Method and system for creating and sending handwritten or handdrawn messages

#This invention relates to the processing of handwritten input in electronic messaging, and specifically to an electronic messaging system for handwritten or handdrawn messages.

#Electronic messaging is a general method for sending and receiving communications as digital data between computers on a network. The Internet has dramatically increased electronic messaging amongst millions of users on global data networks. Many diffferent forms of electronic messaging are being used to send and receive communications in a wide variety of forms of structured and unstructured data. Businesses make extensive use of electronic messaging to conduct business communications and transactions between trading partners. Electronic mail (or email) is a popular form of electronic messaging for communications between users. Typical email messages are composed of typed text or a combination of typed text and text or graphical files that are attached to the email message and opened with the appropriate processor or viewer. As the popularity of the Internet continues to grow worldwide, more and more people numbering in the billions are expected to use email for communications.

#Recent advances in technology and standards have expanded the types and forms of devices that can connect to the Internet. In addition to dial-up and online connections between users computers and servers that provide information services and email services, many types of other devices are being connected to the Internet for communications purposes, including personal digital assistants (PDAs), text messaging pagers, digital cellphones enabled with Wireless Application Protocol (WAP), advanced digital game machines, digital set top boxes for televisions, and even CPU-controlled household appliances. Many of these devices having Internet access do not require or are not adapted to use a keyboard for inputting data. While there are other types of input devices that enable handwritten or handdrawn input, such as touch sensitive screens, stylus pads, optical pens, etc., they have not been enabled for electronic messaging and other communication functions.

#FIG. 1A is a diagram illustrating the connection of client computers with pen devices to an email server computer on the Internet, and FIG. 1B shows the email handling components of the client and server computers;

#FIG. 2A is a process flow diagram of an SMTP server version of the graphical email system, and FIG. 2B is a schematic illustration of the network connections of this version of the graphical email system;

#FIG. 3A is a process flow diagram of a Lotus™ Domino server version of the graphical email system, and FIG. 3B is a schematic illustration of the network connections of this version of the graphical email system;

#In the following description, exemplary embodiments of the handwritten or handdrawn messaging system of the present invention are provided for different network environments, such as email messaging on the Internet, real-time (instant IM) messaging on IM networks, and MMS messaging on wireless or digital cellphone networks. This U.S. patent application is directed particularly to the latter network environment.

#Referring to FIG. 1A, the general system architecture of the handwritten messaging system (and related method) is illustrated for email networks. A plurality of client computers 110, 111, etc., adapted for handwriting or handdrawing input are used by users to connect via a network (the Internet or any type of multi-user network) to a server computer 120. In the context of this description, the term “computer” is used to refer to any type of data processing device which is capable of executing digitally programmed instructions. The term “client computer” refers to any computer capable of connecting to a server computer on a network and performing a function with the server computer. An example of a typical computer for use on a network is a Pentium or higher class PC with Windows operating system of Microsoft Corp., Redmond, Wash., or Macintosh or higher class PC with Macintosh OS operating system of Apple Computer Corp., Cupertino, Calif. However, a client computer can also be a wide range of other network-connectable computing devices such as personal digital assistants (PDAs), text messaging pagers, digital cellphones enabled with Wireless Application Protocol (WAP), advanced digital game machines, digital set top boxes for televisions, and even CPU-controlled household appliances. The term “server computer” is used to refer to any type of data processing device that is connected to a node on a network for providing services to client devices on the network.

#The client computer 110 is what a sender or recipient uses to compose and send, and receive and view, handwritten or handdrawn email messages. The client computer preferably is of the type that can run a standard web browser which supports an email client, such as those compatible with Microsoft IE 4.x browsers, licensed by Microsoft Corp., of Bellevue, Wash., or Netscape 4.x web browsers, licensed by America Online, Inc., of Fairfax, Va. The standard browsers preferably also support the Java Virtual Machine, Version 1.2 or higher, licensed by Sun Microsystems, of Mountain View, Calif., which is the preferred platform for programming and distributing the handwriting messaging software in the present invention as Java applets or Java-based plug-ins to the browsers. The standard web browsers connect to the network using any standard protocol recognized on the network. For example, on the Internet standard web browsers use the TCP/IP protocol. Connection to the network may be made by modem over a dial-up telephone line, DSL line, cable modem, Internet access connection, or a local area network.