System and methods for spacing, storing and recognizing electronic representations of handwriting, printing and drawings

• US 6,587,587 B2
• Filed: 04/05/2000
• Issued: 07/01/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 05/20/1993
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Thompson, Michael P., Altman, Dan, Rouiller, Michael W., Kusmer, Steven R., Stikeleather, Gregory, Evans, Michele M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Mehta, Bhavesh M.
• Assistant Examiner(s): DESIRE, GREGORY M
• Application Number:
  US09/542,198
• Publication Number:
  US 20020064308A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,182 Days
• Field of Search: 382/290-293, 382/298, 382/314-316, 382/189, 382/186, 382/188, 382/202, 382/203, 382/311, 345/441, 345/173, 345/179, 345/469, 345/47
• US Class Current: 382/181
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04883 for inputting data by handwriting, e.g. gesture or text
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/166 Editing, e.g. inserting or deleting
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/10 Character recognition
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/262 using context analysis, e.g. lexical, syntactic or semantic context
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/40 Document-oriented image-based pattern recognition

Abstract

A system for spacing, storing and recognizing electronic representations of handwriting and printing comprises a central processing unit that couples with a display device, an input device, and a memory. The memory includes means for spacing ink stroke representations, means for recognizing outline elements, means for performing deferred recognition, means for highlighting drawing areas and means for storing and displaying ink stroke representations. These means operate together to provide a pen-based or graphics oriented computer system with improved performance and added functionality for manipulating the space between ink stroke representations. The preferred embodiment of the present invention comprises several novel methods that provide this functionality including: a method for managing space between ink stroke representations, a method for displaying drawing elements in a visually distinct manner, a method for recognizing bullets and dashes, a method for storing ink stroke representations, a method for displaying and printing ink stroke representations, and a method for performing deferred character or word recognition.

Claims

1. In a computer system, a method for processing and storing ink stroke representations, the method comprising the steps of:

receiving a first ink stroke representation of substantially uniform width represented by a plurality of ordered points, wherein adjacent points of the ordered points represent at least one line segment of the first ink stroke representation;

creating a bit map having a bit for each ordered point forming the first ink stroke representation;

creating a second ink stroke representation by removing a selected point from said plurality of ordered points while retaining the ordered position of the removed point in the bitmap such that the removed selected point can be later restored based upon its status as having been removed; and

one of storing, printing and displaying the second ink stroke representation and storing the bit map.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of creating a second ink stroke representation removes the selected point if the selected point is less than a predetermined distance from a closest point on the segment defined as the line segment between a point previous to the selected point and a point after the selected point as per the order of the ordered points.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said retaining of the ordered position of the removed point in the bit map includes updating the bit map by changing a bit corresponding to the selected point to indicate that the selected point has been removed.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of creating a second ink stroke representation comprises the steps of:

setting a first variable to a first point of said plurality of ordered points;

setting a second variable to a second point of said plurality of ordered points, wherein said second point is after the first point according to the order of the ordered points;

identifying points between the first and second points of the first and second variables,

for each point between the first and second points of the first and second variables, measuring the distance to a line segment defined by said first and second points of said first and second variables;

determining for each point between the first and second points of the first and second variables whether the measured distance is greater than a predetermined distance; and

if the measured distance is greater than the predetermined distance for any of the points between the first and second points of the first and second variables, setting the second variable to a third point previous to said second point, removing the points between the first and third points of the first and second variables and updating the bit map to reflect the removal.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising the steps of:

after said removing, setting the first variable to the second variable and setting the second variable to a fourth point after the second point currently represented by the first variable according to the order of the ordered points;

determining whether the fourth point of second variable is beyond the last point in the plurality of ordered point;

if the fourth point of second variable is not beyond the last point in the plurality of ordered point, repeating the steps of identifying, measuring and determining with the fourth point being the second variable and the second point being the first variable; and

if the fourth point of second variable is beyond the last point in the plurality of ordered point, storing the points that have not been removed as the second ink stroke representation, and storing the updated bit map.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the step of creating a second ink stroke representation further comprises the step of:

if the measured distance is not greater than the predetermined distance for all of the points between the first and second points of the first and second variables, setting the second variable to a fourth point after said second point and repeating the steps of identifying, measuring and determining as applies to the fourth point being the second variable with respect to the first point.