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WirelessDevNet.com Press Release
China to Drive Handwriting Recognition on Smartphones
London, 15 December 2010 - The ability for a mobile phone to recognise natural handwriting - drawn using a finger or a stylus - is a powerful and compelling feature. While most handset users have become proficient at using a keypad or keyboard to input text, there are several use-cases for which handwriting recognition has advantages, the most important being the input of script-based languages such as Chinese, Japanese and Korean. In a recently published report, London-based research firm ARCchart predicts that by 2015, 22% of all mobile devices will support handwriting recognition.
Handwriting recognition (HWR) is the process of translating handwriting into machine-readable text using various recognition methodologies and algorithms to improve accuracy. Recent HWR advances have bolstered recognition performance by leveraging language models to recognise words written within the context of the sentence.
As a proportion of overall handsets, handwriting recognition is currently a niche feature, however, ARCchart has identified several drivers which are likely to push adoption over the coming years, the most important being the growth of touchscreen devices and the increasing demand for handwriting recognition capability from countries which use a script language. Due to the complex nature of the Chinese language – consisting of 20,000 characters - China presents the greatest demand for handwriting technology. ARCchart forecasts that 78% of all smartphones shipping into Asia will support HWR technology.
The growing popularity of tablets and the potential for handwriting to be a primary mode of input on these devices could stimulate demand for HWR on touchscreen phones. According to Peter Crocker, the report’s lead author, “multimodal features combining handwriting recognition with a traditional QWERTY keyboard could also drive demand in Western countries.”
Improving recognition algorithms, predictive text and language modelling also have the ability to improve accuracy, and drive demand in emerging markets where languages and characters are complex and diverse.
Handwriting recognition technology suppliers promote their solutions using three different approaches: licencing software directly to OEMs to be incorporated into the operating system; provide SDKs for developers to integrate HWR into their applications; or they sell HWR applications directly to end users. The market is particularly challenging for Western technology suppliers like Nuance and Vision Objects, since they must compete with Asian suppliers who specialise in local languages, like Hanwang in China, as well as with the proprietary solutions developed in-house by OEMs such as Nokia and Motorola.
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