Method and apparatus for acquiring and organizing ink information in pen-aware computer systems

• US 7,564,995 B1
• Filed: 03/07/2000
• Issued: 07/21/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 03/07/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Yaeger, Larry S., Fabrick, Richard W. II, Pagallo, Giulia M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Le; Brian Q
• Application Number:
  US09/520,206
• Time in Patent Office: 3,423 Days
• Field of Search: 382187-189, 382/119, 382/315, 345/173, 345/179, 178/18.03
• US Class Current: 382/119
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/038 Control and interface arrangements therefor, e.g. drivers or device-embedded control circuitry
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/1423 the instrument generating sequences of position coordinates corresponding to handwriting preprocessing or recognising digital ink G06V30/32

Abstract

An ink manager running at a computer system receives ink information entered at a pen-based input/display device and accumulates the ink information into ink strokes. The ink manager communicates with a handwriting recognition engine and includes an ink phrase termination engine that is configured to detect the occurrence of one or more ink phrase termination events by examining the ink information. Upon the occurrence of an ink phrase termination event, the ink manager notifies the handwriting recognition engine and organizes the preceding ink strokes into an ink phrase data structure. The ink manager may also pass the ink phrase to an application executing on the computer system that is associated with the ink information, and it, in response, may return a reference pointer and a recognition context to the ink manager. The reference pointer and recognition context are then appended to the ink phrase data structure. Utilizing the recognition context identified by the application, the handwriting recognition engine generates one or more hypotheses for the ink phrase, and provides them to the ink manager. The ink manager forwards the hypotheses together with the reference pointer to the application and may also append them to the ink phrase data structure.

Claims

1. A system for managing ink information in a computer system having a pen-based input tablet, the system comprising:

a pen driver coupled to the pen-based input/display tablet and configured to collect and organize the ink information entered at the pen-based input tablet into ink strokes;

an ink memory area organized into one or more ink phrase data structures; and

an ink manager coupled to the pen driver for receiving the ink strokes, the ink manager having an ink phrase termination engine configured to examine the ink information collected by the pen driver and, upon detecting the occurrence of an ink phrase termination event, to identify a respective end of an ink phrase to the ink manager;

whereby the ink information entered at the pen-based input tablet is associated with a client application; and

the ink manager stores the ink strokes received prior to the ink phrase termination event in a selected ink phrase data structure and, in response to receiving from the client application a reference context affiliated with the un-recognized ink strokes of the ink phrase, associates the reference context with the ink strokes,

wherein where the ink manager associates the reference context with the un-recognized ink strokes by appending the reference context to the selected ink phrase data structure.

2. A method for managing ink information in a computer system having a pen-based input tablet that may include an integrated display for generating ink information as a pen is moved across the tablet, the method comprising the steps of:

receiving the ink information generated by the input tablet;

organizing the ink information into corresponding ink strokes;

organizing the ink strokes into one or more ink phrases as defined by one or more ink phrase termination events including;

examining the ink information to determine whether an ink phrase termination event has occurred, and

in response to the occurrence of an ink phrase termination event, segregating the ink strokes received prior to the termination event in a designated ink phrase data structure; and

in response to receiving a reference context from a client application affiliated with the un-recognized ink strokes of the ink phrase, associating the reference context with the ink strokes,

wherein the reference context is associated with the respective ink phrase by appending the reference context to the designated ink phrase data structure.

3. A computer readable medium containing executable program instructions for organizing ink information that is generated by a pen-based input tablet as a pen moves across the tablet and is associated with a client application the executable program instructions comprising program instructions for:

receiving the ink information generated by the input tablet;

organizing the ink information into corresponding ink strokes;

examining the ink information to determine whether an ink phrase termination event has occurred;

in response to the occurrence of an ink phrase termination event, segregating the ink strokes received prior to the termination event in a designated ink phrase data structure; and

in response to receiving a reference context from the client application affiliated with the un-recognized ink strokes of the ink phrase associating the reference context with the ink strokes,

wherein the reference context is associated with the ink strokes by appending the reference context to the designated ink phrase data structure.