Automatically scrolling handwritten input user interface for personal digital assistants and the like

A personal digital assistant (PDA) capable of recognizing words in a continuous handwritten text stream, said PDA comprising:

• a touch-enabled input screen;
• a recognition engine capable of recognizing individual words entered in a continuous stream of handwritten text;
• a main dictionary containing a plurality of words;
• a communications port for communicating with a remotely connected computer, data being transferred between said remotely connected computer and said PDA;
• a local storage storing applications to be run on said PDA, said main dictionary and application data;
• a plurality of switches providing manual input to said PDA;
• and
• a handwritten input user interface (HIUI) comprising:
• a designated handwriting input area residing in a lower portion of said touch-enabled input screen, handwritten words entered using a stylus,
• an automatically scrollable output area, said handwriting input area being super-imposed on said scrollable output area, said scrollable output area displaying digital ink strokes corresponding to stylus entries made in said designated handwriting input area, said scrollable output area scrolling at a rate set by stroke rate,
• a text output area, stylus entries made in said text output area being pointer function entries, and
• one or more action icons displayed together on a side of said touch-enabled screen and providing access to editing functions for editing previously recognized displayed words.

A method of providing handwritten input to a computer, said method comprising the steps of:

• a) receiving an entry from a designated handwritten-entry screen area;
• b) displaying a corresponding digitial ink stroke;
• c) determining ink stroke rate;
• d) shifting each displayed digital ink stroke horizontally at a rate corresponding to said ink stroke rate, whereby handwritten entries appears to be scrolling off one side of a display as on a ticker tape.

A computer program product for inputting handwritten entries into a computer, said computer program product comprising a computer usable medium having computer readable program code thereon, said computer readable program code comprising:

• computer readable program code means for continuously receiving handwritten entries;
• computer readable program code means for converting said handwritten entry into digital ink;
• computer readable program code means for setting a scrolling speed responsive to an entry input rate;
• and
• computer readable program code means for displaying newly entered said digital ink and removing previously displayed digital ink from a display at a rate set by said scrolling speed, displayed said digital ink appearing as if on a ticker tape.