Apple looking to put handwriting recognition into the iPhone?

We know Apple's had its Inkwell handwriting recognition software in OS X for years now, so we might have otherwise just totally glossed over this Handwriting Recognition Engineer job listing on Apple's site. Except for the part that reads: "The recognition technology you create may extend beyond Mac OS X to other applications and the iPhone." They always love to throw those little tidbits in there, don't they?

[Via Macrumors]

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 29th 2008 9:45AM]

I'd have to agree that Inkwell on the Mac sort of sucks, insofar as writing on a graphic tablet on your lap while looking at the a screen in front of you does not work. However anyone who says Inkwell technology "sucks" never used it on the Newton OS 2 or 2.1 (the last and best of the breed).

Inkwell is NOT from Paragraph (Newt OS1x handwriting was) and it is gesture, shape, acceleration and velocity based so it is light-years ahead of simple shape recognition. It also had a learning algorithm so that even though most humans cannot decipher my non-Catholic-school left-handed chickenscratch, I could write something like "Give remediation details to Tom Dellenbach when finished." (yes a real name) and it would read it - and this was WITHOUT the name being in my custom dictionary.

So any Inkwell nay-sayers, until you have seen it in person on the screen you are writing on - especially after training it - be not so quick to judge. Also as QT, Safari, and iTunes are on Windows, who is to say Apple wouldn't port Inkwell to Windows for a fee.

And keep in mind - the keyboard still beats voice recognition and handwriting recognition. Always will. I could never get Dragon or IBM's product to reliably "wreck a nice beach"!

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 29th 2008 12:38PM]

By "port Inkwell to Windows", you really mean "shadily distribute it without the end-user's knowledge through their malware-like updater", right?

I suppose you could also mean "piggyback it as an additional application when installing some other Apple program that doesn't actually need it to function". They like doing that, too.

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 29th 2008 2:00PM]

(ignore Josh L, he's a shill.)

"Also as QT, Safari, and iTunes are on Windows, who is to say Apple wouldn't port Inkwell to Windows for a fee. "

Quicktime, Safari and iTunes all have fairly direct revenue streams: Safari with their cut of google search ad revenue, and Quicktime and iTunes support the sales of iPods/iPhones to people on windows.

...where's the revenue from porting Inkwell?

follow the money.

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 29th 2008 9:50AM]

What all computer companies (just just Apple) is make all screens "Touchscreens"

Face it, Multitouch is the new thing these days, and computer companies need to just face the facts that sooner or later, touch will be everything! I like the idea of having handwriting recognition into devices, makes it all more fun to use I suppose.

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 29th 2008 10:08AM]

A number of Sony Ericsson phones have had handwriting recognition for a couple of years now. Here's the latest SE model with it:

http://www.sonyericsson.com/cws/products/mobilephones/overview/g900

[burnblue Posted Mar 29th 2008 10:42AM]

If it comes it shall no doubt be hailed as a revolution, the dawn of a new era. Handwriting recognition on a phone? No way, no one's ever done anything like that before...

(/sarcasm tag, just in case)

[HumongousBlunt Posted Mar 29th 2008 10:58AM]

Apparently, Inkwell software hasn't been improved upon in years whereas Vista's recognition software has been recently updated. That's not an excuse, but I believe that might account for Vista's better recognition performance. Apple had better get with improving Inkwell or licensing some other company's software.

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 29th 2008 3:38PM]

"Apparently, Inkwell software hasn't been improved upon in years..."

Exactly - I believe it is the same feature set from late last millennium.

To update it given the number of apparent users (I use it very occasionally) seems odd; however that does portent a tablet Mac or a way to use the iPhone w/a special sytylus for text input to a Mac connected via BlueTooth.

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 29th 2008 12:02PM]

Hey Apple...

Now give me continuous voice recognition on your products or pdas and I will purchase it...I mean voice recognition like Dragon Naturally Speaking version 9 or better...that program is incredible and I could only imagine having that on my HP iPaq or a smart phone.

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 29th 2008 3:47PM]

I have to admit - having used a PDA probaby longer than many reading
this forum - is that voice recognition on a phone/PDA beyone simple
dialing makes one look like a total tool.

I mean it sounds fantastic and futuristic and star-trekky ("PDA from
the future-re-re-re-re"). But if you ever watched people chatting TO
their phone (not through it) or PDA it is simultaneously disturbing
and hilarious.

I've also seen people doing it and then realized they had NO phone
nor PDA...

[Trav261 Posted Mar 29th 2008 3:38PM]

Think about it. Handwriting recognition on a handheld device is perfect for email and text messages. Writing is so much faster than tapping it out on a screen or using a tiny, tiny keyboard. Plus, it is more natural so it is more comfortable.

I mean, when you go to someone's office or cubicle and they are not there you don't type a note on their computer. No, you use a pen and a post-it.

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 30th 2008 9:05PM]

You know they had it "write" way back in the early 90's with the Newton.
I was one of the very early adopters, and after a better part of decade left
for Palm as newton dead ended.
It was quite nice, and it would be intriguing to see what they come up with.
I would think this become more stylus driven at that point then.