IF YOU get annoyed when people write circles or hearts above the letters i and j, instead of a dot, spare a thought for the developers of the handwriting recognition systems used in pen-based gadgets. Such habits can often leave their software floundering.
Now Microsoft’s Beijing research lab has developed an artificial intelligence tool to cope with slapdash handwriting. One of the biggest problems is “overtracing”, the reiteration of a single stroke, like the stalk of an h. This can look like multiple characters, but Microsoft’s new system can average out these strokes into a single character.
And as well…
