predefined regions as the current region in which to receive handwritten marks made by the user, whereby completed marks are received in a sequence of at least two regions;

repeat the acts of receiving marks and providing a different region until the user indicates that the handwritten input is complete, wherein a region can be reused as a current region without overwriting marks previously made by the user in the region when it was previously the current region; and

represent the handwritten input as a concatenation of the completed marks as written in the sequence of regions, the completed marks being concatenated in a writing direction, the completed marks having positions with respect to each other defined by a logical concatenation of their respective regions in the sequence in which regions were marked.

33. The apparatus of claim 31 further comprising instructions operable for causing a programmable processor to:

define a bounding box for each region and logically concatenating the bounding boxes to define the positions of the completed marks in different regions with respect to each other.

34. The apparatus of claim 31, wherein the regions have a writing direction but no other predefined structure with respect to the marks to be made within the regions.

35. The apparatus of claim 31, wherein the logical concatenation of regions comprises logically concatenating a trailing edge of one region to a leading edge of an immediately subsequent region.

36. The apparatus of claim 31, further comprising instructions to:

receive handwritten marks at any place and in any arbitrary order within the current region.

37. The apparatus of claim 31, further comprising instructions to:

display a representation of the handwritten marks being made in the current region substantially simultaneously with the making of the marks.

38. The apparatus of claim 31, wherein:

the plurality of regions consists of two regions; and

the user indicates that the current one of the two regions is complete by making a mark in the other one of the two regions.

39. The apparatus of claim 31, wherein the plurality of regions consists of a first region and a second region, the apparatus further comprising instructions to:

receive marks in the first region and the second region alternately and concatenate to an output stream mark data derived from each region as a chunk of data to form a sequence of chunks.