Pen computing- an overview

Abstract

Pen computing has had its share of ups and downs over the past few years – from the heady promises of handwriting recognition and Personal Digital Assistants(PDAs) to the disenchantment due to poor sales of pen based computers and the lack of credible applications for them. In my talk, I will discuss the issues that have led to this state of affairs, as well the current trends in the industry. The main challenges facing pen computing today will also be explored. These include improving algorithms for handwriting recognition, building better and more natural hardware platforms and designing user interfaces that take into account the demands multimodal input. The talk will also touch upon work in this area that is being carried out at the T.J. Watson Research Center at IBM.