Loren Heiny video comparison of Apple Inkwell vs. Vista handwriting recognition
Loren Heiny has taken advantage of the newly released Silverlight to make a comparison of the handwriting recognition technologies used in Vista and in Mac OS X. The resultant video comparison is very interesting and as far as I know the very first time the two technologies have been compared straight up and analytically. Loren does a good job summarizing the strengths and weaknesses of each platform and is worth a read.
http://www.youtube.com/v/Sm8iAE9xRR0
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In my experience with OS X and Windows HandWriting Recognition (HWR), the old cliche fits best: “there is no comparison”. I made valiant efforts to avoid hauling my own ears off out of frustration when using Apple’s current HWR whereas Microsoft’s solution is actually useable.
I used Newton MessagePads (including the 2000 and then the MessagePad 2001 upgrade) from the early 90s until just a couple of years ago. I’ve used graphics tablets with Panther and Tiger’s InkWell. I’ve been using Microsoft’s WinXP TabletPC Edition and Vista since it became clear that Apple had fallen far behind Microsoft in HWR.
My first hint was the HWR on Dell’s Axim x50. It worked so well that I found myself looking into Microsoft’s TabletPC effort to see how it worked. I quickly discovered OneNote 2003 and through that amazing software, saw – writ large – the promise of everything that the technology had to offer. Its taken considerable trial and error but in the end, I’ve pretty much left my Mac behind in favour of anything that can run Microsoft’s TabletPC technology (Windows XP TabletPC Edition and Vista Business) – currently a Motion LE1600 but the Fujitsu T4220 with SXGA looks like the next step.
In my experience with it, HWR in Tiger is essentially unchanged from the capability found in the Newton’s HWR engine; I’ve read rumours that its actually the same HWR engine, with obvious additions like Write Anywhere and OS integration.
When the ModBook was first announced I posted here (and any other place that wouldn’t ban me for going on and on) wondering and hoping that AxioTron would tack on some ‘handrails’ to the device before it shipped; handrails similar to Microsoft’s TIP, for example. I’ve seen no evidence of it, but the ModBook hasn’t shipped yet.
Microsoft has the resources to focus on many strategies, whereas Apple does not. Steve Jobs has turned the company around/made it profitable since returning by pursuing a strategy that didn’t have space for HWR. By all reports he saw the Newton, and Palm’s similar efforts, as a promise for cool products if and when the technology matured. Like most I’ve been awed by the iPod and now the iPhone but I also see in those product lines the lost opportunity hinted at by those earlier technologies.
Loren does a fabulous job comparing the HWR technologies in Vista and Tiger. As far as I know he is the first person to do such a thing. He’ll probably be the last, however, as it appears Apple’s current efforts are focused on Touch rather then HWR. Leopard shows no signs of contradicting that, unfortunately.
I’m happy with the state of HWR in Vista and I fear that I’ll be dead (or at least permanently ‘interfaced’ with an iron lung) before anything better comes along.
Thank-you VERY much Loren for a wonderful video. Great job!
Thanks Peter. I agree that touch is where the action is–both at Apple and with Tablet PCs I might add. Hopefully, Apple and Microsoft will continue to improve their recognizers though. I’d like to see more support for diagram recognition, math reco, and on and on.
Great Job..
My personal theory is that Apple won’t update the HWR until they have a tablet to take advantage of it.
I’m hoping that the mythical nano-book will be that product but as always Apple is pretty quiet on what they have in the works.
I think that the Apple finger stuff on the iPhone is pretty good and was using my old Siemens SX66 the other day and realized how much I hate having to pull out a stylus to do stuff.
Of course the SX66 was just a different beast anyway (it had a sliding keyboard too).
My understanding is that unfortunately, after His Steveness axed the Newton group, the brains and resources behind the Newt, left Apple.
The HWR recognizer that was used in the Newt was by an outside programmer I think (ParaGraph?…)..
The point is that given all the above it would be very difficult, time consuming and costly for Apple to try and now resurrect HWR back to where it was at the time of killing off the Newt/Newt Group.
My conclusion about InkWell after trying it out was that it’s a pale imitation in comparison to the way HWR worked on the Newt….
Wish it was different as I’d love to have a Mac TabletPC with decent HWR…
Just my 2 cents….YMMV…. ;-)