Spatial sorting and formatting for handwriting recognition
AssigneeInternational Business Machines Corporation
InventorsMichael P. Perrone, Eugene H. Ratzlaff
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Systems and methods for reordering unconstrained handwriting data using both spatial and temporal interrelationships prior to recognition, and for spatially organizing and formatting machine recognized transcription results. The present invention allows a machine recognizer to generate and present a full and accurate transcription of unconstrained handwriting in its correct spatial context such that the transcription output can appear to “mirror” the corresponding handwriting.
Claims33
A program storage device readable by a machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by the machine to perform method steps for spatially sorting handwriting data, the method steps comprising:
- receiving unconstrained handwriting data comprising a set of strokes, each stroke comprising a set of x-y coordinates associated therewith;
- determining a bounding region for each stroke;
- clustering the strokes into groups of spatially-related strokes based on the bounding region information;
- wherein the clustering step include instructions for clustering the strokes into single line (SL) groups;
- and
- ordering the clustered groups.
A system for spatially sorting handwriting data, the handwriting data comprising a set of strokes, each stroke comprising a set of x-y coordinates, the system comprising:
- means for receiving unconstrained handwriting data comprising a set of strokes, each stroke comprising a set of x-y coordinates associated therewith;
- means for determining bounding region information for each stroke;
- means for clustering the strokes into groups of spatially-related strokes based on the bounding region information, wherein the clustering means comprises means for clustering the strokes into single line (SL) groups;
- and
- means for ordering the clustered groups.
A handwriting recognition system, comprising:
- means for storing handwriting data, the handwriting data comprising a set of strokes, each stroke comprising a set of x-y coordinates;
- a recognition engine;
- a system for spatially sorting handwriting data for recognition, the spatial sorting system comprising:
- means for determining bounding region information for each stroke based on the x-y coordinates of the stroke;
- means for clustering the strokes into groups of spatially-related strokes based on the bounding region information;
- and
- means for ordering the ordered clustered groups to the recognition engine;
- and
- a system for spatially formatting recognition results from the recognition engine, the spatial formatting system comprising means for position the recognized text on a display page in a proximate spatial location as the corresponding handwriting data is located on an ink page using the bounding region information for the corresponding handwriting data.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.