System, computer software product and method for transmitting and processing handwritten data

• US 7,869,655 B2
• Filed: 02/02/2009
• Issued: 01/11/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 01/24/2001
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: SendSig, LLC (IP Investments Group LLC)
• Original Assignee: ADS Software Mgmt LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Inventors: Booth, Roger L., Tate, Joseph S., Hebert, Peter F. Jr., Priebe, Jason S., Clary, Gregory J., DiPierro, Christopher M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Alavi; Amir
• Application Number:
  US12/364,315
• Publication Number:
  US 20090220162A1
• Time in Patent Office: 708 Days
• Field of Search: 382/178, 382/179, 382/181, 382/186, 382/187, 382/232, 382/233, 382/254, 382/264, 382/284, 382/305, 382/306, 345/179, 345/467, 345/582, 345/586, 358/1.15, 358/402, 707/500, 707/515, 707/516, 707/517, 707/526, 707/530, 707/541, 709/206, 715/273, 715/501.1, 715/517, 715/526, 715/530, 715/531, 715/537, 715/541
• US Class Current: 382/187
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04883 for inputting data by handwriting, e.g. gesture or text

Abstract

A system, computer program product and method are provided that smooth handwritten information following the transmission of handwritten data to a second computing device, thereby reducing the memory, processing and communications bandwidth requirements of a first computing device that captured the handwritten information. A system, computer program product and method are also provided for creating new points in the vicinity of at least some of the data points of the handwritten data after transmission of the data, thereby effectively improving the resolution of the handwritten information without increasing the memory, processing and communications bandwidth requirements of the first computing device. A system, computer program product and method are further provided that associate additional data with the handwritten information after the information has been transmitted such that a composite can be created without increasing the memory, processing and communications bandwidth requirements of the first computing device.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

capturing handwritten information with a pen-enabled computing device, wherein the handwritten information comprises a plurality of coordinate data points;

at the pen enabled computing device, compressing the handwritten information in a lossless manner to create compressed handwritten information; and

transmitting handwritten data representative of the compressed handwritten information from the pen-enabled computing device to a further computing device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein compressing the handwritten information comprises delta coding.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein compressing the handwritten information comprises applying a lossless vector compression algorithm.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising retaining an initial point of each writing stroke as well as a second derivative of at least one subsequent point.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising tokenizing and encoding the handwriting information.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the encoding comprises Huffman encoding.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising creating new points based upon respective positions of at least some of the captured handwritten information.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein creating new points is accomplished by at least one of curve-fitting, interpolation, or approximation.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein creating new points is accomplished by cubic polynomial approximation.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein creating new points is accomplished with Bezier curves.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising identifying additional data to be associated with the handwritten information following the transmission of the handwritten data to the second computing device and creating a composite based upon the handwritten data and the additional data.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising encrypting the handwritten information.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein encrypting the handwritten information is performed after compressing the handwritten information.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising smoothing the handwritten information.

15. The method of claim 1 wherein transmitting handwritten data representative of the compressed handwritten information comprises transmitting the handwritten data representative of the compressed handwritten information comprising a representation of individual ones of the plurality of data points.

16. A system comprising a first computing device configured to capture handwritten information, wherein the handwritten information is captured as a plurality of coordinate data points, and to transmit data representative of the handwritten information to a second computing device, the first computing device comprising a processor with a memory containing instructions configured to cause the processor to compress the handwritten information wherein the handwritten information is compressed in a lossless manner, the second computing device configured to render the handwritten information based upon the data representative of the handwritten information.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the processor is configured to compress the handwritten information by delta coding.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the processor is configured to retain an initial point of each writing stroke as well as a second derivative of all subsequent points;

and tokenize and encode the handwriting information.

19. The system of claim 16, wherein the processor is configured to compress the handwritten information by applying a lossless vector compression algorithm.

20. The system of claim 16 wherein the processor is configured to encrypt the handwritten information.

21. The system of claim 16, wherein the system is configured to identify an intended recipient of the handwritten information.

22. The system of claim 21, further comprising at least one of a keypad, a keyboard, an automatic speech recognizer, a pop-up on-screen keyboard, or a stylus interpreter.

23. The system of claim 21, further comprising an address book.

24. The system of claim 16, wherein the first computing device comprises a personal digital assistant, a portable computer or handheld computer.

25. The system of claim 16, wherein the first computing device is configured to communicate wirelessly with the second computing device.

26. A system comprising a second computing device configured to receive data representative of handwritten information transmitted by a first computing device, the second computing device comprising a processor and a memory configured to cause the processor to render the handwritten information based upon the data representative of the handwritten information comprising a plurality of coordinate data points compressed in a lossless manner by the first computing device.

27. The system of claim 26, wherein the processor is configured to create new points based upon respective positions of at least some of the captured handwritten information.

28. The system of claim 27, wherein the new points are created by cubic polynomial approximation.

29. The system of claim 27, wherein the new points are created with Bezier curves.

30. The system of claim 26, wherein the processor is configured to identify additional data to be associated with the handwritten information following receipt of the handwritten data by the second computing device and to create a composite based upon the handwritten data and the additional data.

31. The system of claim 26, wherein the processor is configured to smooth the handwritten information.

32. The system of claim 26, wherein the system is configured to determine the type of message to be delivered to the intended recipient.

33. A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising computer executable instructions stored thereon that upon execution by a first computing device cause the first computing device to:

capture handwritten information with a first computing device as a plurality of coordinate data points;

compress the handwritten information in a lossless manner; and

transmit handwritten data representative of the compressed handwritten information from the first computing device to a further computing device.

34. The computer readable medium of claim 33, further comprising computer executable instructions to compress the handwritten information by delta encoding.

35. The computer readable medium of claim 33, further comprising computer executable instructions to compress the handwritten information by applying a lossless vector compression algorithm.

36. The computer readable medium of claim 35, further comprising computer executable instructions to retain an initial point of each writing stroke as well as a second derivative of all subsequent points.

37. The computer readable medium of claim 36, further comprising computer executable instructions to tokenize and encode the handwriting information.

38. The computer readable medium of claim 37, further comprising computer executable instructions to Huffman encode.

39. The computer readable medium of claim 33 wherein the handwritten data representative of the compressed handwritten information comprises a compressed representation of individual ones of the plurality of coordinate data points.

40. The computer readable medium of claim 39, further comprising computer executable instructions to create new points based upon respective positions of at least some of the captured handwritten information.

41. The computer readable medium of claim 40, wherein creating new points is accomplished by at least one of curve-fitting, interpolation, or approximation.

42. The computer readable medium of claim 41, further comprising computer executable instructions to create new points by cubic polynomial approximation.

43. The computer readable medium of claim 41, further comprising computer executable instructions to create new points with Bezier curves.

44. The computer readable medium of claim 39, further comprising computer executable instructions to identify additional data to be associated with the handwritten information and to create a composite based upon the handwritten data and the additional data.

45. The computer readable medium of claim 39, further comprising computer executable instructions to smooth the handwritten information.

46. The computer readable medium of claim 33, further comprising computer executable instructions to encrypt the handwritten information.

47. A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising computer executable instructions stored thereon that upon execution by a second computing device cause the second computing device to:

receive, from a first computing device, handwritten data representative of handwritten information, the handwritten information comprising a plurality of coordinate data points captured at the first computing device;

render the handwritten information based upon the handwritten data representative of the handwritten information;

wherein the handwritten data comprises a compressed representation of individual ones of the plurality of coordinate data points compressed in a lossless manner by the first computing device.