Pen out-of-proximity handwriting-recognition trigger

• US 7,027,648 B2
• Filed: 02/08/2002
• Issued: 04/11/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 02/08/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Murayama, Takanobu, Seto, Tetsuo
• Primary Examiner(s): MARIAM, DANIEL G
• Application Number:
  US10/071,306
• Publication Number:
  US 20030152268A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,523 Days
• Field of Search: 382/181, 382187-189, 382/202, 382/314, 345/156, 345/179, 178/18.01, 178/18.03, 178/19.01
• US Class Current: 382/187
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/1423 the instrument generating sequences of position coordinates corresponding to handwriting preprocessing or recognising digital ink G06V30/32

Abstract

In a computer system that accepts handwritten input, a digitizer tracks the location of a user'"'"'s pen while the pen is not in contact with the digitizer'"'"'s writing surface. The digitizer maps the pen'"'"'s three-dimensional location into a two-dimensional location on the digitizer'"'"'s writing surface. Handwriting-recognition is triggered for handwriting entered into a handwriting-recognition task area upon detecting that the user has lifted the pen off of the digitizer'"'"'s writing surface and that the pen has moved out of proximity from the handwriting-recognition task area. The handwriting-recognition triggering may be inhibited when the pen is down and in contact with the digitizer'"'"'s writing surface in an inking orientation.

Claims

1. A method of triggering handwriting recognition, the method comprising:

determining that a pen has moved up from an inking position to a non-inking position;

mapping the pen'"'"'s location onto a writing surface while the pen is in the non-inking position and is separated from the writing surface by a distance that is greater than zero and less than or equal to a maximum trackable distance;

determining that the pen'"'"'s mapped location on the writing surface has moved from inside a handwriting-recognition task area to outside of the handwriting-recognition task area; and

triggering handwriting recognition for handwriting entered in the handwriting-recognition task area based upon determining that the pen has moved up from the inking position into the non-inking position and that the pen'"'"'s mapped location on the writing surface has moved from inside the handwriting-recognition task area to outside of the handwriting-recognition task area.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

inhibiting handwriting-recognition triggering when the pen is in the inking position.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

triggering handwriting recognition if the pen remains in a non-inking position for longer than a handwriting-recognition-trigger timeout duration.

4. A computer system that accepts handwritten input, the system comprising:

a pointing device;

a writing surface that maps a location of the pointing device onto the writing surface while the pointing device is less than or equal to a maximum-trackable distance away from the writing surface;

a handwriting-recognition-trigger module that receives pointing-device-location data and triggers handwriting recognition when the received pointing-device-location data indicates that the pointing device'"'"'s mapped location on the writing surface has gone from inside a handwriting task area to outside of a handwriting task area and that the pointing device has transitioned from an inking orientation to a non-inking orientation.

5. The system of claim 4 wherein:

the pointing device is selected from the group consisting of;

a pen, a mouse, and a trackball; and

the writing surface is a writing surface of a digitizer.

6. The system of claim 5 wherein:

the digitizer detects when the pen is farther away from the digitizer than the maximum-trackable distance; and

the handwriting-recognition-trigger module triggers handwriting recognition upon receiving an indication that the digitizer has detected that the pen is farther away from the digitizer than the maximum-trackable distance.