On-line handwriting recognition

Handwriting is a primordial mode of communication for human beings. It is both universal and highly personal. Each person develops his or her own handwriting style, which evolves constantly throughout life. Studies in graphotherapy have shown the central role that handwriting can play in a person's development.

Until now, computerization has tended to diminish the role of handwriting in communication: the keyboard/mouse device is gradually replacing the pen, to the detriment of handwriting. Even more recently, the widespread use of e-mail and SMS has only amplified this phenomenon, systematizing it earlier and earlier in everyday life.

The retreat of handwriting from keyboards is, in a way, forced by the need to access new technologies underpinned by increasingly powerful computer functions. There's no denying that all these new technologies represent real progress. However, it should be noted that, most of the time, man is asked to absorb these technologies at the cost of a relatively major adaptation effort. This effort is motivated by the attraction exerted by these new services: we are then ready to enter an "SMS-coded" text using the ten keys of a telephone keypad to communicate. However, not everyone can easily master the constraints imposed as prerequisites for access to these new services. Not to mention the fact that, even if the youngest people have a remarkable ability to adapt, we may not be giving enough consideration to the impact this may have on the growing rejection of handwriting skills and, by extension, of mother tongue and intellectual training.

Recently, new pen-oriented technologies have come to maturity: new-generation cell phones (Smartphones), tablet computers (Tablet PCs or UMPCs) and interactive whiteboards (TBIs). The trend is therefore gradually shifting, repositioning handwriting at the heart of man-machine communication. Coupling the written and gestural modalities with these new technologies aims to make them more user-friendly by introducing new uses that will facilitate access for the greatest number of people. Research into automatic handwriting recognition has made considerable progress over the last ten years. Even if not all the problems have yet been solved, "on-line" handwriting recognition engines are making progress and now benefit from more computing power; they are now sufficiently powerful to envisage direct interaction with the machine via handwriting.

Of course, this does not mean doing away with traditional peripherals (keyboard/mouse), which are highly effective in many contexts. Rather, the idea is to put the user back at the center of interaction with the machine, so that he or she once again becomes the main actor. In certain mobility contexts, and in many document...