System and method for processing text handwriting in a free handwriting mode

A computing device for handwriting text, the computing device comprising:

• an input surface for detecting a plurality of strokes of digital ink handwritten in a free handwriting format without any handwriting constraint;
• a display device for displaying said plurality of input strokes handwritten in said free handwriting format;
• and
• a processor configured to function as:
• a classifier for classifying each stroke as text or non-text, said classifier being configured to detect as text at least one text block of handwritten text from said plurality of input strokes handwritten in the free handwriting format;
• a line extractor to extract text lines of handwritten text from said at least one text block of handwritten text;
• a recognition engine for performing a text recognition on each text line of said at least one text block, thereby generating model data representative of the handwritten text associating each stroke of said at least one text block with a character, a word and a text line of said at least one text block;
• and
• a text editor for normalizing each text line of recognized handwritten text from the free handwriting format into a structured format to comply with a document pattern comprising a line pattern, wherein said document pattern defines handwriting constraints that constrain the handwritten text, said text editor being configured to perform for each text line of handwritten text:
• computing for said text line a respective transform function to transform said text line into the structured format such that said text line of handwritten text is arranged according to guidelines defined by said line pattern;
• applying the respective transform function to the text line to transform each stroke of said text line into the structured format;
• blocking any text recognition on said at least one block resulting from applying the respective transform function to said text line;
• and
• updating the model data of said text line based on the respective transform function, said updating comprising updating in the model data correlations between the strokes, characters, words, and text lines of the handwritten text.

A non-transitory computer readable medium having a computer readable program code embodied therein, said computer readable program code adapted to be executed to implement a method for processing text handwriting on a computing device, the computing device comprising a processor, a memory and at least one non-transitory computer readable medium for processing text handwriting under control of the processor, the method comprising:

• detecting, with an input surface, a plurality of input strokes of digital ink handwritten in a free handwriting format without any handwriting constraint;
• displaying said plurality of input strokes on a display device handwritten in said free handwriting format;
• classifying each input stroke as text or non-text, said classifying comprising detecting as text at least one text block of handwritten text from said plurality of input strokes handwritten in the free handwriting format;
• performing text recognition on said at least one text block, said text recognition comprising:
• extracting text lines of handwritten text from said at least one text block of handwritten text;
• and
• generating model data representative of the handwritten text associating each stroke of said at least one text block with a character, a word and a text line of said at least one text block;
• and
• normalizing each text line of recognized handwritten text from the free handwriting format into a structured format to comply with a document pattern comprising a line pattern, wherein said document pattern defines handwriting constraints that constrain the handwritten text, said normalization comprising for each text line of handwritten text:
• computing for said text line a respective transform function to transform said text line into the structured format such that said text line of handwritten text is arranged according to guidelines defined by said line pattern;
• applying the respective transform function to the text line to transform each stroke of said text line into the structured format;
• blocking any text recognition on said at least one text block resulting from applying the respective transform function to said text line;
• and
• updating the model data of said text line based on the respective transform function, said updating comprising updating in the model data correlations between the strokes, characters, words, and text lines of the handwritten text.