CompuServe Messages

You'd be surprised. The latest Siggraph proceedings have a description of a handwriting recognition system; it didn't look very complex to me. I was stunned. The trick is, real-time data about motion and acceleration is much, much easier to recognize than printed-in-the-past and scanned OCR-style text. A little training, and you've got it. Even Windows can do it well – transparently, in fact. I saw a Bondwell machine run Pen Windows and an off-the-shel word processor without a hitch. Even the programmers were surprised it worked. (This was Pro Write from SPC.) All we need is an Amiga pen and a new input software – it would act a lot like a combo mouse and keyboard. I think this Siggraph paper described a system that had near-100 percent recognition at real time speeds on a rather ordinary computer.