Handwriting recognition is a technology that has been around since the 1980's. It aims to let people write like they normally would and then digitize this writing. There are different ways this technology works and each has advantages and disadvantages. This technology is in constant development.
Meaning
Handwriting recognition is the ability of electronic devices to determine what a person is writing and digitize it. This is done either by turning it into conventional type on a computer, or by reflecting a person's handwriting on the computer. Some devices predict the text a person is going to write. It was brought about because writing with a pen is easier and more natural for people than typing on a keyboard.
NestorWriter
The NestorWriter was the first handwriting recognition device. Dr. Charles Elbaum started the Nestor company, which went on to develop the NestorWriter. It was the beginning of many other companies who tried to develop these machines all through the 1990's. Most of these companies failed, though, as the technology did not improve as it needed to.
Problems
The main problems with handwriting recognition technologies is that everyone writes differently. No two people have exactly the same penmanship. This poses a problem for the technology, which seeks to translate a person's handwriting into type. Due to these problems, many companies failed because people could not effectively use the programs.
Technologies
Different kinds of technologies exist to enable people to take advantage of handwriting recognition. One way this worked was people wrote letters a certain way which let the computers know what the intended letter was. The problem with this was that the way letters had to be written could feel unnatural to the person writing it. Another way the technology worked was to just write and the computer would decipher what you were writing, but the computer was not always right and would insert wrong letters. One last way is that people write with a special pen and paper, and then what people write is projected onto the screen. This way a person's handwriting appears on the screen instead of type.
Cell Phones
Some cell phones have handwriting recognition software on them. These allow people to write on the phone using a stylus, and the phone software will translate it into type. These phones, however, have some of the same problems as the original technologies and can require unnatural letter strokes and incorrectly predict letters. For these reasons, most phones do not use handwriting recognition.
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