Translating handwriting into clear, usable computer data is no easy task.
Handwriting recognition is the translation of handwritten documents into digital data that can be used by a computer. Typically, this data is then translated into digital text. There are two general types of handwriting recognition: offline recognition and online recognition.
Significance
Handwriting recognition software is typically used in PDAs and touch-screen computers, such as tablet computers, so users may input handwritten text and forgo the use of keyboards. For people using languages which use characters other than European type, such as Asian or Middle Eastern, handwriting recognition allows a more natural method of character input. For example, to input Japanese characters via a keyboard, users typically must translate the sound units of the character into their European alphabet counterparts, type those on a keyboard and then select by mouse the correct character from a variety of choices presented. Handwriting recognition avoids this problem by allowing the user to directly input the character.
Offline Recognition
Offline handwritten character recognition is related to the letter codes that can be used in computers and text-processing applications. Once the images of handwritten characters have been entered into the computer, certain software applications automatically convert these images into the appropriate letter codes, a type of data usable by text-processing applications. This data is considered static. One of the principal drawbacks with offline recognition is different people have a different handwriting style, making offline handwritten character recognition comparatively difficult. The term "offline" has nothing to do with the Internet; "offline" refers to the fact the handwriting scanned and translated in this process was first produced outside of a computer.
Offline Method of Input
Offline character recognition usually requires users to scan documents containing handwritten text. The computer software must then extract individual characters from the scanned document to be translated into a letter code. There are several methods for achieving this extraction, though all of them have certain limitations leading to errors, the most common being two or more characters are mistaken for a single character and translated as an image rather than a letter code.
Online Recognition
As with offline recognition, online recognition requires the automatic conversion of handwritten text into letter codes usable within computer and text-processing applications. However, online recognition makes use of text derived from a device such as a digitizer or PDA, and the resulting data is regarded as a dynamic representation of handwriting.
Online Method of Input
Online recognition relies on input via a touch-screen device, such as a stylus, and software which can interpret the movements of the pen across the writing surface and translate these into digital text.
Acceptance
The public has had a significant amount of time to get used to handwriting recognition as a method of entering data into computers; however, the keyboard input is still regarded as quicker and more reliable. Handwriting recognition software and hardware developers are working to eliminate the difficulties inherent in handwriting recognition, but accuracy still remains a problem as of June 2010.
Tags: character recognition, Handwriting recognition, handwritten text, into digital, letter codes, text-processing applications