Apple investigates ways to improve handwriting recognition on touchscreens

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In a new Apple patent unveiled today in the United States, a new handwriting recognition system, capable of understanding more complex information from handwriting, is described. While the company's current products are based on input of commands through the fingers, the methods explored by it in this new invention are intended for devices that depend on pointing accessories, such as pens and / or stylus.

Even systems already produced by Apple in an attempt to improve this task are described as inadequate like Newton, which was marketed by it in the 1990s. According to the patent, failures of these technologies in handwriting recognition are capable of affecting not only users, but also application developers, giving the impression that a new feature in this area would better serve both cases.

Apple's new invention in this area not only significantly improves writing, but also introduces new features for interaction between programs on the hardware and the pointing accessory. Users will be able to enter data naturally (without the need to adapt to any specific handwriting format), obtaining better results than would be seen in other existing methods (or even with fingers).

Along with the document with all the details, Apple included an illustration of a tablet in the patent:

Apple tablet?

Her look is very reminiscent of the models we saw in previous rumors, which may even be launched on the market soon. However, novelties of this type can also serve to enhance software functions in Apple's operating systems, especially Mac OS X where Ink technology is widely used in third-party accessories.

(via AppleInsider)