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Tablet PC Handwriting Recognition with AbletWordMgr
By Bill Mann
Your Tablet
PC can recognize handwriting. But its recognition accuracy goes way down
when it needs to recognize words that are unfamiliar to it. If a word
isn't in one of the dictionaries the recognition engine is using, chances
are good it won't be recognized. And if you're writing words from a specialized
vocabulary (medical terms, for example) or a different language than Windows
is running (writing in Turkish on a Tablet running the English version
of XP, for example) the chances of proper recognition plummet.
Windows XP
Tablet PC edition includes three dictionaries of words that the recognition
engine consults whenever it tries to recognize a word. The system dictionary
contains all the commonly-written words for the language Windows is using.
The application dictionary is a custom dictionary that provides a list
of words that are likely to be used in the current application. Each application
can have its own application dictionary.
The third
type of dictionary is the user dictionary. The user dictionary is a list
of words that you add to your Tablet PC to increase the recognition of
word you use frequently.
You can manually
add words to the user dictionary, but it is a slow process and you can
only add one word at a time. Populating the user dictionary with the words
you write is a surefire way to improve your Tablet PC's recognition accuracy,
but it tends to be too much work and is impractical when you have a lot
of words to add.
To address
these problems, the team at the abletFactory (that is not a typo, it's
'ablet' instead of 'Tablet') has just released abletWordMgr, a solution
for managing your Tablet PC's user dictionary.
abletWordMgr
provides an easy interface for adding individual words to the user dictionary
or removing them from it. But where it really shines is any situation
where you have lots of words to add or remove. abletWordMgr supports its
own specialized dictionaries (called SPIDs) each of which contains thousands
of words. Some SPIDs represent specialized vocabularies such as medical
terms or the names of rock groups. Other SPIDs contain words from languages
such as Chinese, Norwegian, or Turkish.
abletWordMgr
can also add words to your user dictionary by importing Microsoft Word
dictionaries being used by the Office spelling checker. If you use Word
regularly, and you've been updating the spelling checker's dictionary,
this is a great way to get the words you use most frequently into the
user dictionary.
In recent
tests the use of abletWordMgr increased recognition accuracy to 94%, compared
to 65% when abletWordMgr was not used. Beta testers in the medical and
legal fields report that abletWordMgr increases recognition and improves
the usability of their Tablets.
I haven't
been able to conduct any formal tests, but I have noticed that recognition
accuracy does improve significantly when I write words that I've added
to the user dictionary with abletWordMgr.
While abletWordMgr
is indeed a great way to increase your Tablet's handwriting recognition
accuracy by updating and managing the user dictionary, it isn't perfect.
The user interface is a bit unusual, and takes some getting used to. For
example, I found I needed to do a little poking around before I figured
out how to see the list of available SPIDs. That said, the program isn't
hard to use, and you should be able to figure things out in a few moments.
abletWordMgr
is available from the abletFactory website (www.abletfactory.com).
Site or corporate licenses are $1500. Individual licenses run $250. Both
types of license include all SPIDs.
An academic
version of the product is also available. Called abletWordPak, it comes
with a limited number of SPIDs covering subjects like Music and Jargon.
You can view
an interactive demo of abletWordMgr on the abletFactory site.
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