System and method for compressing electronic signatures

A system for compressing element signatures, comprising:

• a client having:
• a stylus;
• a sensor panel arranged to generate an electrical input signal in response to movement of the stylus thereupon;
• a client computing device, and
• a controller configured to receive the input signal from the sensor panel, convert the input signal to corresponding input data, compress the input data to a variable-length bit stream, convert the bit stream to keyboard codes, and forward the keyboard codes to the client computing device;
• a host computer configured to receive the keyboard codes from the client computer;
• and
• an electronic communication system intermediate the client computing device and the host computer and communicatively coupling the client computing device and the host computer.

A method for compressing electronic signatures using a remote data capture system, the data capture system comprising a host computing device, a client computing device and a capture device operatively coupled to the client computing device, the method comprising the steps of:

• the client computing device, using the capture device, generating an electrical input signal in response to movement of a stylus upon a sensor panel of the capture device;
• the client computing device, using the capture device, measuring coordinates corresponding to the electrical input signal;
• the client computing device, using the capture device, scaling the coordinates;
• the client computing device, using the capture device, differencing the scaled coordinates;
• using the client computing device, encoding the differenced coordinates with special codes to generate coded data;
• using the client computing device, compressing the coded data with a Huffman compression algorithm, and a Huffman table tuned for handwritten signatures, the compressed data having a variable length bit stream;
• and
• using the client computing device, encoding the compressed data into a format emulating keyboard scan codes;
• and
• communicatively transmitting the keyboard scan codes from the client computing device to the host computing device with a USB communication system, wherein the host computing device uses the keyboard scan codes directly, or translates the keyboard scan codes into ASCII or Unicode characters depending on the capability of the host computing device's web browser or other application.