Summer 2006

Handwriting recognition has not been a big feature of mobile phones so far, since past models lacked both touch screens and displays big enough to make it viable. But bigger displays and much greater power are starting to give the concept more appeal.

Vision Objects, an early developer of handwriting recognition products for this market, has now stepped up its output by launching a new version 1.2 of its MyScript Builder Embedded system. In addition to Symbian and Windows CE, it now also runs under Linux.

The company maintains that its natural handwriting recognition technology imposes no writing constraints on users, and virtually no learning curve.

A key feature is support for what the company calls bi-class language models. These calculate the probability of pairs of words occurring together in order to improve overall accuracy.

 

MyScript Builder Embedded is already part of the Nokia Digital Pen Suite, enabling handwritten notes to be sent via S60 devices or Series 80 communicators.