Xref: utzoo comp.sys.mac:24477 comp.society.futures:823
Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!think!ames!oliveb!sun!master!rburns
From: rburns%master@Sun.COM (Randy Burns)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac,comp.society.futures
Subject: Real Time Handwriting Recognition
Message-ID: <83242@sun.uucp>
Date: 28 Dec 88 23:09:58 GMT
Sender: news@sun.uucp
Lines: 29

I recently saw an article on Go Corp's rumored product
in InfoWorld.  Allegedly Go will produce an 
electronic tablet that can recognize handwriting on the 
fly.  Apparently the engineering problem of recognizing 
handwriting in real time is significantly less than that 
recognizing the digitized pattern.

What I am wondering is if any work is being done on using 
cheap, commodity type computer equipment to recognize 
handwriting. I've seen some mention by an Apple exec that 
they eventually plan to use a stylus instead or in addition
to a mouse. This sounds to me like they might be moving towards
handwriting recognition! Can any Mac or PC programs currently 
recognize handwriting or shorthand and turn it into ascii code?

It has occured to me that one could fairly easily create a 
special shorthand that would recognize mouse movements and 
translate them into text (say using a mac desktop accessory).
The theoretical advantages are considerable most people write 
faster than they can type. Good shorthand operators write faster
than *any* typists.  Using the mouse as the primary input device
would eliminate the need for a keyboard on laptops.  Recognizing
of ordinary handwriting would make computers more accessible to 
nontypists.

I'd like to find out if anyone else has ever done any work on 
pc handwriting recognition, or mouse oriented shorthand.

Thanks for your help.