Handwriting Recognition and Applications

			Prof. Masaki Nakagawa

	Dept. of Computer, Information and Communication Sciences
 	         Tokyo Univ. of Agri. & Tech., Japan

I will put focus on:

1) Handwriting Recognition Algorithm We have been working on on-line
handwriting recognition technology for more than 15 years and possess
one of the highest performance systems in Japan.  Our latest system is
composed of coarse classification, linear-time elastic matching,
structured character pattern representation and context
post-processing. It has marked 90 to 95 % correct recognition rates
without learning to the largest database of on-line handwritten
Japanese text that we have provided to the research community.  The
system is not only robust to pattern distortions but also highly
customizable for personal use. Upon the request of learning an input
pattern, it investigates which sub-pattern (radical) or the pattern as
a whole is non-standard, registers the (sub)pattern and extends the
effect of the registration to all the character categories whose
shapes include it.

2) Pen Interface and Educational Applications for a Large Interactive
White board and demonstration of these technologies: (Videos for IFIP
Interact 97 and ACM SigCHI 99). Human interfaces with pen are equally
important as handwriting recognition technology so that handwriting
interfaces can be accepted by users. We have been proposing lazy
recognition scheme since 1990, which delays the display of recognition
until needed and provides easier structure to employ context post-
processing.  We have been working on applications among PDAs,
desktop environments and large interactive white boards.  Our video
demonstrates a new style of human interface and several applications
on an interactive dynamic white board.  If current GUIs are just
expanded to the white board size, the teacher would have to frequently
move from side to side and stretch their hands from edge to edge, as
well as the teacher's body would cover the board.  In order to avoid
these problems, operability from an arbitrary standing position of the
teacher with a reasonable amount of hand movement, thus no hiding of
the board by the body, and easy operations by electronic markers have
been sought.  Moreover, various applications have been prototyped.  A
programming education system is one of these, where the teacher writes
a program on the board and can have it recognized, compiled and
executed in front of the students. Another is an arithmetic education
system where children write arithmetic equations on the board and the
system answers them.