Editing Handwriting recognition (section)

=== Hardware ===
Commercial products incorporating handwriting recognition as a replacement for keyboard input were introduced in the early 1980s. Examples include handwriting terminals such as the [[Pencept]] Penpad<ref>{{Citation
  | title = Pencept Penpad (TM) 200 Product Literature
  | publisher= Pencept, Inc.
  | date=1982-08-15
  | url=http://users.erols.com/rwservices/pens/biblio83.html#Pencept83
  }}</ref> 
and the Inforite point-of-sale terminal.<ref>{{Citation
  | title = Inforite Hand Character Recognition Terminal
  | publisher= Cadre Systems Limited, England
  | date=1982-08-15
  | url=http://users.erols.com/rwservices/pens/biblio83.html#Inforite82
  }}</ref>
With the advent of the large consumer market for personal computers, several commercial products were introduced to replace the keyboard and mouse on a personal computer with a single pointing/handwriting system, such as those from Pencept,<ref name="users.erols.com">{{Citation
  | title = Users Manual for Penpad 320
  | publisher= Pencept, Inc.
  | date=1984-06-15
  | url=http://users.erols.com/rwservices/pens/biblio85.html#Pencept84d
  }}</ref> CIC<ref name="rwservices.no-ip.info">{{Citation
  | title = Handwriter (R) GrafText (TM) System Model GT-5000
  | publisher= Communication Intelligence Corporation
  | date=1985-01-15
  | url=http://users.erols.com/rwservices/pens/biblio85.html#CIC85
  }}</ref> and others.
The first commercially available tablet-type portable computer was the [[Linus Write-Top|Write-Top]] from Linus Technologies, released in July 1988. Its operating system was based on [[MS-DOS]].<ref name=computer>{{cite book | last=Atkinson | first=Paul | date=2010 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=D5H_OsxEywwC | title=Computer | publisher=Reaktion Books | pages=115–116 | isbn=9781861897374 | via=Google Books}}</ref><ref>{{cite book | last=Delbourg-Delphis | first=Marylène | date=2024 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=g2z8EAAAQBAJ | title=Beyond Eureka!: The Rocky Roads to Innovating | publisher=Georgetown University Press | page=168 | isbn=9781647124229 | via=Google Books}}</ref>

In the early 1990s, hardware makers including [[NCR Corporation|NCR]], [[IBM]] and [[EO Personal Communicator|EO]] released [[tablet computer]]s running the [[PenPoint OS|PenPoint]] operating system developed by [[GO Corp.]] PenPoint used handwriting recognition and gestures throughout and provided the facilities to third-party software. IBM's tablet computer was the first to use the [[ThinkPad]] name and used IBM's handwriting recognition.  This recognition system was later ported to Microsoft [[Windows for Pen Computing]], and IBM's [[Pen for OS/2]].  None of these were commercially successful.

Advancements in electronics allowed the computing power necessary for handwriting recognition to fit into a smaller form factor than tablet computers, and handwriting recognition is often used as an input method for hand-held [[Personal Digital Assistant|PDA]]s. The first PDA to provide written input was the [[Apple Newton]], which exposed the public to the advantage of a streamlined user interface. However, the device was not a commercial success, owing to the unreliability of the software, which tried to learn a user's writing patterns.  By the time of the release of the [[Newton OS]] 2.0, wherein the handwriting recognition was greatly improved, including unique features still not found in current recognition systems such as modeless error correction, the largely negative first impression had been made. After discontinuation of [[Apple Newton]], the feature was incorporated in Mac OS X 10.2 and later as [[Inkwell (Macintosh)|Inkwell]].

[[Palm, Inc.|Palm]] later launched a successful series of [[Personal Digital Assistant|PDA]]s based on the [[Graffiti (Palm OS)|Graffiti]] recognition system. Graffiti improved usability by defining a set of "unistrokes", or one-stroke forms, for each character. This narrowed the possibility for erroneous input, although memorization of the stroke patterns did increase the learning curve for the user.  The Graffiti handwriting recognition was found to infringe on a patent held by Xerox, and Palm replaced Graffiti with a licensed version of the CIC handwriting recognition which, while also supporting unistroke forms, pre-dated the Xerox patent.  The court finding of infringement was reversed on appeal, and then reversed again on a later appeal.  The parties involved subsequently negotiated a settlement concerning this and other patents.

A [[Tablet computer|Tablet PC]] is a notebook computer with a [[Graphics tablet|digitizer tablet]] and a stylus, which allows a user to handwrite text on the unit's screen. The operating system recognizes the handwriting and converts it into text. [[Windows Vista]] and [[Windows 7]] include personalization features that learn a user's writing patterns or vocabulary for English, Japanese, Chinese Traditional, Chinese Simplified and Korean. The features include a "personalization wizard" that prompts for samples of a user's handwriting and uses them to retrain the system for higher accuracy recognition. This system is distinct from the less advanced handwriting recognition system employed in its [[Windows Mobile]] OS for PDAs.

Although handwriting recognition is an input form that the public has become accustomed to, it has not achieved widespread use in either desktop computers or laptops. It is still generally accepted that [[Alphanumeric keyboard|keyboard]] input is both faster and more reliable.  {{As of|2006}}, many PDAs offer handwriting input, sometimes even accepting natural cursive handwriting, but accuracy is still a problem, and some people still find even a simple [[virtual keyboard|on-screen keyboard]] more efficient.